President Donald Trump has called on ABC News to pay him more money after criticizing the network’s contributor and veteran political strategist Donna Brazile and saying the network to fire her.

Newsweek reached out to Brazile for comment and also reached out to ABC News via its parent company Walt Disney via email outside business hours.

Why It Matters

Trump’s return to the White House this year has brought a revival of his adversarial relationship with the media.

As during his first stint in the White House—marked by repeated attacks on the “fake news” press—Trump’s second term has featured similar run-ins with media institutions and practices.

Critics argue Trump’s attacks on the media could undermine democratic norms, with prominent Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting he could threaten American democracy.

What To Know

On Sunday, Trump launched a personal attack on Brazile in a post on his Truth Social platform, referring to her appearance that morning on ABC’s This Week and questioning why the network would hire her.

It was not clear if Trump was referring to any particular comment Brazile made in the program, in which she and other panelists discussed the revoking of Secret Service protection for Harris, policing in U.S. cities and the economy, but he called for “a highly discredited ABC Fake News” to fire her.

“They just paid me $16,000,000 for ‘inaccurate’ reporting, now they should pay me more!!!” he said, referring to ABC News agreeing last year to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library and issue a public apology to settle a defamation lawsuit over inaccurate statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos during a broadcast.

In Sunday’s ABC News panel discussion, Brazile referred to the withdrawal of Harris’ Secret Service protection as “petty…vindictive…retribution,” and also criticized rising prices and Trump’s tariff policy.

On crime, Brazile suggested the administration did not believe in the rule of law or have a comprehensive anti-crime program.

Trump filed the defamation suit last year after Stephanopoulos claimed during a March 10, 2024, segment of This Week while interviewing Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in connection to writer E. Jean Carroll‘s lawsuits.

On May 12, 2023, a Manhattan jury of nine men and three women found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages.

The president was found liable for battery, a civil tort, based on the preponderance of evidence provided by Carroll that he sexually abused her, but not that he raped her.

The settlement terms required ABC News to publish a note on its website expressing regret over the claim and to pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s attorneys.

The Sunday criticism of ABC was the president’s second major attack on the network in a week.

The previous Sunday, he called the ABC and NBC networks two of the “most biased” broadcasters ever and said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should revoke their licenses.

What People are Saying

In the ABC discussion of the economy, Donna Brazile said: “These tariffs have created a level of uncertainty that the American people can’t afford. Donald Trump won on affordability, he won on lowering costs and people are paying higher prices at the grocery store and in getting their kids back to school than ever before. That’s what the Trump administration should be focusing on, not weaponizing tariffs against countries that he may not like.”

What Happens Next

The adversarial relationship between Trump and the media looks set to continue, especially if his poll ratings are falling in the run-up to 2026 midterm elections.