Trump blasts New York Times, CNN for 'seditious' coverage of Iran war
'If you see CNN, you'd think they're winning the war,' Trump said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Donald Trump took aim at The New York Times and CNN on Thursday for what he called "seditious" coverage of the Iran war.
"I'm negotiating a deal with Iran. And every week, every three days, they put in a thing that the war should stop. And and the people ask me, how the hell do you negotiate like that? You're destroying them," Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office. "Think of it — we militarily decapitated the country, and every day I read about how well they're doing militarily. They have nothing left. They're done."
"And yet, I read in The New York Times, I see on stupid CNN, which I only watch because you have to watch a little bit of the enemy, so I watch it for a very short period. You have to — you have to be smart," he continued. "And if you see CNN, you'd think they're winning the war. If you read The New York Times, it's actually seditious, in my opinion. You read The New York Times, you actually think they're winning the war... it's a terrible thing."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Donald Trump speaks after signing several executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on April 30, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump joked that the Iranian regime is "sitting in a cave" and how "everyone's dead around them" and reading that they're "winning the war."
"It's so sad," he lamented.
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Trump called CNN "stupid" but said "you have to watch a little bit of the enemy." ( Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump later took another swipe at CNN's report alleging the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last June weren't as effective as his administration claimed.
"Before they landed, CNN came out with a report that maybe the damage wasn't that great. The damage was far greater than we said. It was obliteration," Trump told reporters.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And the reason I took such — I was angry about it because it was disrespectful to those pilots and those incredible people, including the people that maintained the planes," he added.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment. A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump slammed what he called the "seditious" coverage of The New York Times. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)