NBC Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander made the mistake of trying to play gotcha with President Trump during a high-stakes Oval Office meeting—and it blew up in his face in spectacular fashion.

Trump was seated beside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa when Alexander tried to push a race-based narrative over Trump’s decision to grant refugee status to 59 white South African Afrikaners. The question, clearly intended to frame Trump as discriminatory, didn’t go over well.

“Can you explain to Americans why it’s appropriate to welcome white Afrikaners here when other refugees like Afghans, Venezuelans, Haitians have all had their protected status revoked?” Alexander asked.

Trump didn’t flinch. He fired back instantly, calling out NBC as “fake news” and Alexander’s question as nothing more than a political statement disguised as journalism.

“This is a group, NBC, that is truly fake news,” Trump said. “They ask a lot of questions that are very pointed in a way—they’re not questions, they’re statements.”

Then came the hammer.

“They say there’s a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that’s what we’re going to be discussing today,” Trump added. “We take from many locations if we feel there’s persecution, or genocide, going on.”

The president’s reference was to the violent attacks against white farmers in South Africa, an issue largely ignored by the mainstream press but taken seriously by Trump’s administration, which granted refugee status to those escaping racially targeted violence.

Instead of cutting his losses, Alexander foolishly came back for more.

Fresh off being corrected in front of an international leader, he pivoted to a question about a Qatari jet—a topic totally irrelevant to the serious human rights discussion Trump had just presented in detail.

Trump immediately shut it down.

“Now, what are you talking about that for?” Trump snapped. “You know, you ought to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatari jet?”

“It’s NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw,” Trump said, visibly irritated. “You are a real—you’re a terrible reporter. Number one, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough. You’re a disgrace.”

With that, the president cut Alexander off for good: “No more questions from you.”

Alexander tried to protest, but Trump wasn’t having it. “Quiet. Quiet. Quiet,” he said firmly, commanding the room.

The rebuke was brutal—and decisive. In one afternoon, Trump managed to highlight the genocide against South Africa’s white farmers, rebuke the American press for ignoring it, and make an example of one of the top White House reporters in the country.

The president’s final jab summed up the entire exchange: “If we had real media in this country, they’d be asking about what you just saw. Instead, we get jerks like this asking about jets.”

Trump also reportedly called Alexander an “idiot” during the exchange, making it clear there would be no olive branch offered for the media’s continued attacks and deflection tactics.

As one observer put it, the whole interaction was like watching a paddle ball game—Trump the paddle, Alexander the ball, and the mainstream narrative bouncing back into reality with every hit.

While the left may screech about decorum, Trump’s supporters saw it for what it was: another example of their president standing up to media spin and keeping the focus on truth—even if he has to bludgeon through reporters to do it.

And for Peter Alexander, it was a hard lesson in knowing when to quit.