US President Donald Trump hasn’t been holding back recently in his war of words against journalists tasked with asking him difficult questions – with many of his insults levied at female reporters
Donald Trump has never been shy about throwing out insults. Recent weeks have seen the US President go head-to-head with reporters more than a few times, name-calling and losing his temper when asked questions by the press as he goes about his duties. More often than not, these have been directed at female journalists as they try to do their jobs.
Most recently, two female journalists faced the President’s ire after they questioned him on Air Force One about an MRI scan he had – when he claimed he had absolutely no idea which part of his body had been scanned. Trump slammed the two female journalists, his anger erupting quickly as he became defensive about the subject – with questions increasing over recent months about the real state of the 79-year-old President’s health.
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From explosively calling a reporter ‘Piggy’ to dubbing another ‘Ugly’, and slamming media organisations altogether the Mirror rounds up all the latest insults the US President has hurled at the press. All of which comes as the White House launches a new website targeting and criticising the press.
Calling Bloomberg reporter ‘Piggy’
Bloombverg’s White House Correspondent – Catherine Lucey – was taking part in what is dubbed a ‘gaggle’ on Air Force One when Trump brazenly dubbed her ‘Piggy’. A gaggle is essentially a chance for the press to ask the President some questions, and the female reporter had taken her chance to ask Trump about Epstein.
In mid-November, when the incident took place, there were still questions surrounding whether the entirety of the Epstein files would be released, and Lucey asked the President how likely a vote on the matter would be, and grilled him on his own behaviour surrounding the matter, “if there’s nothing incriminating in the files”.
Trump’s rude response proved shocking, as he barked, “Quiet, quiet piggy” at the political correspondent. This insult is one he and his staff are reported to have levied at women more than once, with the President alleged to have called Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado, the same thing, and told her to lose weight – he was the owner of the pageant when this is reported to have taken place.
One of his aides called another seasoned female journalist, April Ryan, piggy, back in 2018. Though the aide did apologise, Trump has also called Ryan a “loser”.
The director of the International Women’s Media Foundation said to the Guardian about the insult lobbed at Lucey, “President Trump’s targeting of women journalists is nothing new. His appearance-based insults are gendered attacks meant to shut women journalists up.”
Attacks on TV Networks
Repeatedly, Trump has launched attacks on TV news networks that he deems to be against him. Most recently, he suggested that ABC News should have its licence removed after questions from one of its journalists about Jeffrey Epstein and the murdered journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, rubbed him the wrong way during a bilateral meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“I think the license should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong,” he said in response to the questions from the network’s White House Correspondent, Mary Bruce, who he also dubbed a “terrible person”. He also said, “Obviously your news is not credible, and you’re not credible as a reporter.”
Per the Guardian, on no less than 28 occasions in the last eight years, Trump has threatened the license of a TV Network, including CNN, NBC, and CBS, as well as ABC.
‘Ugly, inside and out’
Trump lashed out at a female New York Times journalist, Katie Rogers, calling her “ugly, both inside and out” in November. Rogers had been jointly bylined on an article on Trump’s physical health and age for the outlet, and the President accused her of being “assigned to only write bad things” about him, and continued that she is a “a third-rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
The White House has defended comments such as these, with Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near daily basis.”
New White House website targeting media
Under Trump, the White House has intensified attacks on the free press with a new “tracker” website identifying those media organisations that it believes are biased against them. “Misleading. Biased. Exposed,” the heading of the page reads, with a list of “media offenders of the week”.
They have also created an “offender hall of shame” which features critical news articles about the Trump administration that they have dubbed “fake news”, and a “leaderboard” feature, which indicates how critical an organisation has been over time. The Washington Post is currently top of the charts.
There is also a database on the website, categorising articles with labels like “bias” and “left wing lunacy”. This searchable tool also includes the name of the author of the article, and is the latest step in Trump’s war against the US media, which has seen him suspend access to critical journalists and launch legal actions against the press.
