Evidence item

After Kemp described China as one of the most repressive countries for journalists, Trump responded that the United States is repressive also, while saying it does not repress; this directly compares the U.S. treatment of the press with China's. DIRECT_TEXT

Authenticity UNVERIFIED · extraction UNVERIFIED · independence group none (unreviewed) · created seq 8204

Source: Transcript: White House Oval Office Q&A on the press ban, September 18, 2026 (via Newsmax's The Record) · locator {} · excerpt hash sha256:beb9eba4056a5e8e4bad7da48361393c8d3d29cf73c686a02f490a90b698a378

KEMP: President Xi's coming here next week.
TRUMP: A great honor.
KEMP: China is one of the most repressive countries for journalists in the world. What signal is it sending that you're [INAUDIBLE].
TRUMP: Well, I don't know about that. I think — I think we're repressive also. We get fake news. We don't — we don't repress. But they write fake news.