In one more reminder of his deeply ingrained hostility towards ladies within the press, Donald Trump has launched contemporary assault towards a feminine journalist after turning into incensed over an in depth report inspecting his seen indicators of growing older.
The New York Instances piece, “Shorter Days, Indicators of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Getting old in Workplace,” co-authored by New York Instances White Home correspondent Katie Rogers, painted a sober and punctiliously sourced portrait of a president adapting his schedule to accommodate waning vitality, drifting throughout briefings, and scuffling with lengthy days. However quite than merely denying the report with opposite proof and coverage, Trump took to Reality Social with a well-known, gendered fury—calling Rogers a “third-rate reporter” and “ugly in and out.”
The irony was not misplaced on critics who’ve lengthy famous the disconnect between Trump’s relentless fixation on ladies’s look and his personal aesthetic disadvantages. However past the mockery lies a severe, troubling sample.
Trump’s assaults on Rogers are a part of a long-documented historical past of misogynistic outbursts towards ladies in media. In 2018, The New York Instances printed the evaluate, “‘Horseface,’ ‘Lowlife,’ ‘Fats, Ugly’: How the President Demeans Girls,” cataloging years of insults through which Trump mocked ladies evaluating them to animals, or decreasing their skilled contributions to their look. Seven years later, the conduct has not solely continued—it has escalated.
Final week, after going through questioning from ABC Information White Home correspondent Mary Bruce concerning the homicide of Jamal Khashoggi and the Epstein scandal, Trump replied: “It’s not the query that I thoughts. It’s your angle. I feel you’re a horrible reporter – it’s the best way you ask these questions,” including “You’re a horrible individual and a horrible reporter.”
Simply days earlier than his assault on Rogers, Trump referred to a Bloomberg reporter as “piggy” aboard Air Pressure One, a snipe the White Home later claimed was merely Trump “calling out faux information.” The administration’s continued protection underscores how normalized this language has develop into inside Trump’s inside circle.
Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the paper, defended its journalists.
“The Instances’s reporting is correct and constructed on first hand reporting of the info. Title-calling and private insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cowl this administration within the face of intimidation techniques like this,” he stated in a press release. “Knowledgeable and thorough reporters like Katie Rogers exemplify how an impartial and free press helps the American folks higher perceive their authorities and its leaders.”
The President’s misogyny can also be sharply contrasted by his conduct towards highly effective male leaders. As he insults feminine journalists with cartoonish venom, he concurrently tiptoes across the calls for of authoritarian males overseas. His interactions with overseas adversaries together with Vladimir Putin and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia have equally been marked not by confrontation however by lodging, with Trump pushing peace plans that lean closely towards their pursuits over People.
Trump’s fixation on bodily power and masculine bravado is nothing new. In a resurfaced interview, Trump defined why he disliked taking part in soccer contributing that being tackled too onerous was the rationale for he dislike for taking part in the sport:
“I didn’t prefer it. I performed tight… tight finish. I might catch the ball good, however I didn’t notably like having some man who was lifting weights all day lengthy and got here from a foul neighborhood and he sees me… they have been tackling onerous.”
The remark, riddled with racist undertones, reinforces what many have identified, Trump’s bravado collapses when confronted with males he can’t bully.
As Trump’s growing older turns into more and more troublesome to hide, the assaults on ladies look like serving as a determined distraction and a political reflex rooted in insecurity; however the technique is carrying skinny. Trump’s insults towards Rogers, like so many earlier than her, reveal way more about his overwhelming shortcomings than they do concerning the ladies he targets.
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