A former “Meet the Press” host, Chuck Todd, says that he was a victim of “weird phone calls” and “death threats” every time President Trump attacked the press and that he once found his tires slashed after he was called out directly by the commander-in-chief.

The ex-NBC anchor and political correspondent, who has ventured into podcasting and regular appearances on CNN since leaving the Peacock Network under murky circumstances earlier this year, made the claims during a recent interview with Times Radio, a British outlet, when he was asked by host Maddie Hale about the president recently calling out by name federal judges who reversed his executive orders.

“One-hundred percent. I dealt with it in the first term with him,” Mr. Todd said after being asked if Mr. Trump’s actions were a security risk. “There was direct correlation, right? He’d call your name out, you’d get weird phone calls, you’d get weird death threats. I got my tires slashed in front of my house.”

Mr. Todd did not immediately return requests for comment. Local police officials did not respond to requests for any reports filed regarding the alleged tire-slashing incident. 

Mr. Todd was one of the many liberal journalists at major media organizations to get the attention of Mr. Trump, who is known to watch the news reports of the legacy broadcast networks. During his first term in the White House, Mr. Trump occasionally mentioned Mr. Todd at campaign rallies and on social media, even bestowing one of his infamous nicknames upon the former anchor.

“Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Fake NBC News said it’s time for the Press to stop complaining and to start fighting back,” Mr. Trump posted on X in 2018.

“Actually Chuck, they’ve been doing that from the day I announced for president. They’ve gone all out, and I WON, and now they’re going CRAZY!”

In March of the same year, he called the then-NBC news personality a “sleeping son of a b—-” during a lengthy tirade against the media while at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Todd, who first joined NBC in 2007, served as a White House correspondent before taking over anchor duties for the longtime Sunday news program until September 2023, when he was replaced by Kristin Welker. He left NBC in January of this year.

His departure came 10 months after he went after his NBC News bosses on camera, harshly criticizing management for hiring a GOP operative, Ronna McDaniel, as a commentator. The bosses narrowly survived the controversy. Mr. Todd did not. 

Like other deposed, liberal news stars who had seven-figure jobs at so-called linear news networks — like Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, and Joy Reid — Mr. Todd is now trying to break out on YouTube and in podcasting. 

“There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from ‘pie in the sky’ to ‘near reality,'” Mr. Todd said in a companywide memo announcing his departure.