Trumps questions how media could produce ‘such beautiful children’ at trick-or-treat event Trump later asked one child, 'So how does the press treat you?'

President Donald Trump cracked that he could not believe members of the media could produce “such beautiful children” while greeting trick-or-treaters and their journalist parents during a Halloween event at the White House on Friday.

"I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children," the president said as costumed children filtered into the Oval Office. "How the media did this, I don't know."


The president, speaking to children gathered around the Resolute Desk, then pointed to the reporters and photographers encircling the office and remarked, "Do you know who they are? They are the friendly media."

Trump later asked one child, “So how does the press treat you?”

In another eyebrow-raising exchange, Trump turned to a small girl dressed as Rey, the female protagonist from 2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and remarked, “You have no weight problems, that's the good news,” before proceeding to give her a treat.

The White House on Friday hosted children of the press corps for trick-or-treating at the Executive Office Building, and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at the briefing that Trump would like the kids to visit him in the Oval Office.

She lightheartedly added that the White House officials would "then give them back to you so that you can sugar them up and take them home to your house to run wild."

Trump, however, used the opportunity to jab at the journalist parents, with a joking tone.

Trump has made his rhetorical war on the media a defining feature of his first nine months in office. During a Wednesday interview on Fox Business, Trump boasted that he “really started this whole fake news thing,” referencing the slogan he recited frequently on the campaign trail and has carried into the West Wing to rebuff what he perceives as negative press.

The exchange between the president and the trick-or-treaters did also feature several playful moments, with the president mixing compliments in with the media knocks.

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“These are beautiful, wonderful children,” Trump said, turning to the kids. “Are you going to grow up and be like your parents? Mmm, don't answer that. It can only get me in trouble. You have wonderful parents, right?”

The White House will continue the Halloween festivities on Monday, when first lady Melania Trump and the president will host schoolchildren and their parents from the area, as well as military families and community organizations, at an event featuring trick-or-treaters and a South Portico decorated with spiders, bats and orange pumpkins carved in the image of past presidents.

Melania Trump, the statement said, would be handing out candies made in the White House pastry kitchen.

