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On March 25, 2026, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle called ABC’s Joy Behar an “extremely unlikeable, talentless hack” after she made a joke on The View about President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran had offered the United States a valuable gift. The administration’s statement, given to Entertainment Weekly, came after the broadcast aired. Behar’s joke, the on-air discussion that followed, and the White House response all belong to one news cycle in March 2026.
What Joy Behar said on the March 25 broadcast
The segment began with Trump’s public claim that Iran had given the United States a “very big present” during the conflict. The exchange unfolded in this order, as reported by Entertainment Weekly, TheWrap, Us Weekly and TV Insider:
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- The joke. Behar responded to the supposed gift with a quip. TheWrap quoted her as saying, “And what’s the gift — besides herpes.” The line was a joke about the claim itself. It was not a statement about anyone’s health.
- The question about the operation. Behar asked what the military action had accomplished.
- The pushback. Guest co-host Abby Huntsman defended the military and questioned what information Behar had to support her view.
- The clarification. Behar said she was questioning the administration’s specific action, not the armed forces. Entertainment Weekly quoted her: “Don’t make it sound like I’m against the military. I’m not. All my uncles, my father, they all fought, so don’t make it sound like that.”
- The word “intelligence.” Behar then criticized Trump’s use of the word “intelligence.” Reports summarize this point only briefly, so the exact wording of her objection is not available in the coverage.
The White House statement
Entertainment Weekly published the White House response, which it said was shared exclusively with the outlet. Davis Ingle, identified as a White House spokesperson, wrote:
“An extremely unlikeable, talentless hack with a poorly rated TV show who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
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The statement did three things at once:
- It attacked Behar personally and questioned her ability and her show’s standing.
- It said her criticism reflected “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a partisan label rather than a point about the facts of the operation.
- It defended the military campaign, which the administration calls “Operation Epic Fury,” and praised Trump’s support for the armed forces.
These are the administration’s own characterizations. Behar’s side did not respond to the statement. A representative for Behar did not reply to Entertainment Weekly’s request for comment, and no separate response from Behar or ABC to the White House attack appears in the reporting reviewed for this article.
The ratings claim on each side
The White House described The View as poorly rated. ABC has said otherwise. Us Weekly and Entertainment Weekly reported a March 20, 2026 ABC press release stating that the show ranked “No. 1 in households and total viewers among all daytime network talk shows.” Neither the ratings data nor a third-party audit of it was available to this article, so both sides of the dispute rest on attribution rather than verified numbers.
Rank #2
| Claim | Who made it | Date and basis reported | Status in this article |
|---|---|---|---|
| The show is “poorly rated” | White House spokesperson Davis Ingle | Statement to Entertainment Weekly, March 25, 2026; no figures cited | Administration characterization; no supporting data reported |
| The show ranks “No. 1 in households and total viewers among all daytime network talk shows” | ABC, press release | Dated March 20, 2026; reported by Entertainment Weekly and Us Weekly | Network’s own claim; underlying ratings data not independently checked |
What is and is not established
- Established: The joke, the on-air exchange with Huntsman, Behar’s clarification about the military, and the wording of Ingle’s statement, as reported by multiple outlets on March 25 and March 26, 2026.
- Attributed, not verified: Trump’s claim about an Iranian gift, the administration’s account of the operation, and the ABC ratings ranking.
- Not established in the coverage reviewed: an official White House or ABC transcript of the segment, a direct response from Behar to the insult, and any independent measure of the show’s ratings position.
- Not included here: a separate administration claim about a 90 percent decline in Iranian retaliatory attacks, which appeared in TV Insider’s March 26 follow-up. No independent source for that figure was located, so it is left out rather than repeated as fact.
Readers who want to check the exact words should look for the full segment on ABC’s channels or the show’s official distribution. The embedded video linked from some reports could not be reviewed for this article, so the quotations above come from the reporting, not from direct viewing.
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