US President Donald Trump was caught on camera raising his middle finger toward a worker who appeared to be heckling him during a visit to a factory, a gesture the White House later described as “entirely appropriate”.
In a written statement distributed to media outlets, including Agence France-Presse, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said that “some lunatic was screaming vulgar insults in a fit of rage, and the President responded in a completely appropriate and unambiguous manner”.
#EXCLUSIVE 😳 President Trump was filmed flipping off a Ford worker who yelled "pedophile protector" at him. https://t.co/m5nLYtWxxT pic.twitter.com/512zEYV6WC
— TMZ (@TMZ) January 13, 2026
The incident was captured in video footage circulated on TikTok and X and posted prominently on the website TMZ, which specialises in celebrity coverage. The footage shows the US President briefly stopping on an elevated walkway while visiting a Ford factory in Detroit, where he was promoting what he described as the successes of his economic policies.
In the video, an individual can be heard shouting, though the words are not clearly audible. As Trump walks away, he makes the obscene gesture in the direction of the person addressing him.
According to TMZ, the individual who was shouting at the Republican billionaire allegedly accused Trump, among other things, of being a “paedophile protector”.
The remark appears to reference the case of Jeffrey Epstein, which has placed Trump in an uncomfortable position and has caused divisions within his political base, the so-called MAGA movement.
Trump had previously maintained a friendly relationship with the New York financier, who died in prison in 2019 before standing trial over a sex trafficking network involving underage girls and young women.
The United States Congress voted to compel the Trump administration to release the full file compiled by federal authorities on the Epstein case. However, many of the documents made public were heavily redacted.