NEED TO KNOW
- ABC News made the decision to suspend their correspondent, Terry Moran, after he shared a critical social media post about President Donald Trump’s adviser, Stephen Miller
- “He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment,” he wrote in the since-deleted post on X
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked ABC “how they plan to hold Terry accountable” just before his suspension was handed down
ABC News reporter Terry Moran has been suspended from the air after sharing an incendiary social media post about one of President Donald Trump’s key advisers.
In the early hours of Sunday, June 8, the 65-year-old senior national correspondent took to X to share a post about Stephen Miller, the president’s homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy.
Moran referred to both Miller and Trump as “world-class hater[s]” in the post, which has since been deleted.
A spokesperson for ABC News commented on the post in a statement shared with PEOPLE, noting that Moran “has been suspended pending further evaluation.”
“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others. The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards,” their statement noted.
Moran took aim at Miller and the president in the post, which was shared shortly after midnight on Sunday.
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“The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism,” Moran wrote. “Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into police. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller.”
The reporter continued: “It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
“Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred is only a means to an end, and that end his his own glorification [sic]. That’s his spiritual nourishment,” he concluded.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to the post as “a rampage against Stephen Miller” in a response on X.
“This is unhinged and unacceptable,” she wrote, adding, “We have reached out to @ABC to inquire about how they plan to hold Terry accountable.”
Vice President J.D. Vance also referred to the message as an “absolutely vile smear” in a message on the social media platform.
“It’s dripping with hatred. Remember that every time you watch ABC’s coverage of the Trump administration,” Vance wrote. “As it happens, I know Stephen quite well. And he’s motivated by love of country. He’s motivated by a fear that people like Terry Moran make rules that normal Americans have to follow, but well-connected people don’t.”
Vance wrote, “It’s why he fought so hard to get President Trump elected and why he works so hard to implement the agenda.”
He further commented that the news network “should apologize to Stephen.”
Moran’s post comes a few weeks after he sat down for an exclusive interview with Trump, marking the end of his first 100 days in office since being inaugurated for a second time in January 2025.
During the interview, Trump complained that the reporter was “not being very nice” after Moran informed the president that an image of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legally protected father who was accidentally deported to El Salvador earlier this year, had been photoshopped.
“I picked you because, frankly, I had never heard of you, but that’s okay,” Trump said.
Another viral moment from the interview came when Moran asked Trump what the Declaration of Independence meant to him.
“Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country,” the president replied as Moran stared at him with visible confusion on his face.
Miller attracted attention in early May during a press briefing about the Department of Education and schools.
Trump’s advisor took issue with critical race theory, saying that a nation cannot be “successful” if it “teach[es] its children to hate themselves and their country.”
“Children will be taught to love America. Children will be taught to be patriots,” he said. “Children will be taught civic values for schools that want federal taxpayer funding.”
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