Trump Calls CNN Reporter 'Low IQ' Over Russia Sanctions and Hubbard

President Donald Trump clashed with CNN and ABC News reporters outside the White House on Wednesday after they pressed him on whether easing sanctions on Russia amounted to a trade for the release of American Stephen Hubbard, according to video of the exchange posted by Fox News and the White House’s Rapid Response account on X.

The exchange came hours after Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired schoolteacher from Michigan held in Russia since 2022, was freed. Reuters reported that Trump said Hubbard was on his way back to the United States. Trump has said he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin directly for Hubbard’s release during a phone call last week, according to The Gateway Pundit, which quoted Trump’s Truth Social post saying the United States “was not required to give anything in return.”

WATCH IN FULL: President Donald J. Trump takes questions from reporters before departing the White House earlier today. pic.twitter.com/X7jBmFXywS

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 21, 2026

According to Mediaite, a reporter who sounded like CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Trump about the release, and Trump answered that Hubbard was “beautifully flying” home. Trump argued that the outcome would not have happened if he had kept pressure on Moscow through new sanctions during the talks. “If you would’ve put those sanctions on, or whatever you want to call ’em, you could forget about him. He’d be back in jail for 25 years,” Trump said, as quoted by Mediaite.

When the CNN reporter followed up on whether the sanctions decision was part of an exchange, Trump fired back. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re a dummy. You’re a low IQ person, you’re a dummy, and you work for CNN,” he said, according to Mediaite and the Fox News clip.

Trump also explained his reasoning on the broader war. He said the United States and Russia are “maybe close to a deal for the first time in a long time” to end the fighting in Ukraine, and that “when you’re close to a deal and you have very delicate negotiations, you don’t put sanctions on,” Mediaite reported. The Gateway Pundit quoted Trump saying the negotiation “would obviously come immediately to an end” if sanctions had been imposed while he was working to bring Hubbard home.

A short time later, an ABC News reporter, identified by The Gateway Pundit as Karen Travers, asked how waiving sanctions on Russia to secure Hubbard’s release was not giving something to Moscow, according to Mediaite. Trump asked which outlet she worked for, then said, “You’re a stupid person. And by the way, your network is the worst of all,” Mediaite reported.

The heated gaggle took place as Trump departed the White House for a campaign rally in South Carolina, according to The Gateway Pundit, less than two weeks before the midterm elections. Earlier Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that people who had urged immediate sanctions on Russia later “called to apologize” once they learned he was negotiating Hubbard’s release, according to The Gateway Pundit’s account of the post.

Hubbard’s family welcomed the news. His son told CBS News that he briefly spoke with his father before the flight home, according to a CBS News post on X.

The White House has framed the release as a win secured without concessions, while reporters at Wednesday’s gaggle questioned whether the sanctions pause was itself a concession. Trump’s position, stated repeatedly in the exchange, is that holding off on new sanctions during delicate talks is what made the release possible in the first place.

Sources

• Rapid Response 47 on X: full gaggle video
• Fox News on X: Trump and the CNN reporter
• Mediaite (via Yahoo News)
• The Gateway Pundit
• Reuters on X
• CBS News on X

Reporting by Daily Beltway.