When the president of the US 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 information if he has nothing to cover. However Trump’s remark to her aboard Air Power 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 ladies for years. Particularly journalists.
In 2011, he despatched New York Occasions columnist Gail Collins a duplicate of her personal column, by which she described him as a “financially embattled thousandaire.” He’d circled her image and scrawled “The Face of a Canine!” throughout it.
In 2015, throughout his first debate with Republican presidential hopefuls, moderator Megyn Kelly, then of Fox Information, opened by quoting among the misogynistic insults he’d lobbed at ladies over time, together with “fats pigs,” “canine,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals.”
“You as soon as advised a contestant on the ‘The Celeb Apprentice’ it could be a fairly 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 risk: “I’ve been very good to you, though I might most likely possibly not be, based mostly on the best way you’ve handled me.”
The subsequent day, as chances are you’ll 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 grew to become an prompt badge of honor for progressive American ladies.
Just a few 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 file and touted the administration’s deal promoting the Saudis our most subtle 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 elevating 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 choose cleared the best way for a lawsuit filed by 9/11 households towards Saudi Arabia to proceed to trial.)
“Your royal highness,” stated Bruce, “the U.S. intelligence concluded that you simply orchestrated the brutal homicide of a journalist; 9/11 households are livid that you’re right here within the Oval Workplace. Why ought to Individuals belief you?”
“You’re mentioning any person that was extraordinarily controversial,” Trump stated 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 equally dismissive concerning the homicide of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk.)
However in fact, 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 should embarrass our visitor by asking a query like that,” Trump stated. The prince, nevertheless, didn’t look like in the slightest degree 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 ladies 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 sort.”
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 certainly one of three Republican congresswomen to help releasing the Epstein information earlier than the remainder of the Home, then the Senate got here round final week.She is now a “traitor” in Trump’s view, an insult he tosses round with little regard for the loss of life threats it conjures up.
He did it once more on Thursday, after six Democratic members of Congress, all of whom are both former army or intelligence officers, launched a video reminding American troopers that they’re obligation sure to not comply with unlawful orders.
Trump stated the Congress members had been responsible of “seditious conduct on the highest degree” “punishable by loss of life,” and reposted a Fact Social remark calling for them to be hanged.
I can perceive Trump’s growing suits of pique. He’s had a horrible few weeks: His social gathering was trounced within the off-year elections, the Senate refused his demand to finish the filibuster to deliver a fast finish to the federal government shutdown. After calling the demand for the Epstein information a Democratic “hoax,” he caved and signed the invoice ordering the Justice Division to launch them. The financial 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 ladies — 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
