Associated Press Retracts Story on Tulsi Gabbard's Alleged Trump-Putin Friendship Comment

The Associated Press made a significant blunder and has now retracted a story it published on Monday, falsely claiming that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were "very good friends." Turns out, Gabbard was actually referring to Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Talk about mixing up your world leaders!

In a statement, the AP clarified, "The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'are very good friends.' Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AP will publish a corrected version of the story."

The original story has been scrubbed from their site, displaying only a "page unavailable" message. Meanwhile, they’ve issued an updated article that now correctly reflects Gabbard’s comments about Modi and Trump, complete with an editor’s note acknowledging the error. Transparency after the fact is great, but maybe a little more fact-checking upfront wouldn't hurt.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the AP admitted, "AP has removed its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘are very good friends’ because it did not meet our standards. We notified customers and published a corrected story with an editor’s note to be transparent about the error."

Alexa Henning, Gabbard's deputy chief of staff, didn’t hold back in her response on X, formerly known as Twitter. She called out the AP, saying, "The @AP is total trash. DNI @TulsiGabbard was referring to PM Modi & President Trump and this is the headline they publish. This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully bias [sic] media. If this isn’t a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is." Yikes—someone brought the heat.

This incident adds to a long history of tensions between the AP and Trump’s White House. The outlet was previously barred from certain White House events for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. (Yes, that happened.)

And the drama doesn't stop there. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also clashed with an AP reporter last week over tariffs during a heated exchange in the briefing room. "I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press," Leavitt said after calling the reporter’s questioning "insulting." Guess it’s safe to say the AP isn’t winning any popularity contests in Washington these days.