Terry Moran, who once served as ABC News’s chief White House correspondent, has advice for his colleagues covering President Donald Trump day in, day out as his attacks on reporters continue: “Stay human.”
“If someone tore into a cashier at the checkout counter in a grocery store like that, most people would stand up for the person,” Moran told TheWrap. “It’s the decent thing to do.”
Moran’s analogy of what might play out at Whole Foods hasn’t occurred lately at the White House, even as Trump has insulted 10 female reporters this past month. He’s responded to legitimate questions in-person with jabs like “piggy,” “stupid” and “terrible,” and on Truth Social, he’s trashed female reporters as “stupid and nasty” and “ugly, both inside and out.”
Even after more than a decade of Trump’s tirades, many of which have been directed at the media, the steady string of personal attacks on women doing their jobs has been particularly gratuitous, and this critical mass of mockery is prompting calls on air and on social media for fellow journalists to push back. Clips shared across X and Bluesky of Trump haranguing yet another female reporter, all as colleagues stand by, has fed perceptions that the press isn’t showing enough spine in the moment and effectively normalizing their own mistreatment.
MS Now’s Nicolle Wallace urged “solidarity” within the press corps in the response to “verbal violence” against female journalists. “We’re either going to normalize this, and usher in an era of unprecedented misogyny,” she said, “or that press corps is going to act as one and say, ‘No more.’”
This week on X, Joe Walsh, a former Republican Congressman turned Trump critic, offered a paid vacation for telling “Trump a variation of ‘f–k you sir, shame on you, she asked a legit question, you’re out of line, apologize to her.”
While outside pressure mounts to take action, there’s reluctance inside the White House press corps to counter Trump’s insults, according to reporters who spoke with TheWrap. Primarily, they say, reporters don’t want to become the story, and escalating the situation on-camera further allows Trump to use the media as a foil.
Sure, there have been grandstanding correspondents over the years who seem to relish sparring on-camera with the commander-in-chief. But in recent cases, reporters say, it’s simply journalists, often in a small pool aboard Air Force One or in the Oval Office, who are trying to get whatever new information they can out of Trump while tuning out the rest.
“It’s part of our training,” one veteran reporter said. “All I’m listening for is an answer. Everything that is not an answer, I dismiss.”
“As gross and offensive as these moments are, they kind of come with the territory,” said a second veteran reporter. “To these reporters’ credit, they know they are going to take abuse. They’re going to do their jobs.”
The second reporter also noted that the composition of the press pool that travels with the president has changed this year. The Trump White House took control of the pool rotation from the White House Correspondents Association, which had traditionally selected the reporters.
While you still have mainstream outlets in the mix, there are also more conservative ones who may be less likely to push back on the president, the reporter suggested. Not to mention, the examples this past month have generally been smaller settings, with limited press, rather than a briefing room packed with members of the media.
The White House Correspondents Association, which tends to respond more forcefully in response to restrictions on access, has largely stayed quiet when it comes to Trump’s behavior. But in a statement to TheWrap, WHCA President Weijia Jiang broadly addressed the matter.
“Personal attacks on White House correspondents have not and will not deter them from informing the public and holding those in power accountable,” Jiang said. “The WHCA is proud of our members’ professionalism, unwavering commitment, and their refusal to be distracted from coverage.”
How news outlets respond
Jiang, CBS News’ senior White House correspondent, is among the women who have been on the receiving end of Trump’s recent slights in response to sharp and incisive questions. When Jiang asked Trump about his October MRI, he pivoted to how he “aced” a cognitive test. “I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing,” he said, gesturing toward Jiang.
On another occasion, Trump asked her CBS colleague, Nancy Cordes, if she was “stupid” after she posed a question regarding the shooting of two member of the National Guard.
“You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter,” Trump told ABC’s Mary Bruce after she asked him about the U.S. intelligence community concluding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi while the pair were seated in the White House, as well as a second question about the release of the Epstein files.
And on Monday, Trump called ABC’s Rachel Scott “terrible” and “obnoxious” after she pointed out that he said he had “no problem” releasing video from a strike that killed two survivors of a U.S. attack on an alleged drug boat.
The reactions from news organizations have differed greatly, ranging from silence to a full-throated defense of their journalists. In the aforementioned four cases, CBS News and ABC News declined to comment. (Both networks’ parent companies, Paramount and Disney, respectively also settled lawsuits with Trump this past year.) Meanwhile, the New York Times, which has fought a Trump lawsuit in court (and filed its own last week against the Pentagon over press restrictions), has been vocal.
“The Times’ reporting is accurate and built on first-hand reporting of the facts,” the paper said after Trump called reporter Katie Rogers “ugly” in response to a piece on the president’s aging prompted a rebuke from the paper. (He didn’t similarly target her male co-writer.) “Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this,” the Times continued.
After Trump referred to Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey as “piggy,” the company noted that “our White House journalists perform a vital public service, asking questions without fear or favor,” a spokesperson said. “We remain focused on reporting issues of public interest fairly and accurately.”
A CNN spokesperson on Tuesday described Kaitlan Collins, who the president called “stupid and nasty,” as “an exceptional journalist, reporting every day from the White House and the field with real depth and tenacity.” Collins shared Trump’s rant in an Instagram story along with the words, “Technically my question was about Venezuela.”
Whether issuing statements, or not, what hasn’t occurred is any concerted pushback from newsrooms, as was the case in October when dozens of outlets rejected new press restrictions.
‘He’s not a king. He doesn’t get a pass’
There’s no sign that the 79-year-old Trump is going to simply change his behavior.
When asked Tuesday about several recent insults aimed at female reporters, a White House spokesperson told TheWrap: “President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency. This has nothing to do with gender – it has everything to do with the fact that the President’s and the public’s trust in the media is at all-time lows.”
Moran, who lost his job at ABC News in June after calling top Trump aide Stephen Miller a “world-class hater,” and has since set up shop on Substack, said that network bureau chiefs and the WHCA “should take a public stand, for goodness’ sake,” but he also urged reporters to do so in real-time.
Moran suggested that reporters have stood up for colleagues in the past. When the George W. Bush White House “tried to shadow-ban” late UPI reporter Helen Thomas by “berating her, refusing to answer, or even take, her questions,” he wrote on X, “a number of us would simply repeat them.”
“He’s just a guy. He’s not a king. He doesn’t get a pass for being that way,” Moran said. “A simple, clear, respectful, ‘Sir, that’s not fair,’ or ‘That’s wrong,’ would not change Donald Trump. And he’d get all mad at you (like he did at me when I interviewed him—so what?)”
“When he attacks a colleague in such a vicious and personal way,” Moran added, “it seems to me to require solidarity and pushback. Respectfully.”
