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There was a time when it would have been a scandal for the president of the United States to call a journalist “ugly” or a politician “retarded”. Now it’s just another day in America. During a holiday when many Americans were gathering with family and reflecting on what they were grateful for, Trump was crouched over his keyboard slinging insults at his perceived enemies.
On Thanksgiving day, for example, Trump posted a rant on Truth Social about immigration. He called Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, an ableist slur, and then made an Islamophobic jab at “the worst ‘Congressman/woman’ in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab”.
It was a busy Thanksgiving for Trump, who also insulted a female journalist who was asking him about the suspect in Wednesday’s attack on two national guard members in Washington DC. “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” the president demanded.
You don’t have to be a particularly perceptive person to know that Trump loathes most journalists – particularly women. The misogynist-in-chief has a well-documented history of lashing out at women who dare challenge him. Still, even by his own low standards, the past few weeks have been remarkable. The president seems to be on a rage-filled downward spiral, and is taking much of his aggression out on female members of the media.
On Wednesday, for example, a day before his ‘are you stupid?’ comments, Trump fumed online about the New York Times, which had just published a report on how the 79-year-old is increasingly showing his age. The piece, written by Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman, noted that the president “keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to” and has been caught dozing off. Trump did not namecheck the male co-author in his Truth Social post, zeroing in on Rogers instead. “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,” the president wrote.
Earlier this month, Trump also called Mary Bruce of ABC News “a terrible person” after she had the temerity to ask his pal Mohammed bin Salman, the visiting Saudi crown prince, about the killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. MBS, who is sometimes known as Mr Bone Saw, has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s killing but a 2021 US intelligence report found the crown prince approved the brutal murder.
In the same week he attacked Bruce, Trump jabbed his finger at Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, and said: “Quiet, piggy.” Lucey had asked Trump about the Epstein files, which is something of a sore topic.
Meanwhile Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, seems keen to follow Trump’s lead when it comes to insulting female journalists. On Wednesday, New Yorker writer Jane Meyer wrote on X that the attack on the national guardsmen was “so tragic, so unnecessary” as the national guard “should never have been deployed” to DC. Cheung wrote back: “Jane, respectfully, shut the fuck up for trying to politicize this tragedy.”
It can’t be stressed enough that this isn’t just the president and his staff being a bit rude to a handful of female journalists. When the president insults these women, he opens them up to harassment from his acolytes. And, of course, he sends a message to the world about what he thinks about press freedom and what he thinks about women.
According to Mary Trump, the president’s niece and a vocal critic of his politics, the president may inadvertently be sending another message with his recent behaviour. This week, Mary Trump noted on her YouTube show that her uncle’s “misogynistic attacks against reporters … are increasing” and believes that this points to two things. First, that “he’s increasingly comfortable lodging such attacks”, and second, “that he’s a little rattled” because the pressure is getting to him. In response, Cheung told the Daily Beast that Mary Trump is a “stone-old loser”.
I don’t know if “rattled” is quite the word for what is happening in Trump’s brain. Rather it would seem that Trump, who has frequently referred to himself as a “king”, would like to turn himself into another Mohammed bin Salman and the US into another Saudi Arabia. In MBS’s Saudi Arabia, journalists live under heavy surveillance, media outlets stick to the government narrative and a handful of critical tweets can get you locked up.
The US might not be quite at that point yet, but it’s on the way. Mary Trump is right that the president is “increasingly comfortable” attacking female journalists. And, after all, why wouldn’t he be? He seems to suffer few consequences for these gendered attacks. Trump may wear his misogyny on his sleeve but there are plenty of women (and, of course, men) who are happy to overlook it. While it’s impossible to come up with exact numbers, polls and analysis show that a majority of white women supported Trump in 2024 – even after he was legally defined as a sexual predator by a New York jury. And Trump actually increased his support among female voters in 2024 versus 2020 and 2016. Trump can apparently call female reporters “piggy” all he likes; there are still plenty of Maga sheep willing to support him.
More than 240 women allege drugging by senior French civil servant
The women were given beverages during a supposed job interview with a senior civil servant. Unbeknown to the women, the drinks were mixed with a powerful and illegal diuretic that would make them need to urinate. The police found a spreadsheet titled “Experiments” on the civil servant’s computer, where he allegedly noted the times of druggings and the women’s reactions.
Italy now recognizes the crime of femicide
The new law punishes femicide with life in prison.
Every day, 137 women and girls are killed by intimate partners or family members
That’s according to the 2025 femicide report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women, which notes there has been little progress on the issue.
The Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers have made huge amounts of money pushing the idea of “natural” births online and sowing distrust in the medical establishment. The result, a Guardian investigation shows, is scores of avoidable deaths.
Israeli police raid Palestinian children’s play on Ben-Gvir’s orders
The police stormed a performance of Dreams Under the Olive Tree at El-Hakawati theater in East Jerusalem on Sunday night and forced crying children to leave. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir gave the order to close the show, saying it didn’t have the required permit. The “you don’t have the right permit” excuse has long been invoked by Israel to bulldoze Palestinian houses and control Palestinian life. As the Norwegian Refugee Council explains: “Demolitions are rooted in a planning system that denies Palestinians the right to build in Area C, which covers more than 60 per cent of the West Bank and remains under full Israeli control. Palestinians must apply for permits that are almost never granted. Since October 2023, 282 applications have been submitted. Not a single one was approved.”
Experts warn of ‘global crisis’ as number of women in prison nears 1 million
The number of incarcerated women is rising much faster than men with poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws driving this trend.
The week in poultryiarchy
Elon Musk is not the only power broker who seems to yearn to be a standup comedian. JD Vance addressed service members at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, ahead of Thanksgiving and attempted a poultry bit of humour. “Think about turkey,” Vance said. “Be honest with yourselves. Who really likes turkey?” When a few soldiers raised their hands he said: “You’re all full of shit.” He then riffed on this for a while before concluding: “Chicken is good all the time.” Trump is well practiced at throwing red meat to his base in speeches, but the dreadfully dry Vance always sounds as if he’s just winging it.
