President Donald Trump being interviewed on Meet the Press by Kristin Welker, June 7, 2026. (Screenshot via NBC News)
President Donald Trump exploded during a recent televised interview and stormed off after being hit with tough questions, but as the reporter asking those questions revealed, he seemed to do an about-face after blowing at her.
Trump sat for an interview for NBC News's Meet the Press on Sunday, during a visit to Wisconsin. During the sit-down, reporter Kristin Welker, among other things, pressed him hard about his recent claims about elections in the U.S. being rigged, especially after recent results in California. Having grown increasingly agitated in the face of these questions, Trump eventually called the interview off early, saying that Welker was either "crooked" or "stupid."
Speaking to Vanity Fair a few days later, Welker revealed that she spoke with Trump after the incident, and said he was much more level-headed, even apologetic.
"I spoke to him the morning after the interview, and without getting into an exact verbatim of what was said, he effectively said, ‘Look, the rain was disruptive. We’re going to do this again in Washington,'" Welker explained. "I’ve covered President Trump since 2015 when he was a candidate, and it doesn’t faze me at all. It’s part of the conversation. I anticipate it to some extent."
Welker further revealed how she approaches interviews with Trump, given his penchant for volatility towards the press.
"I try to stay focused on the content of my questions and on getting answers," she said. "Because that’s my goal, particularly in a presidential interview — to have that amount of time with a president. My goal is to get answers on behalf of the American people."
Trump's visit to Wisconsin came during a period of extended rain, which can be heard during the interview, getting more intense outside of the barn where it was taking place. His claim that the rain was getting to him echoes the explanation put forward by many for his agitated behavior, including speech-language pathologist Hilary Shae. In a video posted to YouTube, she further suggested that the gloomy weather might have been disorienting for him if, as she has long suspected, he is dealing with some degree of dementia.
"For people who have dementia, changes in weather, specifically rain, can actually be really problematic for them," she explained. "When it is raining all day long, the typical lighting of the day is very disrupted. So, it is difficult to know just by looking outside, is it daytime or is it nighttime, late afternoon, that type of thing."
She continued: "With somebody who already has sundowning behaviors, as the president demonstrates he does, that can make it even worse, because the entire morning has not had the typical sunlight, his circadian rhythm is already off due to the deterioration of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and it is very difficult when it is just gloomy, cloudy and raining all day to have any environmental supports for that."