Danielle Kurtzleben NPR reporter who hit Trump with microphone during Maryland press conference goes into hiding as MAGA fans go awol after Laura Loomer identifies her on social media.
Define occupational hazard…? A female reporter for NPR has been forced into hiding after inadvertently hitting President Donald Trump with a microphone during a press conference last week.
Danielle Kurtzleben, a political correspondent for the government-funded outlet, was identified as the journalist who allegedly hit Trump in the face with a boom mic during a press conference last week, according to independent journalist Laura Loomer.
Loomer, a staunch Trump MAGA fan, identified Kurtzleben on Sunday in a post on X, suggesting she may have hit the president on purpose. A claim that sent her fellow MAGA followers in a dizzy tail-spin.
MAGA fans wonder, ‘Did she hit President Trump in the face on purpose?’
‘I have identified the reporter who hit President @realDonaldTrump in the face with a boom mic this week while he was speaking to the press on the tarmac,’ Loomer wrote.
‘Her name is Danielle Kurtzleben @titonka. She is the newly appointed White House reporter for @NPR and a massive Trump hater and LGBTQ advocate who once suggested during the 2024 campaign that Trump only spoke in Howell, Michigan because it has ties to the KKK.
‘Did she hit President Trump in the face on purpose?,’ Loomer speculated.
Wrote Loomer in an update: ‘… she just LOCKED HER X & protected her tweets so you can’t see how radical & anti-Trump she is.’
Kurtzleben has seemingly gone missing, choosing not to mention the incident, with a request for comment from the dailymail leading to an automatic response stating that she was ‘out of the office.’
Loomer’s tweet has been viewed nearly 7 million times – and triggered hundreds of other Trump fans to also speculate about Kurtzleben’s intent.
🚨SCOOP🚨
I have identified the reporter who hit President @realDonaldTrump in the face with a boom mic this week while he was speaking to the press on the tarmac.
Her name is Danielle Kurtzleben @titonka. She is the newly appointed White House reporter for @NPR and a massive… pic.twitter.com/dgViKT8wdA
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) March 16, 2025
Social media responds
Posted one commentator: ‘Of course, she did. You really think an NPR activist disguised as a “reporter” just accidentally smacked Trump in the face with a boom mic? Not a chance. These people hate Trump, and they hate the fact that he’s winning. They’ll do anything, from lawfare to physical assaults, and assassinations to stop him. If this were Biden, the media would be screaming about a ‘MAGA extremist attack.”
Wrote one commentator: ‘Yeah, how’s many presidents have you seen get this done to them? Of course it was on purpose. Hope she gets fired or maybe even arrested.’
Posted another, ‘That is a horrible safety threat. Why does secret service allow this? That person should be arrested and thoroughly investigated.’
But not everyone was on board with the view that the NPR reporter had intentionally hit Trump with the microphone.
Countered one commentator: ‘I’m 100% sure it was an accident regardless of how she feels about Trump. I find it hard to believe that you’re still talking about it.’
Stated another, ‘Obviously this was an accident and I genuinely feel terrible for the person that made that mistake. They must be very embarrassed.’
Trump was addressing the media on the tarmac at a Joint Base Andrews in Maryland when the bizarre mishap took place.
‘She just became a big story tonight,’
On Monday, a hot mic revealed exactly what the reporter said to the commander-and-chief after he was bumped him in the face.
The president closed his eyes and leaned back to avoid further contact as the reporter said: ‘I’m so sorry.’
Another angle of the moment showed a crowd of people gathered for the press conference.
The photo, shared on X, showed three people holding boom microphones – one of which appeared to be Kurtzleban with short hair, headphones over her ears and a tan trench coat on, according to online speculation.
She has not been formally identified as the journalist at fault.
Although he appeared a bit agitated by the incident, Trump was able to see the funny side and cracked a joke about it.
‘She just made television tonight. She just became a big story tonight,’ Trump said of the mic operator.
Who is Danielle Kurtzleben?
Before starting at NPR in 2015, Kurtzleben worked as a correspondent for Vox.com for a year, covering economics and business news, according to her profile.
She covered the 2024 presidential election, ‘with particular focus on economic policy and gender politics.’
Kurtzleben not only writes for the outlet, but also appears on the outlet’s shows, including The NPR Politics Podcast.
