The relationship between the presidents and the press has long been a contentious one, with every occupier of the White House having a moment when a question rubs them the wrong way and they snap back.
Back in 2022, a particularly cranky President Biden even called Fox News’ Peter Doocy ‘a stupid son of a b***h’ in response to a question about inflation. But there does seem to have been a marked increase in fiery ripostes by the current occupant of the White House, Donald Trump.
And this anger does not seem limited to the West Wing, with the Commander-in-Chief getting into hot water last week for saying ‘Quiet, piggy’ to a reporter asking questions about Epstein while on board Air Force One.
Though Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described this comment as ‘frankness’ from the president, the incident has caused another clip to resurface of Trump laying into reporters for asking questions, causing some commenters to ask – ‘How has this man been elected President twice?’
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President Trump can’t seem to help but get personal when arguing with the press (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The resurfaced clip shows the moment from mid-September when Trump stamped down on a reporter who was jumping in from the press pack with repeated questions, while Trump was speaking.
“Quiet. You’re really obnoxious.” the 79 year old said.
But the reporter continues to try and talk over Trump, causing him to turn to another member of the press as he tells them to ‘I’m not going to talk to you until I call on you’.
But the reporter he turned to was Jonathan Karl from ABC, the network forced to pay Trump $15m after saying he had been found ‘liable for rape’, when he had in fact been found liable for ‘sexual abuse’ by a New York civil court.
Karl asked the president about his vocal support for freedom of speech, asking the already riled Trump: “Is that free speech including the people who are harshly critical of you?”
Starting off calm, the president responded: “I’ve become immune to it, there’s never been a person who’s had more unfair publicity than me and that’s why your network paid me $15 million… And thats why CBS paid me a lot of money too, and that’s why I sued the New York Times two days ago.”
Jonathan Karl, left, is one of ABC’s most-experienced reporters (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for CAA)
Trump then began to build in his anger at the media, which was directed at ABC’s reporter. He said: “The reason I’m wining is you’re guilty Jon. ABC is a terrible network, a very unfair network and you should be ashamed of yourself… and for you to stand there and act so innocent and ask me a question like that…”
But then, Karl attempts to push back on Trump’s comments about the network, causing the president to blast: “You paid a big price because you were dishonest… so you can’t sit back and ask ‘what do you think’ like you’re some wonderful person.”
Then, just like his ‘Quiet, piggy’ moment, the president’s comments became personal. He doubled down, saying: “You’re not a wonderful person. Frankly, you’re a terrible reporter.”
But while these tirades against media scrutiny have made liberals despair about the end of democratic norms, for some of Trump’s supporters, this is the sort of theatre many voted for.
One Trump supporter’s response to his anger in the Oval Office read: “I love when he does this. They deserve public humiliation.”
