Q&A: The most unpopular US conflict ever & why is Trump so hostile to journalists?

**Jamie** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:05)
This character that now has had two terms as president of the most powerful country in the world, and as we can see, everything that he does, everything that any American president does, is massively consequential. There honestly is no good way to ask Trump a question. I'm actually more interested to know, how did he get like this?

**Jamie** (0:24)
I've been following American foreign policy my entire life. I can't think of a military conflict that is this unpopular.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:37)
Hi, everyone. It is Jamie and Christiane of the Ex Files with the Q&A episode. It's where we answer your question. So let us get started straight away.
Jamie, I'm going to ask the first question because I've got it right in front of me. This is from Carol on email. Why do so many journalists still seem reluctant to challenge Trump directly despite his falling approval ratings? If you had one chance to question without fear of consequences, what would you ask? Well, I guess it's directed at me, but it should be directed at you as well, given that you were a former press advisor, media spokesman, et cetera, to the government. I think more and more journalists are asking challenging questions. I do think that you've seen over the first four years of his first administration, the nearly two years of the second administration, there honestly is no good way to ask Trump a question, because we now know that he has his own way. I remember interviewing people like the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Remember, he's the one that Israel thought would be a great new leader of independent non-Islamic, I don't know what, Iran. Anyway, every time I would ask him a hard question, he would respond by asking a question, and sometimes he'd even be a little bit rude and direct and somewhat personally pointed. Well, Trump has taken that to a high art. If he doesn't like the question, he'll either get up or he'll call you names and worse and then just call you fake news. I think if it was me, I would, I kind of don't see any point in going after the usual confrontational tactic. I'm actually more interested to know, how did he get like this? I want to know, you know, his, what did he learn from? What were his, you know, leading mentors telling him about how to behave and asked questions by the press or coming across a decision or whatever that he didn't like, etc.
I'd want to go back to the beginning of how this character was formed. This character that now has had, you know, two terms as president of the most powerful country in the world. And as we can see, everything that he does, everything that any American president does, is massively consequential. And in this case, and we've been talking about it for months, we've got a six-month war with Iran, that this administration and this president doesn't seem to know how to get out of, even though he, you know, almost with no planning got into.
And, and, and, and, you know, the tariffs and the executive orders and the busting, the limits of executive power and the crackdown on the free press. And why, where, how? That's what I would ask.

**Jamie** (3:16)
Yeah, I don't think I could possibly formulate one question, which is probably why I never could really be a proper journalist. But I do think the questioner is not correct in saying that journalists are reluctant to challenge Trump. I don't think that's true. I think the White House Press Corps has figured out who is going to play that role, and there's various individuals who take the heat. But the journalists who run the major independent news organizations are challenging the president. And every day, the reason why we know so much about what's gone right, what's gone wrong, and what's still to be decided is because of the incredible journalism that we see in the Wall Street Journal, in the New York Times, in the other major news organizations' work. And that's because they are challenging the president.
And so I think the world is learning as much as it could possibly learn, given the fact that journalists are also under threat from the Justice Department that has shown an incredible willingness to subpoena journalists for things that they would never have done before.
Often the judges throw those subpoenas out, but sometimes they don't. So I think the journalists are doing their job, and I think the real question is what's going to happen in the next few months? What is the American people's response to all this? Do they accept that this is the way America should go down the line? And we'll know the answer to that when we see the votes, and that's the only real big question left.