Chuck Todd says his tires were slashed after Trump called him out

Veteran broadcaster Chuck Todd, who left NBC News and launched a solo podcast earlier this year, said in an interview this weekend that someone slashed his car’s tires after President Trump criticized him during Trump’s previous White House stint.

“There was direct correlation, right? He’d call your name out, [and] you’d get weird phone calls, you’d get weird death threats,” Todd said in the interview Saturday with Times Radio, a British station owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. “I got my tires slashed in front of my house.”

Todd told Times Radio host Maddie Hale that he addressed the issue of retaliation with the president.

“Honestly, I’ve had conversations with him. I said, ‘You know, when you name-check people who are not in the public square, who do not have the protection you bring a level of —'” the former “Meet the Press” moderator said. “He views it as, ‘Oh, it’s good publicity.'”

But Todd added that he does not believe Trump has malicious intent when he calls people out.

“I don’t think he’s doing it to create a security problem for these people, but what he wants to do is deflect blame,” Todd said. “But the reality is that it creates a security problem.”

Todd, who lives in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C., was speaking in reference to reports that judges, lawmakers and others who have crossed Trump have increasingly faced threats, and many have beefed up security since his first presidency.

“More public officials in Washington have their own security detail now than at any point in the 30 years that I’ve covered Washington, and it’s simply because of the name-checking, the threats that take place now from him,” Todd said.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.