President Donald Trump seems to revel in sparring with the press — and in the past month, nearly all of his targets have been women.
“Nasty,” “piggy,” “terrible,” “ugly” and “incapable” have been among the weapons in his verbal arsenal of disparaging remarks, delivered everywhere from the Oval Office to typo-laden screeds on Truth Social. The president has repeatedly attacked female reporters who’ve pressed him on everything from the government’s files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the U.S. military campaign near Venezuela, the allegedly Saudi-backed killing of a U.S.-based journalist and his age. While he has attacked male and female reporters throughout his time in office, female reporters have faced the brunt of his gripes in the last month.
The reporters hail from ABC News, CNN, CBS News, Bloomberg News and the New York Times, among others, many of which Trump has given interviews to since he returned to office. While many of them have not spoken on the matter, including in new comment requests on Tuesday, some have come out in defense of their reporters.
“President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “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.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Here is a list of all of Trump’s attacks against female reporters in just the last few weeks.
Trump’s Roundtable Upbraidings
In his latest broadside against a reporter, Trump lashed out at ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott on Monday during a roundtable on farm aid after she asked him about the release of a video showing the U.S. military’s strike on Venezuelan men, which some have speculated killed two defenseless people. Trump promised last week that he had “no problem” with releasing the video, which some feared would depict a war crime if the men were indeed defenseless, but he denied saying so on Monday and lashed out at “ABC fake news” for holding him to his word.
“Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious—a terrible, actually a terrible reporter,” he said. “And it’s always the same thing with you. I told you, whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is OK with me.”
He also lashed out at Newsday White House correspondent Laura Figueroa Hernandez, claiming she was “unprepared” when she asked Trump about Republican exits from the House of Representatives.
ABC News declined to comment and Newsday did not respond to immediate requests for comment, but Scott posted the transcript of her back-and-forth with Trump on X.
A “60 Minutes” Score to Settle
Trump didn’t like the fact that “60 Minutes” aired an interview with his latest enemy, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), using a Truth Social post on Monday to slam Paramount for broadcasting the interview in the first place. But he especially didn’t enjoy which correspondent conducted the interview: “60 Minutes” stalwart Lesley Stahl.
“Marjorie is not AMERICA FIRST or MAGA, because nobody could have changed her views so fast, and her new views are those of a very dumb person,” Trump wrote on Monday. “That was proven last night when washed up, Trump hating, 60 Minutes ‘correspondent,’ Lesley Stahl, who still owes me an apology from when she attacked me on the show (with serious conviction!), that Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP FROM HELL was produced by Russia, not Hunter himself (TOTALLY PROVEN WRONG!), interviewed a very poorly prepared Traitor.”
In his Monday screed, Trump also demanded Stahl apologize to him over her line of questioning in a 2020 interview about Hunter Biden’s laptop and suggested “60 Minutes” “has actually gotten WORSE” under Paramount’s new ownership.
CBS News did not respond to an immediate request for comment on Trump’s attacks.
Trump’s Rebuke of “Caitlin Collin’s”
Trump loves to bash CNN, so much so that Paramount CEO David Ellison has reportedly promised to remake the network to Trump’s liking to get federal approval to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery. But Trump saved his specific ire for CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins on Saturday, attacking her for questioning him on the increasingly exorbitant costs for the White House ballroom’s construction.
“Caitlin Collin’s of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago,” he wrote, claiming the cost only rose because of its increasing size and that it was actually under budget. “FAKE NEWS CNN, and the guy who runs the whole corrupt operation that owns it, is one of the worst in the business. Their ratings are so low that they’re not even counted or relevant anymore. MAGA!!!”
Collins did not directly respond to Trump’s swipe at her mental capacity, writing instead on Instagram, “Technically my question was about Venezuela.” She was likely referring to her question to Trump after he accepted the FIFA peace prize, asking him how the award “might conflict with your pledge to strike Venezuela.”
A CNN spokesperson said in a statement that Collins “is an exceptional journalist, reporting every day from the White House and the field with real depth and tenacity. She skillfully brings that reporting to the anchor chair and CNN platforms every day, which audiences around the world know they can trust.”
Airborne Attacks
CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang and NewsNation reporter Libbey Dean faced Trump’s wrath during an Air Force One gaggle last week. Jiang asked Trump which body part his recent MRI test examined, which the White House had refused to release the results of for weeks. (The White House later said Trump received “advanced imaging” of his abdomen and cardiovascular system for “preventative” reasons.”)
“I have no idea. It was just an MRI. It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and aced it,” he said before he gestured to Jiang. “I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing.”
Trump then ended the gaggle, but not before turning to Dean and saying, “you too,” in an apparent reference to his remark at Jiang. He had earlier attacked NewsNation as “failing” when Dean asked about Trump’s reported call with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. NewsNation declined to comment at the time on Trump’s attack.
Thanksgiving Tirade
Not even Thanksgiving could stop Trump from his attacks on female reporters. CBS News’ chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes questioned Trump about reports that Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the alleged gunman who entered the U.S. as part of a Biden-era program for Afghan refugees who fled the nation in 2021, was vetted before he allegedly shot at National Guardsmen the day before, killing one of them. Lakanwal was eventually charged with first-degree murder.
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Trump asked. “Because they came into on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
CBS News did not respond to a request for comment.
His “Ugly” Rebuke
Trump has spent the last five years referring to former President Joe Biden as “sleepy,” so questions over the nearly 80-year-old president’s age have rankled him. Such anger erupted on Nov. 26 after the New York Times’ Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman reported on the realities of Trump’s age and declining energy, noting his later start times for White House events.
Trump saved his fury solely for Rogers, the female reporter who worked on the piece. “The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,” he wrote on Truth Social.
A Times spokesperson said the story was “accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts.”
“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,” they said in a statement. “Expert and thorough reporters like Katie Rogers exemplify how an independent and free press helps the American people better understand their government and its leaders.”
Bristling Over Khashoggi, Epstein
After ABC News’ chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce questioned Trump on Nov. 18 about the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi — during an Oval Office meeting with the Saudi leader — Trump seemed to lose all patience.
After claiming that “a lot of people didn’t like” Khashoggi and that “things happen,” Trump upbraided Bruce for the question and a subsequent one on the release of the Epstein files.
“I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions, you start off with a man who’s highly respected asking him a horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question, and you could even ask that same exact question nicely,” he said. “You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”
ABC News, which had to pay Trump $16 million last year to settle a defamation suit he brought against the network, declined to comment on his attack.
“Quiet, piggy!”
Trump’s most visually demeaning attack came aboard Air Force One on Nov. 14 after Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey tried to press him on why he didn’t unilaterally release the Epstein files. After saying he knew “nothing about that” in relation to Epstein’s emailed claims that Trump “knew about the girls,” Trump had had enough when Lucey’s questions reached his ears.
“Quiet, quiet piggy!” he snapped at her before moving on to a different question.
The remark, which went viral days later, stunned a chorus of journalists. CNN anchor Jake Tapper called the president’s behavior “disgusting and completely unacceptable,” and former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran remarked on X, “When they go low, he goes lower.”
“Our White House journalists perform a vital public service, asking questions without fear or favor,” a Bloomberg News spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain focused on reporting issues of public interest fairly and accurately.”
