--- title: Donald Trump: CNN Staff Are 'Horrible Human Beings' description: President Trump suggested that he is considering suing CNN, who employs what he said are "horrible human beings," according to leaked audio canonical: https://time.com/4842997/donald-trump-cnn-horrible-human-beings/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-01T15:14:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:24:50.728Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Called CNN Staff 'Horrible Human Beings' in Leaked Audio og:description: Media weren't allowed to attend, but audio from the event leaked og:url: https://time.com/4842997/donald-trump-cnn-horrible-human-beings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfad17b4152f1394/6988d40efb4eac626d892b83/white-house-defiant-president-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Trump reacts to a reporter's question during a joint news conference with Romanian Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Called CNN Staff 'Horrible Human Beings' in Leaked Audio twitter:description: Media weren't allowed to attend, but audio from the event leaked twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfad17b4152f1394/6988d40efb4eac626d892b83/white-house-defiant-president-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Calls CNN Staff 'Horrible Human Beings' in Leaked Audio From RNC Fundraiser by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jul 1, 2017 3:14 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a reporter's question during a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 9, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump reacts to a reporter's question during a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 9, 2017.Jonathan Ernst—Reuters by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jul 1, 2017 3:14 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4843023/states-refuse-donald-trump-voter-fraud-commission/) suggested that he is considering suing CNN, who employs what he called “horrible human beings,” according to leaked audio from a [Republican National Committee event](http://time.com/4838452/protesters-crash-donald-trump-fundraiser/) held in his Washington, D.C., hotel Wednesday night. Trump hosted the gathering at the Trump International Hotel to fundraise for his [re-election campaign](http://time.com/4827418/donald-trump-election-fundraiser/). Attendees were charged $35,000 to $100,000 per seat. “Boy, did CNN get killed over the last few days,” Trump said to the applause of the audience, [according to the Intercept](https://theintercept.com/2017/06/30/heres-the-audio-of-donald-trumps-private-rnc-fundraiser-at-his-own-hotel/), who obtained the audio despite media being barred from the event. Last week, the network was forced to [retract a story](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/business/media/cnn-retracted-story-on-trump.html) that linked a Trump ally to a Russian bank. CNN issued an apology and three of the network’s journalists subsequently resigned. Trump then zeroed in on CNN political commentator Van Jones, whom the President noted was recently captured on a secretly recorded video calling the allegations of collusion between Trump and the Russian government a “nothing burger,” along with CNN President Jeff Zucker. “Van Jones — you see this man?” Trump said. “These are really dishonest people. Should I sue them? I mean, they’re phonies. Jeff Zucker, I hear he’s going to resign at some point pretty soon. I mean, these are horrible human beings.” “It’s a shame what they’ve done to the name CNN, that I can tell you,” Trump added. “But as far as I’m concerned, I love it. If anybody’s a lawyer in the house and thinks I have a good lawsuit — I feel like we do. Wouldn’t that be fun?” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4842997/donald-trump-cnn-horrible-human-beings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4842997/donald-trump-cnn-horrible-human-beings/"},"headline":"President Trump Calls CNN Staff 'Horrible Human Beings' in Leaked Audio From RNC Fundraiser","datePublished":"2017-07-01T15:14:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:24:50.728Z","description":"Media weren't allowed to attend, but audio from the event leaked","url":"https://time.com/4842997/donald-trump-cnn-horrible-human-beings/","keywords":["politics","CNN","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfad17b4152f1394/6988d40efb4eac626d892b83/white-house-defiant-president-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfad17b4152f1394/6988d40efb4eac626d892b83/white-house-defiant-president-donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump reacts to a reporter's question during a joint news conference with Romanian Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington","caption":"Trump reacts to a reporter's question during a joint news conference with Romanian Iohannis in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington","creditText":"Jonathan Ernst—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4842997/donald-trump-cnn-horrible-human-beings/","name":"President Trump Calls CNN Staff 'Horrible Human Beings' in Leaked Audio From RNC Fundraiser"}}]}] ```