During a flight to Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump focused on the theme of mortality. The U.S. president was on his way to deliver a speech about the country’s severe affordability crisis and took some time to speak with the media onboard.
An audio clip circulating on social media captures Trump discussing the idea of eliminating taxes on overtime, Social Security, and tips after being questioned about removing these taxes on gambling. The interview was abruptly ended when Air Force One encountered severe turbulence.
The president’s six-word comment following the incident left a lasting impression.
“I think it’s better to go up and take our seats, it’s a pretty rough flight,” he commented, before adding a cryptic farewell: “Bye everybody, I hope to see you again!”
The journalists present took his remark in stride and shared a laugh.
A few days before this incident, Trump had a tense interaction with ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, who questioned him about the release of military strike footage.
“You said you would have no problem with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2 off the coast of Venezuela…” Scott began, prompting a brusque interruption.
“I didn’t say that, you said that,” Trump replied. “I didn’t say that, this is ABC fake news.”
However, a transcript from December 3 reveals that he did. ABC’s Selina Wang had inquired if the footage of the second strike would be made public for ‘the American people to see for themselves.’
At the time, Trump responded, “I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release, no problem.”
Trump went on to justify the strikes on unmarked vessels, which his administration alleges are involved in drug trafficking.
He made an unverified assertion that the ‘kinetic strikes’ had halted ’94 percent’ of drugs entering the U.S. by sea, implying that each vessel destroyed saves numerous lives.
“Every boat we sink, we save 25,000 American lives,” he asserted.
ABC’s reporter sought to refocus on the video’s release, which had been shown privately to Congress.
The question appeared to irritate Trump, who responded with noticeable irritation.
“You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place, let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, actually, a terrible reporter,” he criticized.