{"id":368813,"date":"2026-01-14T06:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/368813\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T06:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:08:09","slug":"white-house-defends-trump-after-video-appears-to-show-him-swearing-at-heckler-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/368813\/","title":{"rendered":"White House defends Trump after video appears to show him swearing at heckler | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The White House has defended Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;appropriate&#8221; response to a heckler during a visit to a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>Video circulating on social media, first published by celebrity news website TMZ, appears to show the US president mouthing the words &#8220;f*** you&#8221; towards someone at the facility on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>He also gestures with his middle finger, looking down at the individual from an elevated walkway.<\/p>\n<p>According to TMZ, the heckler&#8217;s insults included an apparent reference to Mr Trump&#8217;s relationship with the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein&#8217;s sex trafficking operation. While they were once friends, the president has said he cut off the relationship before the financier was accused of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to Sky News about the video, White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said: &#8220;A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He did not dispute the authenticity of the footage.<\/p>\n<p>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/iranian-protester-faces-imminent-execution-claims-human-rights-group-13493858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trump makes Iran pledge<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/how-russia-is-using-disposable-agents-to-sabotage-europe-13494007\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">How Russia&#8217;s using &#8216;disposable agents&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/skynews-trump-us-ford_7134735.jpg\"   alt=\"Other workers were much happier to see him. Pic: Reuters\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Other workers were much happier to see him. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n<p>Other Ford employees cheered and welcomed Mr Trump as he toured the facility, taking photos with \u200dworkers and shaking hands.<\/p>\n<p>His visit was part of an effort to highlight his administration&#8217;s support for American manufacturing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House has defended Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;appropriate&#8221; response to a heckler during a visit to a Ford&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-368813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}