Short-fused Trump puts 10-year-old on the spot as he berates ‘very disrespectful’ female CNN reporter

President Donald Trump berated a female CNN reporter in the Oval Office on Monday, awkwardly trying to rope in a 10-year-old boy seated in front of him to make his case for cutting her off, then turning to the teenage lifeguard who rescued that child to support him in his media bashing.

Trump was hosting Ryder Williams, the 16-year-old lifeguard from Santa Cruz, California, who was filmed last month pulling Nathaniel Rai, 10, from heavy surf at Seabright State Beach. Sitting with them in the Oval Office was Nathaniel himself. The rescue went viral and prompted the president to invite Williams to the White House for what he called "a High Civilian Honor."

As the reporter, veteran CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes, tried to ask the president whether there are sufficient supplies and food aboard U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, he angrily cut her off and cited Rai’s presence as a reason to do so.

"Quiet! You're very disrespectful in front of this young man," Trump said.

The president then turned to Williams, seated beside him, and asked: "Don't you find her disrespectful?"

When the reporter identified the outlet she works for, the president told her: "You're fake news. Be quiet! You're a fake reporter."

He then complained about the network’s reporting on conditions aboard the Lincoln, which will soon be relieved after nearly a year at sea — a deployment repeatedly extended due to the war Trump started with Iran in February.

"That was a fake CNN report. Over the years, we had them out there much longer. An admiral told me, 'I have been on ships much longer than that, sir.' And people on the Lincoln say it's beautifully taken care of," he said.

The carrier has been at sea in the Middle East for more than 265 days, and relatives of sailors aboard have publicly raised concerns about food and hygiene. Trump rejected those concerns last week as well, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews that the families were not worried, and noting the ship would be replaced by the USS George Washington.

Monday's confrontation follows a documented pattern of the president singling out women who question him — though enlisting children he is honoring as witnesses to their supposed rudeness is new.

In November, Trump attacked New York Times White House reporter Katie Rogers, who has covered the beat since 2014, after the paper published an analysis finding his official engagements had fallen 39 percent compared with the same stretch of his first term.