President Donald Trump apparently has a pet peeve: being interrupted. The 45th president of the United States recently stopped an interview after he was interrupted by someone coughing in the background.
During an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office at the White House that was broadcast on Sunday, Trump’s discussion about everything from the Mueller report to his still-unreleased tax records was disrupted when someone off-camera could be heard coughing.
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The brief interruption, which promoted Trump to request a do-over, came as he was in the middle of answering a question regarding whether or not he would release his financial records.
Pres. Trump says he “might” turn over his “financial statement” to Congress.
— ABC News (@ABC) June 17, 2019
“I hope they get it, because it’s a fantastic financial statement,” he tells @GStephanopoulos in the Oval Office. https://t.co/8q0FwFD9qt pic.twitter.com/fw1tIc0vxO
“No, at some point, I might [turn it over],” Trump said. “It’s a fantastic financial statement — And let’s do that over, he’s coughing in the middle of my answer.”
However, his speech quickly came to a halt as soon as the coughing commenced.
“He’s coughing in the middle of my answer, I don’t like that,” Trump said, being informed by Stephanopoulos that the culprit was White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. “If you’re going to cough, please leave the room. You just can’t, you just can’t cough. Boy oh boy. Okay, do you want to do that a little differently…”
While Trump himself hasn’t yet commented on the awkward incident, social media had plenty to say.
“Whoever coughed deserves a Nobel (moment of) Peace Prize. Thank you kind person,” one person joked.
“If you’re a foreign leader who is not an ally and want to unleash a Mortal Kombat finishing move on Trump all you have to do is cough near him. After that yell “John McCain!” out loud. Then compliment Obama for anything. Trump will be knocked out,” another wrote.
“How is he going to be heard if someone’s hacking away,” another person pointed out.
Although it is unclear if Mulvaney did in fact heed Trump’s request to exit the Oval Office, Trump was eager to continue on with his answer, stating that “at some point” he’d like to release his “phenomenal” financial statement.
He added that the decision to release the records was not up to him, but rather “up to lawyers, it’s up to everything else” and that “they’re they’re asking for things that should never be asking for, that they’ve never asked another president for.”
