“Are you a stupid person?”, “quiet, piggy,” and “terrible reporter” are just some of the phrases President Donald Trump has used toward female journalists in recent weeks, prompting renewed concern over how women in the profession are treated.
Dr. Amy Tatum, a lecturer in communication and media at The Bournemouth Media School in England, told Newsweek that Trump may feel unconstrained in his language. “President Trump may feel emboldened to speak this way about women as there has been little outcry or backlash to such comments he has made, or those made by other politicians or people in power,” she said.
In response to a request for comment, White House spokesperson Taylor Rodgers told Newsweek via email that “President Trump answers unrestricted questions nearly every single day from the failing legacy media, whose trust from the American people recently fell to an all-time low. President Trump provides candid answers for the American people while also holding the press accountable, just as he promised, whenever they shamelessly peddle fake news.”
Why It Matters
Trump’s recent exchanges have again highlighted his contentious relationship with the press, especially female journalists, at a time when global organizations warn of growing hostility toward women in media.
UNESCO has documented that women journalists worldwide face increasing harassment and targeted abuse, both online and offline. A 2021 report by the organization found that nearly three-quarters of female journalists surveyed had experienced online violence, and one-fifth reported being attacked or abused offline in connection with online harassment.
What Has Happened
The recent incidents involving Trump and female reporters differ in context but share a similar, disparaging tone.
On November 14, while traveling on Air Force One, Trump told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to be “Quiet, piggy” after she asked him about Jeffrey Epstein. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later defended his remarks and praised the president’s “frankness.”
Days later in the Oval Office, Trump labeled ABC News’ Mary Bruce a “terrible reporter” after she asked three pointed questions to him and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Her questions referenced the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and whether it was appropriate for the Trump family to conduct business in Saudi Arabia.
On November 26, Trump targeted New York Times journalist Katie Rodgers in a Truth Social post, calling her “a third rate reporter,” and saying she is “ugly, both inside and out.” The comments followed a Times article describing signs of fatigue in the president.
The next day at Mar-a-Lago, CBS News White House correspondent Nancy Cordes asked Trump: “Your DOJ IG [Department of Justice Inspector General] just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S. So why do you blame the Biden administration?”
Trump responded: “Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?”
Dr. Tatum said these moments reveal a pattern. “The idea that if a question is not liked by the president, the first line of attack is to criticise the appearance of the women asking them. This speaks to the gender stereotype of women being expected to be physically appealing and conventionally attractive to men. By using appearance, Trump is diminishing these women’s expertise and roles, and instead he is implying they do not make the grade in terms of their role as a woman.”
She also stressed the public nature of these attacks: “The women in question are being insulted in front of global audiences. This potential public humiliation speaks to the open way in which men are permitted to criticise and attack women with little, if any, penalty for doing so.”
Wider Gender and Political Context
Dr. Emily Harmer, a senior lecturer in media at the University of Liverpool, told Newsweek that “the gender politics is quite complex because sometimes misogyny is just a convenient way of attacking and discrediting a perceived opponent because sexism is so entrenched in public life.”
“But many of Trump’s previous actions clearly demonstrate that he has a particular problem with seeing women as equals,” she added, pointing to Trump’s past behavior, including the notorious Access Hollywood tape.
Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, a 2005 recording surfaced of Trump and Billy Bush, then host of Access Hollywood, having an explicit conversation about women. In the audio, Trump boasted that, as a celebrity, he could “grab” women by their genitalia. The remarks drew widespread condemnation. Trump later said it was “locker room talk” and did not reflect how he treats women.
Harmer argued that attacking female journalists serves a political function. “Attacking female journalists in particular also has a political upside of reinforcing conservative ideas about gender,” she said, describing such rhetoric as “red meat” for the MAGA base.
How the White House and Experts Are Responding
White House spokesperson Taylor Rodgers defended the administration in another statement to Newsweek: “This is the most accessible and transparent administration in history – full stop. The Biden administration hid the President of the United States from the press, covered up his mental decline, and lied to the media faces about it for years.”
Harmer, however, sees these verbal attacks as part of a broader pattern. “I think these attacks are a symptom of the administration’s escalating authoritarianism. We’ve seen similar attacks against women journalists elsewhere in the world (India, Philippines, Argentina, to name a few) with the presumed aim of undermining their credibility and to deter scrutiny of the administration’s actions, as well as a convenient way of putting women in their place for the gratification of his conservative base.”
Tatum echoed concerns about the broader impact: “Women’s voices in the public sphere remain outnumbered, underrepresented and under-respected. By the president repeatedly displaying a dismissive and aggressive attitude toward women in public, he is demonstrating a tone that has the potential to encourage similar displays by other men in power, but also in everyday conversations. Research has shown that online spaces are full of misogynistic rhetoric and hate speech towards women, and to see the president engage in this so publicly has the very real potential to encourage and embolden such speech in both public and private spheres.”
What Could Come Next
“The impact of his recent behaviour remains to be seen,” Tatum told Newsweek.
But she warned about the precedent such conduct might set: “The potential of it to encourage misogynistic comments and aggression towards women in every day life is something that should be highlighted, seeing someone in such a powerful position speak this way without recourse has the potential to encourage and permit others to follow suit, and it is women who will pay the price for this in their every day environments.”
