When the president of america pointed angrily at a reporter and referred to as her “piggy” final week, I want she had gone full Muppet: “Who? Moi?”
In fact, Bloomberg White Home reporter Catherine Lucey did nothing of the kind. She was a consummate skilled and didn’t reply to President Trump’s gratuitous insult after she requested why he had not already launched the Epstein recordsdata if he has nothing to cover. However Trump’s remark to her aboard Air Pressure One was so juvenile, so absurd and so beneath the dignity of his workplace that it appeared like he was parodying himself.
Besides he wasn’t. That is precisely who he’s.
Trump’s been publicly denigrating women for years. Particularly journalists.
In 2011, he despatched New York Occasions columnist Gail Collins a duplicate of her personal column, wherein she described him as a “financially embattled thousandaire.” He’d circled her image and scrawled “The Face of a Dog!” throughout it.
In 2015, throughout his first debate with Republican presidential hopefuls, moderator Megyn Kelly, then of Fox Information, opened by quoting a number of the misogynistic insults he’d lobbed at girls through the years, together with “fats pigs,” “canines,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals.”
“You as soon as informed a contestant on the ‘The Superstar Apprentice’ it could be a reasonably image to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you just like the temperament of a person we must always elect as president?” Kelly requested. Trump sputtered, then issued a veiled menace: “I’ve been very good to you, though I might most likely possibly not be, primarily based on the way in which you may have handled me.”
The subsequent day, as you could recall, Trump insinuated that Kelly had been on her interval, with “blood popping out of her eyes, blood popping out of her wherever.”
In 2016, Trump memorably referred to as his Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, “such a nasty girl,” which turned an on the spot badge of honor for progressive American girls.
A number of days after Piggygate, Trump welcomed Saudi Arabian dictator Mohammed bin Salman to the Oval Workplace and placed on one other sexist show as he lauded the crown prince’s human rights document and touted the administration’s deal selling the Saudis our most refined fighter jets, and the Saudi’s vow to take a position a trillion {dollars} within the U.S.
Did Trump actually suppose the press corps can be so besotted by his dealmaking that they might fail to ask the prince concerning the grotesque 2018 homicide of Washington Publish columnist Jamal Khashoggi, prime of thoughts for any American journalist overlaying the go to?
Kudos to Mary Bruce, ABC Information chief White Home correspondent, for raising it, and for alluding to Saudi involvement within the assault that inflicted our nation’s worst-ever incident of mass homicide. (In August, a federal judge cleared the way in which for a lawsuit filed by 9/11 households towards Saudi Arabia to proceed to trial.)
“Your royal highness,” mentioned Bruce, “the U.S. intelligence concluded that you just orchestrated the brutal homicide of a journalist; 9/11 households are livid that you’re right here within the Oval Workplace. Why ought to People belief you?”
“You’re mentioning anyone that was extraordinarily controversial,” Trump said of Khashoggi. “Lots of people didn’t just like the gentleman you’re speaking about. Whether or not you want him, or didn’t like him, issues occur.” (Think about if a Democratic elected official had been similarly dismissive concerning the homicide of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk.)
However after all, Trump wasn’t completed. He additionally attacked Bruce personally, saying she’d requested a “horrible, insubordinate and only a horrible query.” Solely a person who surrounds himself with boot-licking sycophants and sucks as much as royalty would contemplate a journalist’s pointed query an insult. How dare a peon tackle a prince?
“You don’t must embarrass our visitor by asking a query like that,” Trump mentioned. The prince, nonetheless, didn’t look like in the least embarrassed. He denied duty for Khashoggi’s homicide and dismemberment, and referred to as it “an enormous mistake.”
It’s pathetic, and revealing, how Trump loses it when girls problem him.
He dismissed the author E. Jean Carroll, who has prevailed in sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits towards him, as a “nut job,” a “whack job,” a “liar,” a “fraud” and — as if that is the last word insult — “not my type.”
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, till lately one of many president’s most fervent supporters, has been outspoken about Republican duty for skyrocketing Obamacare premiums, and was considered one of three Republican congresswomen to help releasing the Epstein recordsdata earlier than the remainder of the Home, then the Senate came around last week.She is now a “traitor” in Trump’s view, an insult he tosses round with little regard for the death threats it inspires.
He did it once more on Thursday, after six Democratic members of Congress, all of whom are both former navy or intelligence officers, launched a video reminding American soldiers that they’re obligation sure to not comply with unlawful orders.
Trump mentioned the Congress members had been responsible of “seditious behavior at the highest level” “punishable by death,” and reposted a Truth Social comment calling for them to be hanged.
I can perceive Trump’s growing matches of pique. He’s had a horrible few weeks: His party was trounced within the off-year elections, the Senate refused his demand to finish the filibuster to carry a fast finish to the federal government shutdown. After calling the demand for the Epstein recordsdata a Democratic “hoax,” he caved and signed the invoice ordering the Justice Division to launch them. The economic system continues to falter, regardless of his lies on the contrary.
Anticipating a thin-skinned man like Trump to be respectful to those that ply him with questions on his failures — particularly when they’re girls — is a recipe for disappointment.
I didn’t suppose it was doable, however this time, Trump has hit a brand new low.
Bluesky: @rabcarian
Threads: @rabcarian
