ABC News suspended star Terry Moran after he launched a late-night social media attack calling President Donald Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller “world-class haters” who feast on hatred as “spiritual nourishment.”
Moran posted his wild tirade on X early Sunday morning as violent anti-ICE riots raged in Los Angeles, targeting Miller as a man “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” before extending his criticism to Trump himself.
“The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism. Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller,” Moran wrote. “It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
Moran then turned his focus to Trump.
“Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”
ABC News announced Moran’s suspension hours later, citing violations of the network’s standards on objectivity and impartiality.
“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” a spokesperson said. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”
Moran deleted his posts, but not before screenshots spread across social media and drew fierce condemnation from Trump administration officials.
Vice President JD Vance called Moran’s comments a “vile smear” that was “dripping with hatred.”
“As it happens, I know Stephen quite well. And he’s motivated by love of country,” Vance wrote. “He’s motivated by a fear that people like Terry Moran make rules that normal Americans have to follow, but well connected people don’t. ABC should apologize to Stephen. What Terry posted is disgraceful.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the comments as “unhinged and unacceptable.”
“Last night, in a since deleted post, so-called ‘journalist’ @TerryMoran went on a rampage against Stephen Miller and called President Trump ‘a world class hater,'” Leavitt wrote. “This is unhinged and unacceptable. We have reached out to @ABC to inquire about how they plan to hold Terry accountable.”
Miller himself responded by attacking the broader mainstream media establishment.
“The most important fact about Terry’s full public meltdown is what it shows about the corporate press in America,” Miller said. “For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist’s pose. Terry pulled off his mask.”
Meanwhile, liberal pundits and anti-Trump figures have rushed to defend Moran and criticized ABC News for the suspension. Tommy Vietor, co-host of “Pod Save America,” wrote, “They can clutch their pearls and act mad but this is spot on from Moran.”
Left-wing writer Wajahat Ali mocked conservatives for their reaction.
“MAGA, I thought you all defended free speech and the First Amendment, right? Why are you so upset about Terry Moran’s comments? Stop being such snowflakes, right? Stop looking for safe spaces. Man up,” Ali posted.
Former GOP congressman Joe Walsh, who joined the Democratic Party this year, called the suspension “utter bulls—-” and said “shame on you, @abcnews.”
“Way to NOT stand up for a free press,” Walsh added. “You’re the free press. You don’t do what the authoritarian in the White House tells you to do. Thank you @TerryMoran for having the courage to speak the truth.”
Former MSNBC host Medhi Hasan, who now runs his own publication Zeteo, called Trump officials “snowflakes” and “pretend free speech warriors” for “getting journalists suspended and calling for their firing.” Hasan also criticized ABC’s decision as ironic, noting that Moran “went out of his way to not embarrass Trump over the president’s delusion about the doctored MS13 photo, repeatedly saying ‘let’s agree to disagree’ and ‘let’s move on’ but they still got him suspended. You can’t appease these people ever.”
Far-left former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann encouraged others to repost Moran’s deleted comments and attacked Disney CEO Bob Iger. “Another coward named @RobertIger responded by letting ABC News suspend Terry indefinitely for telling the truth,” Olbermann wrote. “I have copied Terry’s words here and I encourage everybody, journalists especially, to do the same, or cut and paste what I’ve written, and put it out under your name.”
Moran’s attack on Miller came as the Trump administration deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to quell violent riots in Los Angeles following ICE raids that arrested over 100 illegal immigrants. Miller publicly called the riots an “insurrection” as protesters burned cars, attacked federal officers, and spray-painted “KILL ICE” on government buildings.
Moran has not shied away from political commentary in the past. In November, he explained that he predicted Trump would win in 2016 and 2024, writing, “The way to understand Trump (as I said on ABC Election Night 2016) is to see him not as a Republican or Democrat, not as a conservative or liberal, but as a Nationalist. And, like many nationalist leaders, he is a man with an authoritarian cast of mind and a personality to match.”
The suspension comes as public trust in media continues to decline. A Gallup survey showed a record-low 31 percent of Americans expressed at least a “fair amount” of trust in the media to accurately report the news.
ABC News recently paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against the network over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ use of the word “rape” to describe the civil sexual abuse judgment against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case. Trump has denied wrongdoing in that case.