--- title: Donald Trump Bashes U.S. on Russia-Owned Network RT America description: Donald Trump attacked American reporters and leaders in an interview with a state-owned Russian television network. canonical: https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-09T11:38:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:29:34.472Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Bashes U.S. on Russia-Owned Network RT America og:description: Donald Trump attacked American reporters and leaders in an interview with a state-owned Russian television network. og:url: https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c2b7e908fa9fd0/6988a5342dce01231e9ea952/donald-trump-new-york-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: donald-trump-new-york-speech og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Bashes U.S. on Russia-Owned Network RT America twitter:description: Donald Trump attacked American reporters and leaders in an interview with a state-owned Russian television network. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c2b7e908fa9fd0/6988a5342dce01231e9ea952/donald-trump-new-york-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Bashes U.S. Media on State-Owned Russian Network > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Hack Hillary Clinton’s Emails [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Hack Hillary Clinton’s Emails](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oPCLT6WZ.m3u8) (0:50)  _Published 2016-07-27. Donald Trump encouraged Russia to commit a cybercrime against Hillary Clinton, saying he hoped the foreign nation could recover some of her deleted emails._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 9, 2016 11:38 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks while accepting the Conservative Party of New York State's nomination for president in New York City on Sept. 7, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks while accepting the Conservative Party of New York State's nomination for president in New York City on Sept. 7, 2016. Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 9, 2016 11:38 AM UTC Donald Trump [criticized](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-attacks-u-s-foreign-policy-political-press-corps-in-state-owned-russian-television-network/?hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Ftrump-russia-1130pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) the state of the America’s media and its leader on Thursday in an interview aired on a state-owned Russian television network. In an interview with journalist Larry King broadcast on RT America, Trump said the thing that most surprised him about the American political process was “the dishonesty of the media,” [the Washington _Post_ reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-attacks-u-s-foreign-policy-political-press-corps-in-state-owned-russian-television-network/?hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Ftrump-russia-1130pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory). “The media has been unbelievably dishonest,” he said. “I mean they’ll take a statement that you make which is perfect and they’ll cut it up and chop it up and shorten it or lengthen it or do something with it.” He also voiced familiar criticisms of President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “Hillary Clinton with her policies and Barack Obama — you know, look, we should have never gone into Iraq. Period,” Trump said. (Trump claims he was against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning, [which is not true](http://time.com/4484539/donald-trump-iraq-war-claim/?xid=homepage).) “But once we went in, Larry, we shouldn’t have gotten out the way we got out. And the way they got out really caused ISIS, if you think about it. We got out in such a horrible, foolish fashion, instead of leaving some troops behind.” The interview comes as Trump continues to struggle with allegations that he’s too close to the Russian government. In July, he [called on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails](http://time.com/4426272/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-russia-emails/?iid=sr-link1). His former campaign chairman [Paul Manafort resigned in August](http://time.com/4459066/paul-manafort-donald-trump-campaign/?iid=sr-link2) over questions about his links to Ukraine’s former pro-Russia regime. And Trump himself expresses open admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Wednesday night, one day before the interview aired, [Trump said](http://time.com/4483355/commander-chief-forum-clinton-trump-intrepid/) of Putin in an [NBC military form](http://time.com/4483368/nbc-military-forum-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/), “Certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.” Trump’s campaign claimed they did not know the interview was to be aired on the Russian network. A spokesperson told the _Post_, “Mr. Trump recorded a short interview with Larry King for his podcast as a favor to Mr. King. What Larry King does with the interview content is up to him; we have nothing to do with it.” He’s not the only politician to appear on the network, accidentally or otherwise. British politician Nigel Farage, [who appeared onstage with Trump in August](http://time.com/4465479/donald-trump-brexit-nigel-farage/?iid=sr-link3), makes regular guest appearances and was recently [offered his own television show](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russian-broadcaster-offers-nigel-farage-own-television-show-rt-a7232876.html) on RT, according to media reports. \[[_WaPo_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-attacks-u-s-foreign-policy-political-press-corps-in-state-owned-russian-television-network/?hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Ftrump-russia-1130pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory)\] ## Transcript Russia is listening. I hope you are able to find the thirty thousand emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press let's see if that happens. But Russia has no respect for our country and that why if it is Russia nobody even knows it's probably China Or it could be somebody sitting in his bed, but it shows how weak we are, it shows how disrespected we are. Total aside, assuming it's Russia or China or one of the major countries and competitors, it's a total sign of disrespect. For our country. Putin and the leaders throughout the world have no respect for our country anymore and they certainly have no respect for our leader. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Bashes U.S. Media on State-Owned Russian Network","datePublished":"2016-09-09T11:38:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:29:34.472Z","description":"Interview with journalist Larry King was broadcast on Kremlin-backed RT America","url":"https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c2b7e908fa9fd0/6988a5342dce01231e9ea952/donald-trump-new-york-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72c2b7e908fa9fd0/6988a5342dce01231e9ea952/donald-trump-new-york-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-new-york-speech","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks while accepting the Conservative Party of New York State's nomination for president in New York City on Sept. 7, 2016.","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/","name":"Donald Trump Bashes U.S. Media on State-Owned Russian Network"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Hack Hillary Clinton’s Emails","description":"Donald Trump encouraged Russia to commit a cybercrime against Hillary Clinton, saying he hoped the foreign nation could recover some of her deleted emails.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oPCLT6WZ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-07-27T17:16:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oPCLT6WZ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/","duration":"PT50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4485153/donald-trump-russian-television-network-rt/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```