CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — The breaking point was not the rain hammering the barn’s metal roof, nor the technical glitches that interrupted the sitting twice. It was a single question Kristen Welker had asked — and re-asked — for four minutes: where is the evidence?
President Donald Trump ended his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday by standing up mid-sentence, pulling off his lapel microphone, and walking off the set of a Wisconsin farm where the interview had been taped the previous Friday. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” he told Welker before leaving. “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
He crushed the mic underfoot on the way out.
What made the walkout notable was not the theatrics — Trump has a long history of hostile encounters with network journalists — but what immediately preceded it. The exchange that broke the interview open concerned his claim that FBI agents had actively ushered rioters into the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Welker told him flatly there was no evidence of that. Trump replied: “Try looking at the tapes one time.” He did not identify which tapes. He offered nothing further. Then he declared Welker’s network “one-sided” and “crooked,” extended that description to ABC, CBS, and CNN, called Welker herself either “crooked” or “stupid,” and left.
The Justice Department’s own inspector general has examined this specific claim. According to NBC News, the IG found that four FBI confidential human sources entered the Capitol building that day, but none were directed to do so by the bureau, and no on-duty FBI special agents were on the Capitol grounds until some responded to help subdue the riot. That is not an active matter of dispute among federal investigators. It is a documented finding.
Trump’s position during the interview was that those people “lost everything” and that the government should compensate them. Whether anyone who assaulted police officers on January 6 should receive money from the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund he has championed, he said: “I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.”
The fund itself is in legal limbo. The Justice Department agreed to establish it to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, but officials backed away after court challenges and pushback from Republican senators, with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche telling a court the fund was “not going forward.” Trump, asked Sunday whether it should proceed despite that, said: “I love the idea.” He did not explain how it would proceed over Blanche’s public statement that it had been permanently halted.
The question the interview left unresolved is whether the fund is actually dead or merely paused. Blanche’s language in court filings was unambiguous. Trump’s language on Sunday was not. The two cannot both be accurate, and neither NBC nor the White House has since offered any clarification.
The interview — a wide-ranging sit-down taped at Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls before Trump’s agricultural roundtable with Wisconsin farmers — also covered the war with Iran, rising gas and fertilizer prices, potential Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, and Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election and last week’s California primary were “rigged.” On that last point, Welker told him there was no evidence. Trump said: “There’s a lot of evidence. There’s tremendous evidence. There’s nothing but evidence.” He provided none.
Trump’s dismissal of the Iran war’s economic consequences followed a pattern set throughout the interview. When Welker noted that gas and fertilizer prices had risen, Trump chastised her. “Are you ready? Am I allowed to talk?” he said. “I love the farmers and the farmers love me.” He said prices would come down after the conflict ends. He did not say when he expected the conflict to end, nor did he reconcile that promise with his statement earlier Sunday that U.S. forces would remain in the Middle East until the situation reached “completion.” He also denied that he had campaigned on a promise of no new wars — “I didn’t guarantee no war” — a claim that conflicts with the public record of his 2024 campaign speeches.
Welker is the second woman and the first Black journalist to helm “Meet the Press,” the longest-running program on American television. She kept a composed demeanor throughout the exchange. When Trump told her she was either “crooked or stupid,” she replied: “To be fair, I’m not crooked. But let’s continue.” He did not continue. As she noted she had travelled to Wisconsin specifically for the interview, Trump — still audible offscreen — said: “I sat in the rain with you for an hour. On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time.”
NBC News published a full transcript and a separate fact-check of Trump’s claims after the broadcast. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the walkout or on the discrepancy between Trump’s statements about the weaponization fund and Blanche’s court filings. An NBC spokesperson also declined to comment.
What was not addressed in any subsequent statement — from the White House, from Justice, or from NBC — is whether the fund’s ambiguous status creates any legal exposure for the administration. The original settlement that created the fund was a federal court agreement. Walking it back without court approval may have consequences that no official has yet publicly acknowledged. That question remains open.
Trump’s broader relationship with NBC has been publicly combative for years. Earlier Sunday, the White House released his comments from the same interview on Iran, which the network had begun airing in the morning broadcast. The walkout segment aired in the closing minutes of the show. By Sunday afternoon, the clip of Trump crushing the microphone had spread widely across social media platforms, including TikTok and X.
His last words before leaving: “You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest press.”
