A giddy Donald Trump expressed excitement Thursday night at the fact that reporters traveling with him were running late to his New Hampshire rally.

"I have really good news for you," Trump enthusiastically told the crowd. "I just heard that the press is stuck on their airplane, they can’t get here. I love it."

He went on to tell his Granite State supporters that the traveling press gaggle was working on getting to the event as soon as possible, but said they would be roughly a half hour late. Trump said the reporters asked if he could hold off starting the rally, but he said, "Absolutely not, let's get going."

While the Republican presidential nominee found the development humorous, reporters stuck on a bus complained about the Trump campaign mishandling their travel arrangements. In the end, reporters arrived at the rally with only minutes to spare — literally.

The traveling Trump press saw 3 minutes and 28 seconds of his rally in Laconia.

— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) September 16, 2016

Several journalists critiqued the GOP candidate — and hit him for not traveling with a protective press pool — on Twitter.

Traveling press corps just landed in New Hampshire for Trump's event because we left from a different airport. /1

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) September 16, 2016

And now apparently he's on stage mocking the fact that he started without the press arriving. 2/2 https://t.co/kABvyvUack

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) September 16, 2016

Ironically, access to Trump post-blacklist is at times worse than it was on the blacklist.

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) September 16, 2016

This week, Conway said Clinton treats the press like second class citizens. Please note that Trump is speaking right now and we are on a bus

— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 16, 2016

Trump doing this rally without his traveling press corps even here is an absurd joke.

— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) September 16, 2016

Here's another view of Trump's traveling press corps as Trump is on stage in NH pic.twitter.com/xdIqIFrl8m

— Noah Gray CNN (@NoahGrayCNN) September 16, 2016

—

Follow the author of this story on Twitter:

Follow @tregp