Clarissa Ward clapped back at the White House early Wednesday morning after she was called a “complete freak” and “hot mess” on social media.
On Tuesday, the CNN reporter posted a video of herself dancing in the airport while on assignment. President Donald Trump’s White House then took enough offense to the lighthearted display to call her out on their own social media accounts.
“Imagine being a self-described ‘serious’ journalist at CNN and acting like a complete freak in public, embarrassing yourself all for some social media clicks,” the Rapid Response 47 account posted on X. “Honey, nobody wants to watch that hot mess.”
Hours later, Ward offered a message of her own: “Dancing is good for the soul.”
The White House attack came on a post where Ward was encouraging her followers to be weird and goofy and to not care who’s watching. Other users later pointed out that Trump’s administration was attacking the CNN reporter when the president himself can constantly be seen dancing to “Y.M.C.A.” at events.
“When you get an assignment that is just good fun… Feeling PUMPED! Can you tell?” Ward wrote in her initial caption. “Drinks on me for anyone who can guess what I’m going to cover. Actually, there are some pretty blatant clues in there so you might have to settle for a like. Remember, if you’re not laughing your ass off and making a tit out of yourself, you’re doing this wrong!!”
Trump and his administration have made a habit out of attacking female journalists since he started his second term. Most recently, the president turned his sights on Kaitlan Collins – one of his favorite targets for insults – during his White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, in which he compared her to trans actress and influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“You know, I’ve covered Trump for 10 years. And so I’ve listened to pretty much all of his speeches for 10 years, with very little exception,” Collins told “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart afterwards. “I actually think it’s helpful for other people to be able to listen to them in their entirety, which people really don’t that much these days.”
“I was not surprised when he insulted me, that happens pretty regularly inside the Oval Office,” she continued. “This is just a bigger venue where it was happening.”
