Grim footage from the White House shows President Donald Trump once again speaking dismissively to a female reporter, refusing to answer her questions while referring to her condescendingly as ‘darling’
Donald Trump makes comment about a female reporter
President Donald Trump has left social media users repulsed following a patronising exchange with a female reporter, which saw him deflect her questions with an irrelevant response many have deemed misogynistic.
Addressing President Trump at the White House, the journalist asked: “As China defends its presence in Latin America, what role do you see for the US?” Cutting her off with a smirk, the 79-year-old turned to his Vice President, JD Vance and said: “I just like to watch her talk.”
In a dismissive tone some have described as “disgusting” and “demeaning”, President Trump told the media professional: “Good job. Thank you, darling.” Notably, he did not bother to answer her question. Footage shows Trump’s team laughing along as he attempts to humiliate the reporter, simply for doing her job.
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A video of the sexist incident has since gone viral, with a number of people pointing out that, had such condescending language been used in any other workplace, disciplinary action would likely be taken.
Commenting beneath the video, which was shared on social media platform X, one person wrote: “He treats all women as objects that only exist for his amusement. Self-respecting women don’t want anything to do with him.” Another tweeted: “Has any other leader of the free world countries ever consistently spoken to female reporters so rudely, disrespected them or even told them to shut up? The answer is a definite no.”
This follows another recent incident aboard Air Force One, where Trump spoke down to reporter Dasha Burns of Politico, after she questioned him on the topic of tariffs in China. Refusing to engage with her questions, Trump told Burns, “Let’s get somebody else to ask some questions, you mind? Because Politico is fake news.”
Unfortunately, Trump’s disrespectful treatment of women in the media is nothing new. Back in August 2015, when the businessman turned politician was making his first bid for the Oval Office, then Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly called Trump out at the Republican Party presidential debate, for having referred to women as “fat pigs”, “slobs”, and “dogs”.
Trump responded with a cruel joke about comedian Rosie O’Donnell, to which Ms Kelly replied: “Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” This marked the beginning of Trump’s targeting of Kelly, who he described as having “zero respect for” during an interview with Fox News.
POTUS even appeared to make a sexist reference to menstruation during a separate interview with CNN, in which he said of Kelly, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Such remarks set the tone for a presidency in which even the slightest criticisms by members of the press have been deemed “fake news” by the reality TV-trained politician and his often fanatic followers. And female journalists have been subjected to particularly grim treatment.
On this particular subject, Elisa Lees Munoz, the Executive Director of the International Women’s Media Foundation, previously told The Independent: “We know that he does not discriminate on gender with regards to his criticism and his attacks, but we have particularly noticed the way that he attacks female journalists and it is a very gendered attack, which really demonstrates some misogynistic tendencies that we see online and in the streets every day.”
Reflecting on the purpose of these often very personal attacks, Ms Munoz explained: “It is really designed to shut them up, to try to get them to stop working, to belittle, to humiliate.”
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