Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”
Legacy media news outlets have been having a field day with President Trump’s “relationship” with certain female reporters. From CNN, MSNBC, Huff Post to the New York Times, the stories have documented every perceived slight, snort, or actual insult hurled at a number of highly ambitious female journalists.
Trump’s checkered history with the press also includes his disdain for a fair number of male journalists. George Stephanopoulos became George Slopadopoulos or Lil’ George, Jake Tapper became Fake Tapper, and Chuck Todd became Sleepy Eyes. During his first term in 2018, Trump had major clashes with CNN’s Jim Acosta. In the insult department, Trump is an equal opportunity “employer,” yet it is leftist female journalists who really get under his skin.
In many ways, Trump’s reluctance to tolerate uppity virtue-signaling female journalists coincides with those satirical memes that address the danger of leftist white women.
The danger comes when progressive white women go overboard in their advocacy for their causes. Aren’t they the ones who go running after ICE vehicles during migrant raids? Aren’t they the ones who get in the face of ICE agents to try and stop deportations? Aren’t they the ones who sit in the middle of the street while blowing whistles and chanting open border mantras?
The situation with female leftist journalists may not be as visceral, but it’s vehement in a different way.
Female leftist journalists, it is said, have long been underestimated in their ability to ask tough questions and hold those in power accountable. To break that mold, the ever-emerging feminist inside these reporters is inclined to go overboard and “outman” what they see as the standard male journalist approach. Often something odd happens during this process: the journalistic method somehow becomes “contorted,” so the reporter’s questions at press conferences are delivered with an accompanying snotty attitude.
I call this the NPR effect, because on public radio, especially when a leftist female reporter is conducting an interview and they hit upon names (Donald Trump) or concepts they don’t like, the tone of the reporter’s voice dips or rises in a not so subliminal blast of disapproval.
Trump’s fixation on journalists was not created out of a vacuum, however, but from years of relentless leftist press abuse directed at him from every angle imaginable. As a result, he has sued various media outlets for inaccuracies and biases, and at times has threatened to revoke broadcast licenses of funding for left-wing public broadcasting.
One could say that Donald Trump has had enough. Post Traumatic Leftist Press Syndrome (PTLPS) has done him in. While one can argue that he could still exercise self-control before lashing out at (mainly) female reporters who question him in a snotty tone of voice, the fact remains he is only human.
When you poke a bear relentlessly with TDS-stabs, you risk getting your attitude back in spades.
Consider CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, whose straight low-on-the-forehead long hair frames eyebrows that look like poisoned arrows. Collins’ penetrating gaze isn’t a look that necessarily indicates stupidity, though one can see nastiness lurking beneath the surface.
Trump called Collins “stupid and nasty” after she asked about the rising costs of the White House ballroom. Again, as Trump has said many times, it’s often not the question that irks or bothers him but the tone and attitude behind the question. With Collins especially we see the schoolmarm corrective tone in all its glory.
Bloomsday reporter Catherine Lucey, who used to write for the Philadelphia Daily News, also came under fire when she attempted to ask Trump aboard Air Force One about the Epstein files. The president’s retort, “Quiet, piggy” went viral. This was Lucey’s second question to the president during that press conference. The first question was asked without a hitch but as anyone who has watched presidential press conferences knows, some reporters don’t know when to stop talking.
They hog center stage like the career narcissists they are.
A White House official explained Trump’s remarks on Air Force One to the leftist The Guardian: “This reporter behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane…If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take it.”
Unfortunately, the White House didn’t go into detail here. A backstory might have helped the viral one-sided take on the confrontation which portrayed Trump as rude and a misogynist.
On December 8, Trump tore into two female journalists who attempted to ask him off-topic questions during an agriculture round table at the White House. One of the women was ABC News’ Rachel Scott who wanted to know if Trump was going to release the full video of the September 2 strike on a Venezuelan drug boat. Trump then called her “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place”, because she didn’t seem to remember that he had previously announced that, “Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is OK with me.”
It was Scott, after all, who interviewed Trump in 2024 for the National Association of Black Journalists. Scott, at that time, tore into him and asked him about past statements he made about black leaders, including Barack Obama.
“Why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that?” she asked. Her mood was abrasive and scolding.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, a first question,” Trump replied. “You don’t even say ‘hello, how are you.’ Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network.”
And Trump was right. There wasn’t even a “How are you?” when the interview began. It was extremely hostile from the start. From that moment on, the dye was cast: Rachel Scott is horrible.
Finally, Trump lashed out at ABC News’ Mary Bruce when she asked him how he could reconcile having Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, join him in the Oval Office even though the prince had ordered the violent killing of a Washington Post columnist in 2018.
Trump had every right to be offended considering the crown prince was sitting next to him. “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” he said. And he was right. He was more than right. Only an unhinged “more manly than men” feminist journalist would dare ask a question like that.
“It’s not the question that I mind; it’s your attitude,” Trump told Bruce. “It’s the way you ask these questions.”
As the famous leftist (female) journalist Molly Ivins once said, “Being slightly delusional is good. It keeps things fun.”
