The White House is not retreating from the intense backlash to President Donald Trump’s disparaging insult of a female reporter.
Trump, 79, drew outrage when he snapped at Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey for asking him a question about the notorious Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday.
“If there’s nothing incriminating in the files, sir, why not—” Lucey began to say as the president took questions aboard Air Force One.
Before she could finish, however, Trump pointed his finger at her and barked, “Quiet! Quiet, piggy.”
The remark was roundly blasted as “disgusting” in a torrent of criticism, including from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, but the White House seems unfazed.
“This reporter behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way toward her colleagues on the plane. If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take,” a White House official told the Daily Beast.
Lucey joined Bloomberg News as a White House correspondent in March. She previously covered the White House for The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press.
“Our White House journalists perform a vital public service, asking questions without fear or favor,” a Bloomberg News spokesperson told The Guardian. “We remain focused on reporting issues of public interest fairly and accurately.”
On Tuesday, a visibly irate Trump attacked yet another female reporter who pressed him on the release of the Epstein files.
“I think the way you ask the question, with the anger and the meanness, is terrible,” he told ABC News’ Mary Bruce. “You go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association did not immediately return a request for comment, though several members expressed support for their colleagues in posts on X.
“My colleagues in the White House press corps, @marykbruce and @catherine_lucey, both do a great job,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins wrote.
The testy exchanges are par for the course for Trump, who has a long history of hurling demeaning insults at women.
In 2017, The New York Times columnist Gail Collins recalled that Trump had sent her copies of her columns that he disliked, calling her a “dog and a liar” with “the face of a pig.”
In 2016, Latina beauty queen Alicia Machado, who won the Miss Universe title at age 19 when Trump co-owned the organization, recounted how he would call her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.”
Trump has also repeatedly branded comedian and former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig,” “slob” and an “animal.”
The president has also referred to several women, including his former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman and HuffPost’s Arianna Huffington, as “dogs.”
“Here’s the problem with political correctness,” Trump told CBS’ Face the Nation in 2016. “It takes too long. We don’t have time.”
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