Trump jokes he’d like to put reporters in SpaceX rocket ‘to get rid of you for awhile’

President Trump joked to reporters that he’d like to launch reporters into space “to get rid of you for awhile” during a press gaggle outside the White House on Thursday.

The president was discussing an upcoming NASA and SpaceX rocket launch on Wednesday, which will mark NASA’s first manned mission since 2011.

The launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida is also the first manned launch using a privately built rocket.

“I’m thinking about going, that’ll be next week, to the rocket launch,” Trump said when asked about the launch. “I hope you’re all going to join me. I’d like to put you in the rocket and get rid of you for a while.”

Trump has often sparred with the press since taking office while also offering the occasional joke around getting rid of them.

During a coronavirus task force briefing in March, the president quipped that the press has been “much nicer” to him since fewer reporters are attending the daily briefings due to social distancing, while adding that he thought some were still “sitting too close.”

“You’re actually sitting too close,” Trump said at one point on March 19. “Really, we should probably get rid of about 75, 80 percent of you. I’ll have just two or three of you that I like in this room. I think that’s a great way of doing it.”