Trump met with some reporter’s children dressed for Halloween today in the Oval Office. “I cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children,” Trump said as the kids gathered around his desk and their parents snapped photos.

“You going to grow up to be like your parents?” Trump asked one little girl. “Don’t answer,” he said with a smile, adding, “That can only get me in trouble, that question.” “You have wonderful parents, right,” Trump said. Several of the kids nodded.

After handing out some Hershey’s Kisses, Trump turned to one little girl and asked, “So how does the press treat you?” This brought a laugh from the room. “I bet you get treated by the press better than anybody in the world, right?”

“Well congratulations, folks,” Trump said to the adult reporters in the room. “You did a good job, you did a good job. Here you did a good job,” Trump said indicating the children. Pointing to himself he added, “I wouldn’t say you did very well here.”

So, basically, this is Trump poking fun at the media even while complimenting their children and calling them beautiful. As any parent can tell you, if someone is telling you your children are beautiful, you really don’t care what else they’re saying. And all of it seems to have been said with a smile anyway. But the fact that Trump said anything, even jokingly, about the media is leading to some outrage on social media. I’m not going to post any of those critical comments because 1) they mostly come from people with 12 followers and 2) I suspect the people making the comments would never say anything different no matter what Trump did. But take my word for it, many see this as another cause for outrageous outrage!

My take is that Trump was trying to be funny and at least one of his lines (‘How does the press treat you?’) really was clever. It mostly seemed like a nice moment though I think some of the younger kids, understandably, don’t quite get what’s going on. That’s okay. In a few years, they’ll appreciate the significance of having met the President of the United States even if he’s not their parents’ favorite person.

So is this a trick or a treat? Here’s the clip. You decide: