UPDATED, with Times comment: Donald Trump lashed out at a New York Times reporter, to the point of accusing him of “treason,” as the correspondent asked him a question on Air Force One on Friday about the prospect of resuming bombing in the Iran war.

On the president’s return trip from China, David Sanger, White House and national security correspondent for the Times, asked Trump, “What would the use be in repeating the bombing? You did it for 38 days and you did not get the political changes in Iran.”

Trump responded, “I got a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you, write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy. We had a total military victory. We knocked out their entire navy, we knocked out their entire air force, we knocked out all of their anti-aircraft weaponry, we knocked out all of their radar, we knocked out all of their leaders, number one, and then we knocked out all of their leaders in the second division, and we knocked out numerous of their leaders in the third division, and they’re very confused. We’ve had a total victory, except by people like you that don’t write the truth. You should write. I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write, but you and the New York Times and CNN, I would say, are the worst.”

Trump added, “You should be ashamed. I actually think it is treason when you write, like, ‘They’re doing well militarily,’ and they have no navy, no air force, no anti-anything.”

Earlier this month, Trump said at a Florida event that he thought it was “treasonous” for people to speak of the U.S. not winning the war in Iran. Earlier this week, he posted on Truth Social that it was “virtual treason” when “fake news” reports “that the Iranian enemy is doing well, militarily, against us.”

Sanger did not respond during Trump’s attack on him, even though he was just inches away as the president held a gaggle with reporters on the presidential plane.

A New York Times spokesperson said, “Reporting isn’t treason. It’s foundational to a free press and the work that America’s founders wrote the First Amendment to protect. That includes making clear when the claims of government officials and the reality of their actions don’t line up. Our reporters, in this case, have been working carefully to provide the public with the fullest possible understanding of the reality of the military action in Iran. We will continue this important, constitutionally protected work.”

In a news analysis on May 5, Sanger wrote that while the Iranian Navy is wiped out, it was only a portion of the objectives that Trump outlined when he launched the war on Feb. 28. Sanger wrote, “So far, Iran’s nuclear stockpile has not been touched and there is no agreement, at least yet, to ship it out of the country or to dilute it so that it cannot easily be used to manufacture weapons. While intelligence estimates differ, the U.S. assessments suggest that more than half of Iran’s missiles and launchers survived. It is too early to tell about support of the proxy groups, which were shredded by Israeli attacks.”

Earlier this week, the Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies have gathered classified assessments that “Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.” The story was bylined by Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

During the gaggle, Trump also went after a reporter for the BBC who asked about the investigation into a strike on an Iranian girls school.

“Who are you with?” Trump asked.

The reporter, Tom Bateman, identified himself as from BBC Radio.

“You mean the ones that put AI in my mouth?” Trump asked. “…The ones have had me saying a statement that they now admit was not true., that put terrible words in my mouth and then had to admit that it was fake.”

Trump then referred to his $5 billion lawsuit against the BBC, over edits made in a 2024 documentary on the January 6 insurrection.

In the documentary, Trump: A Second Chance?, a clip is shown from his January 6 speech, in which he says, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” In fact, the remark was an edit of different portions of the speech.

In the fallout from the focus on the edited speech, BBC director general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, who led the news division, stepped down.