Letters from an American - Trump Walks Out

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

June 7, 2026Trump walked out on an interview with Meet the Press host Kristen Welker when she challenged his claim that the 2020 presidential election and recent primary in California were rigged, Trump accused the media of being dishonest - which is exactly what he is doing, Scott Pelley, formerly of 60 Minutes, described CBS news director Bari Weiss's demands that he make changes to reporting from the protests in Minneapolis to appease the administration, In his interview, Trump denied facts about the rising price of oil and fertilizer, A federal lawsuit was filed to stop the UFC fights being planned for the White House, which is clearly a money-making venture for the UFC and for Trump.Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

June 7, 26. Meet the Press today aired an interview host Kristen Welker taped Friday with President Donald J. Trump. It shows Trump losing control and walking out of the interview when Welker challenged his insistence that the 2020 presidential election and the recent California election were rigged. Weirdly, he kept referring to the U.S. as your country when he was speaking to Welker and to your, your elections. It was almost as if he was a foreign observer offering criticism of the U.S. As Welker repeatedly pointed out that he has never produced any evidence for his assertions, he got matter and matter, calling the media, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, one-sided and crooked. He insisted, there's more evidence than ever presented. When she asked again if he had evidence, he said, all I have to do is look. When she continued to ask for evidence, he said,

you're either crooked or you're stupid. Finally, he got up, pulled off his mic, and left, telling her, let's call it quits, because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time. One of the things Trump spat at Welker was that a country can never be great with a dishonest press. With this statement directed at the legacy media, once again Trump illustrated that he was accusing his opponents of what he himself is doing, a classic authoritarian technique to muddy the waters so people stop trying to figure out what is real and ceased to believe anything. Scott Pelly, who was fired last week from 60 Minutes, after 37 years as a CBS correspondent, spoke with Lulu Garcia Navarro of the New York Times in an interview that appeared today.

Pelley explained that CBS News Director Barry Weiss, appointed after Trump loyalist David Ellison took over the network, asked for changes to a story about the anti-ice and border patrol protests in Minneapolis over the winter. Hours before airing, he explained, after the story had been approved, Weiss sent an email to Pellie's boss, asking them to make the protesters look more violent, and to say that before an officer shot her, Renee Good was driving toward him. But she wasn't. Pellie continued, on the video you see the officer standing slightly off the front of the car, and you clearly see Ms. Good's wheels turn completely as far as they

will go away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head, kills her, and says something about her that I can't repeat in polite company. We've gone out of our way in our plan from the very beginning to show the protesters for the responsibility that they had. We had already scrubbed the video archives looking for those scenes. Somehow that wasn't enough for Ms. Weiss. The video showed that the officer wasn't standing in front of the car and she wasn't driving toward him. But that's what the president said about that, and that's the way she wanted it described. Pellie said, there was a thumb on the scale for the president's version of events that I felt was a level of political influence

that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News. In her interview, Welker challenged Trump over more than his election denial. He didn't appear to like questions about the economy or his war on Iran either. Meeting with Trump in Wisconsin at his team's request, Welker asked Trump about the economy, noting that gas is up, diesel is up. Trump answered, it's all coming down as soon as the war's over. Welker continued, 70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer.

Trump responded, the farmers are doing very well. He added, all of them support me because there's nobody been better to farmers. He continued, you know I had a great first term. I had the greatest economy ever. And you know what? This one's blowing it away. As for Iran, Trump denied to Welker that he had ever promised to stay out of foreign wars, although Jane C. Tim of NBC News reminded readers that he told Pennsylvania voters in 2024, I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end.

I will not send our sons and daughters to go fight for a war in a country that you've never heard of. We're not going to do it. We're going to bring our troops home, and we're going to focus on America first. In the interview, Trump pushed back on the idea that he needs to settle the Iran crisis quickly, despite his promises to end it fast. He compared his Iran adventure, which so far has lasted just over three months, to the Vietnam War at 19 years, the Korean War and World War II. Here, too, he used that odd.

you, as if he were looking at the U.S. from outside. He suggested that the loss of 13 U.S. military personnel in Iran is light compared to the losses of those other wars. Despite his administration's insistence that he doesn't need congressional approval for his war on Iran because it's not a war, Trump repeatedly referred to it as a war. Trump also told Welker he hopes to revive the one-point $776 billion slush fund, his acting attorney general Todd Blanche, said, was dead. Trump increasingly looks like a loser, and as he does so, more and more people appear willing to challenge him. They are following in the footsteps of CNN's Daniel Dale, who has fact-checked Trump for years now. Dale reported yesterday that a statistic about black employment Trump cited in a speech in

Wisconsin on Friday was so obviously false, even Trump questioned it. And we've also had huge drops in, and I'll tell you, this is something that's amazing. African American unemployment is now doing better than it's ever done, Trump said. And I don't know where that stat came from, but I'll take it, he said. I don't know where the hell that stat come, but we'll take it. Yesterday, Susan Douglas and Paul Romano, a political organizer and a Vietnam War veteran, respectively, represented by the Public Integrity Project, filed a federal lawsuit to stop the ultimate fighting championship, or UFC, cage fights at the White House on Trump's birthday,

a week from today. Fighters are expected to conduct the ceremonial weigh-ins and face-offs at the Lincoln Memorial. make pre-fight walkouts from the Oval Office, and do combat in a massive structure now under construction just steps from the executive residence. This plan is deeply corrupt, the lawsuit alleges. It is being organized by the UFC, whose chief executive, Dana White, is a close friend and ally of the president. The president is giving White and his company what none have enjoyed before, unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access.

One executive recently called the event the greatest earned marketing tool of all time. The lawsuit notes that federal law tightly restricts private use of the national capital's most sacred monumental space, and that Trump and the administration appear to be using the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to relax those rules. But, it notes, the UFC fight is tied to Trump's 80th birthday rather than the nation's 250th, and is being organized not by the Congressional planning body for the 250th, but by UFC. The suit lists the many ways in which the UFC fight is a money-making venture for the company and for Trump, including the fact that he bought between $15,000

and $50,000 of stock in the parent company of UFC, TKO Holding Group. Trump has announced he will attend game three of the NBA finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden tomorrow night, forcing street closures and secret service perimeters for the event.

Today, fans expressed their fury at the news that they would have to arrive at least two hours early, and that he was ruining the vibe of the New York moment. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.