President Donald Trump sharply rebuked an ABC News reporter Thursday for asking a question about his recent remarks regarding his falling out with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — branding the network “fake news” and “one of the worst.”

During a press conference at the White House, when an ABC News reporter referenced Trump’s earlier remark this week that Epstein “stole” people from Mar‑a‑Lago and asked if he knew why Epstein was doing that, Trump said: “I would figure that was ABC, fake news, that would ask that question. But no, I don’t know really why. But I said if he’s taken anybody from Mar-a-Lago, he’s hiring or whatever he is doing. I didn’t like it, and we threw him out.”

It is unclear which part of the reporter’s question the president was calling “fake.”

READ MORE: ‘Buyouts’: Trump’s mass layoffs are costing taxpayers a fortune – here’s why

On Tuesday, Trump claimed Epstein had “stolen” staff from him, including Virginia Giuffre — one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers. During his conversation with journalists aboard Air Force One, a reporter pressed Trump on Epstein’s history of hiring away employees, including women from his spa.

Trump responded: “People were taken out of the spa, hired by Epstein … I told him we don’t want you taking our people, whether it’s spa or not spa. He did it again, I said out of here.”

When asked whether one of those people was Giuffre, an Epstein victim, Trump said: “I think so. He stole her.”

Earlier this week, Trump made similar remarks, telling reporters in Scotland that he expelled Epstein from his Mar‑a‑Lago club years ago and ended their relationship because “he stole people who worked for me.”

READ MORE: ‘All the fake gold’: Outrage follows new plan to ‘turn the White House into a Trump resort‘

Watch the video of the exchange below, or by clicking this link.

— (@)