‘You’re hurting Australia’: Donald Trump lashes ABC reporter while confirming Albanese meeting
Donald Trump has shut down questions about his business activities from the ABC’s John Lyons while confirming an upcoming visit by Anthony Albanese.
Donald Trump has confirmed an upcoming meeting with Anthony Albanese as he chastised an ABC journalist for asking about his family’s business activities, warning the line of questioning would harm the Australia-US relationship.
The US President took questions from the media at the White House before departing for his second state visit to Britain and was asked three questions by the ABC’s Americas editor, John Lyons, for an upcoming episode of Four Corners.
The questions ended with Mr Trump pointing at Lyons and telling him “quiet” before moving on to take other queries.
Mr Trump suggested Lyons’ questions would damage the Australia-US relationship and have diplomatic consequences in his upcoming meeting with Mr Albanese, although Jim Chalmers said later that the journalist was “just doing his job”. This was the first apparent confirmation from the White House of a meeting with the Australian Prime Minister, who is visiting the US next week, when he will address the UN General Assembly in New York.
The Australian contacted the White House, asking for any details of the meeting, its timing, location and any issues Mr Trump would raise, but was informed there was nothing to share beyond the President’s comments.
Mr Trump told Lyons that Australia was “trying to get along with me” and accused the journalist of setting a “very bad tone”.
Lyons asked the President how much wealthier he was now than when he was returned to the White House, to which Mr Trump replied: “I don’t know. The deals I made for the most part, other than what my kids are doing, you know, they are running my business, but mostly the deals I made, I made before.
“This is what I have done for a life. I’ve built buildings, like I am building a building here. You see that area? That is going to be the greatest ballroom anywhere else in the world. So it gives me pleasure to do it for the country. And I am paying for it. I think it will cost $US250m,” he said.
Following up, Lyons asked if it was “appropriate” that a sitting US President “should be engaged in so much business activity”.
Mr Trump responded by asking which media organisation Lyons worked for and then accused him of “hurting the Australians”.
“In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now and they want to get along with me. You know your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I am going to tell him about you, you set a very bad tone – you can set a nicer tone,” he said.
Lyons tried to put another question to the President but Mr Trump turned and pointed, saying “quiet”.
Sources from Four Corners told The Australian that the program was conducting an investigation into Mr Trump’s business activities. Among other issues, the program will look at the recent $2bn investment by a United Arab Emirates-backed firm, using a new “stablecoin” issued by Mr Trump’s World Liberty Financial, in crypto exchange Binance – an action that has raised concern about conflicts of interest.
The official White House “rapid response” account on the X social media platform later posted the President’s exchange with Lyons with the caption “@POTUS saying that Mr Trump smacks down a rude foreign Fake News loser (many such cases): ‘Quiet’.”
.@POTUS smacks down a rude foreign Fake News loser (many such cases): "Quiet." 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Q5zdQKgN5Z
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 16, 2025
Lyons told the ABC it was an “absurd” proposition that a few questions should inflict damage on the US relationship with Australia.
“If our job as journalists is to hold truth to power, then surely asking legitimate questions – politely – to the President of the United States should be acceptable. But in this day and age in America now, it’s not,” he said.
A meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Albanese comes at a crucial time, given the imposition of a 10 per cent baseline tariff on Australia, demands from Washington that Canberra increases defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and an ongoing Pentagon review of the AUKUS submarine agreement.
Mr Trump and Mr Albanese are most likely to meet in New York or on the sidelines of the UN when the General Assembly begins its 80th session with a week of meetings.
Speaking to Sky News in Australia this week, Mr Albanese said: “We’ll meet. We’ve spoken four times. We’ve had really warm conversations. I look forward to – we won’t just see each other, obviously. We’ll see each other in New York. He’s hosting a reception on Tuesday night of next week.
“And, as well, we’ll see each other at various forums that are taking place between now and the end of the year. It’s summit season.”
Responding to the exchange between Mr Trump and Lyons, the Treasurer said: “President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese have had a number of very warm conversations already. I think four conversations at last count. And they’ll meet in due course.”
Dr Chalmers said, when it came to the ABC, he respected its independence. “And that extends to not second-guessing the questions asked legitimately by journalists at press conferences. Journalists have got a job to do and as far as I can tell that journalist was just doing his job in Washington DC.”
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil also told the Seven Network “the journalists are there to try to keep politicians accountable. And they are entitled to ask difficult questions.”
However, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson posted a clip of the exchange on social media, saying it was “not often an Australian journalist has the opportunity to interview the President of the United States”.
“At a time when trade, defence and national security are such crucial issues in our relationship with our closest ally, it would be helpful if the ABC could explain this line of questioning,” she said. “Australians should expect the highest standards of our publicly funded national broadcaster.”
Nationals senator Matt Canavan also told the Nine Network’s Today program “the ABC need to have a good look at themselves. I mean, what the hell are they doing with the billion dollars a year we give them?”
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