Meet the ABC reporter Trump hand-picked for his interview
Donald Trump told ABC News' Terry Moran that he personally selected the journalist for his first interview with the network since his defamation lawsuit because he'd 'never heard of' the veteran reporter. Moran, the network's senior national correspondent and former Nightline co-anchor, was hand-picked by the president, he claimed, during an interview that often saw Trump dismantling Moran's line of questioning , his Disney-owned network, and the 'fake news' media itself.
In a heated moment where Moran attempted to fact-check Trump , the president revealed that the choice wasn't exactly a compliment. 'They're giving you the big break of a lifetime. I picked you to do the interview because frankly, I'd never heard of you, but you're not being very nice,' Trump said. The comments came as the two sparred over deported El Salvador native Kilmar Abrego Garcia and evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang and tariffs.
While the president claimed to not know who Moran is, the 65-year-old father-of-four is an award-winning journalist with an apparent affinity for Trump. Moran is currently a senior national news correspondent for ABC News, a network he has been with since 1997. Born in Chicago , Moran graduated from Lawrence University in 1982 with a degree in English. He moved to Washington, DC , and began his career in journalism writing for The New Republic. Moran then transitioned to broadcast and covered high profile criminal trials for Court TV, including O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers.
He broke into politics by covering Bill Clinton's presidency and Al Gore's presidential campaign. Moran's ABC News biography claims it was from his reporting on the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Decision that the former vice president learned he had lost the election. In 2004, Moran was named anchor of World News Tonight Sunday, a position he held until joining Nightline a year later. As Nightline co-anchor, he sat down for nine one-on-one interviews with Barack Obama.
He has received several awards including the White House Correspondents Association's Merriman Smith Award for excellence in presidential reporting on deadline and a George Foster Peabody Award. Moran became the network's London-based chief foreign correspondent in 2014, but came back to the U.S. six years later to cover politics. While abroad, he continued to weigh in on U.S. politics and claimed that in 2016 he believed Trump would win the election.
'I told colleagues Trump would win. (People thought I was crazy.)' he said on X after Trump's 2024 win. 'This year I said it felt like Trump would win again. Why? Not polls (it seemed to me they never really caught up with the constant growth of the Trump Movement.) 'But because almost everywhere I looked—in my own neighborhood, out on the campaign trail, on social media and old media—you could see and sense that millions of *new converts* were joining this movement.'
In 2019, he told his alma matter, that covering politics during the Trump presidency is 'like drinking from a fire hose, it's hard to keep your perspective.' Moran shares one child with his ex-wife, Karen Osler. He married his second wife Johanna Cox, in 2015, and the couple have three children together.
Notably, Cox is the sole winner of the 2008 CW fashion reality competition show Stylista. Her prize included a year-long position at Elle magazine. In December, Moran shared a picture of himself and his daughter with Joe and Jill Biden.
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NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
'We're happy to have this fight': Trump administration leans into California protests
President Donald Trump's immigration agenda has met a groundswell of opposition in Los Angeles, the country's second-largest city. At least 56 people have been arrested so far in massive protests against the administration's immigration raids in the city Friday. The demonstrations have spilled over onto one of the region's largest freeways, and federal authorities are facing criticism after they arrested, and apparently injured, a prominent labor leader. In response, the White House has threatened to arrest California's governor and mobilized Marines to support National Guard troops in defending federal property — even though state officials say they don't want the assistance and are now suing the administration. For the White House, this scene — Trump battling a blue state over his signature issue — is a win. It's a nationally watched saga of the sort that has long defined his career: a made-for-TV moment. 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'Look at the violence, the attacks on law enforcement,' the adviser added. 'If Democrats want to support that, let them. This is why we win elections and they do not.' Trump advisers also pointed to the fact that the president's immigration policies continue to get high marks in most public polling. A CBS/YouGov poll conducted just before the Los Angeles immigration raids found that 54% of respondents approved of the administration's ' program to deport immigrants illegally.' Those numbers help clarify why the administration and more broadly congressional Republicans are politically comfortable leaning into support of the raids over vocal opposition from critics — and a persistent threat of legal challenge. 'I know there's no question places like California have thumbed their nose at the American people and decided they want to be a sanctuary for criminals,' Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said Monday, adding, 'I think he's exercising exactly what he said he'd do and what people elected him' to do. Trump advisers say the president also points to the fact that he got more votes in California in 2024 than in his previous campaigns, even though he still badly lost the heavily Democratic-leaning state. The administration's response to the protests does seem to have one eye on the reaction in conservative media, a space increasingly dominated by pro-Trump influencers. Some of those influencers have been posting from the protests — most notably Phil McGraw, a well-known Trump supporter better known as 'Dr. Phil,' who embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the Los Angeles raids, as he did during similar immigration raids in Chicago this year. The Trump adviser, asked about McGraw's involvement, said: 'This is an important moment in American history. People have a right to see it in a way not unfairly skewed by a biased mainstream media.' The adviser wouldn't elaborate on how McGraw, whose presence was first reported by CNN, was able to have front-line access to the federal immigration operations. A spokesman for McGraw didn't respond to a request for comment. Republicans more broadly also see the fight as a political winner and say Democrats are functionally taking the bait on an issue in which polling has given Trump an advantage. 'I think it is a symptom of how far left this party has done when you have major Democrats standing on the side of illegal aliens that are torching vehicles,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Monday. 'It is one of the reasons the Democratic Party is struggling so much nationally,' he added. 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Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have argued that inserting National Guard troops will inflame tensions and potential violence — a response that has led Trump to signal he would consider arresting Newsom if he were to continue what the administration considers to be his interference. 'I would do it if I were Tom,' Trump said, referring to his 'border czar,' Tom Homan. 'I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity. But I do think it would be a great thing.' While detaining Newsom would no doubt please Trump's MAGA base, White House officials privately say it's not currently in the cards. 'It's not being actively planned or considered,' a senior White House official said. 'But anyone who breaks federal law puts themselves at risk of being arrested. That's just a basic fact.' A second White House official said that if either Newsom or Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman, do something at odds with federal immigration law, they could be detained. But the official also acknowledged that the optics of arresting California officials amid an immigration fight they believe most Americans support could backfire with some Republican voters because, at the moment, it doesn't appear they have actually broken any immigration laws. The official said there isn't some grand strategy to deploy National Guard troops in blue cities across the country; the administration is simply waiting to see whether other protests get out of control. Meanwhile, Newsom has leaned into the threats, practically daring the administration to arrest him rather than focusing on the protesters. 'He's a tough guy. Why doesn't he do that? He knows where to find me,' Newsom told MSNBC on Sunday. Referring to Homan, he added: 'That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go.' On Monday, California sued the Trump administration, arguing that Trump's federalizing the state's National Guard is 'unlawful.' 'Let me be clear: There is no invasion. 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On Monday, an MSNBC host asked Homan whether everyone ICE has arrested as part of the Trump administration's immigration efforts had criminal records, and he had a blunt response. 'Absolutely not,' he said.
Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
Reeves signs off on £14bn to build new nuclear plant Sizewell C
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The Guardian
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- The Guardian
Trump, Musk and the end of a bromance
It started with a tweet. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' wrote Elon Musk. Donald Trump's tax and spending bill was a 'disgusting abomination'. What followed was a remarkable – and remarkably public – feud between the world's richest man and the US president: insults were traded, threats were made, shares in Musk's publicly traded companies plummeted. It was quite the turnaround for the pair. Last year, Musk had given Trump's re-election campaign more than $280m in donations. And only two weeks ago, when Musk stood down from his position in Trump's administration, the two were still insistent that their relationship was good. Yet even then, as the Guardian's global affairs correspondent Andrew Roth reports, there were signs of tension. And as he tells Michael Safi, they were about more than a clash between two big egos, but over the future direction of the Maga movement itself.
