ABC News is cutting ties with the correspondent Terry Moran after he wrote derisive comments on social media that attacked President Trump and Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, referring to both men with the term “world-class hater.”
The network said on Tuesday that it had decided not to renew Mr. Moran’s contract. He had worked at ABC News for 28 years.
“We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran, and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew,” a network spokesman said in a statement. “At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism.”
Mr. Moran’s contract is set to expire on Friday, according to a person with knowledge of his deal who requested anonymity to disclose sensitive details. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Moran, a senior national correspondent, held many roles at ABC News, serving as the network’s chief White House correspondent for several years. He was also a co-anchor of “Nightline” and covered the Supreme Court and foreign conflicts.
Although less prominent in recent years, Mr. Moran, 65, regained some visibility in April when he received praise for his interview of Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. “They’re giving you the big break of a lifetime,” the president told Mr. Moran during their exchange. “I picked you because, frankly, I never heard of you, but that’s OK.” Mr. Moran then led ABC’s coverage of the papal conclave in Rome.
That momentum came to a halt on Sunday morning when the network suspended him hours after he described Mr. Miller, in a late-night post on X, as “a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.” Mr. Moran went on to write, of Mr. Miller, that “his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
He wrote that Mr. Trump “is a world-class hater, but his hatred only a means to an end,” adding that the end is “his own glorification.”
Mr. Miller is a prominent advocate of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, and he has spoken extensively in recent days in support of the federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, referring to protests against them as an “insurrection.”
Mr. Moran’s post was later deleted, but screenshots circulated on social media. Allies of Mr. Trump quickly pounced, with Vice President JD Vance calling the post an “absolutely vile smear.” Both Mr. Vance and Mr. Miller pointed to the post as evidence of what they say is an anti-Trump bias in the mainstream media.
Mr. Moran, who started his television career at Court TV in the 1990s, is well respected within ABC News, and many journalists there were taken aback by the nature of his remarks.