President Donald Trump unraveled the moment a female correspondent challenged him with a tough, fact-based question — a tense exchange that would ignite viral outrage as viewers zeroed in not just on his reaction, but on the unsettling silence around him.
Trump was taking questions from reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida over the long break, where he had been railing against immigrants and blaming Somali communities in Minnesota for rising crime — all while continuing to insist that President Joe Biden was responsible for the deadly National Guard shooting near the White House.
He has repeatedly claimed the Afghan suspect was allowed into the U.S. without proper vetting, even though news reports show he had served alongside U.S. forces in Kandahar and entered the country legally.
But when CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes pressed him with those facts, the president’s demeanor shifted sharply, setting up the confrontation that followed.
Cordes pointed out to the President that the suspect had “worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years that he was vetted, and the vetting came up clean.”
“He went cuckoo. He went nuts. And that happens too and happens too often with these people,” Trump replied, insisting that Afghans “came in unvetted.”
But Cordes persisted. “Your DOJ IG [Inspector General] just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the US. So why do you blame the Biden administration?”
A livid Trump exploded, talking over her and insulting her.
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Trump raged, lashing out at her courage in trying to hold him accountable for all the misinformation he’s been spewing out about the suspect and the U.S.’ departure from Afghanistan.
“Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person,” the infuriated commander in chief ranted at Cordes.
A fiery backlash exploded across social media, and this time the outrage wasn’t only about Trump’s attack — it was about the room.
“Trump calling a reporter stupid means the reporter is asking a question based in reality and facts,” one person wrote.
But the moment that sent the clip viral was what unfolded behind Cordes as Trump berated her.
Three male reporters stood in the frame — one widening his eyes in shock, another staring blankly into space, all three shifting awkwardly as Trump’s insults escalated.
“These so-called men just stood there and let this nasty buffoon insult a woman. Where the hell are we?” one viewer demanded.
“They stood there like f**king stooges. JFC,” one user wrote, while another fumed, “The men are all looking at their shoes. Cowards,”
But others focused on the power dynamics in place, “For those getting mad because nobody defended her — I’m sure they want to, but they could lose their job. It’s a horrible situation for all of them.”
And there was still plenty of backlash aimed at Trump.
“Trump calls reporters “stupid” as a way to dismiss tough questions and shift attention away from the issue. It’s part of his combative style with the press and a tactic to rally supporters by portraying journalists as hostile,” said another.
Trump ordered the U.S. out of Afghanistan during his first term, negotiating a withdrawal in February of 2020 with the Taliban, a specially designated global terrorist group that is not recognized as the Afghan government by the United States.
He also excluded the Afghan government in the negotiations, released 5,000 Taliban soldiers and set a withdrawal date for May of 2021, which former President Joe Biden inherited when he won the 2020 election, according to FactCheck.org.
Biden was able to delay the withdrawal until August, even though the Taliban was already ignoring key provision of the agreement, and oversaw a deadly and chaotic pull-out, which has angered Trump ever since, even though he was the one that orchestrated the entire debacle.
Meantime the suspect in the tragic National Guard shooting, identified as 29-yar-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, came to the U.S. shortly after the departure of U.S. troops under a Biden administration program called Operation Allies Welcome. He settled in Washington state and applied for asylum in December of 2024.
But Lakanwal wasn’t granted asylum until April of 2025 under Trump, according to CNN.
Just hours after the shooting Wednesday near the White House, Trump immediately blamed the Biden administration, and he’s continued his ongoing rant for several days now.
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