Donald Trump lost it with a female reporter in the Oval Office before the White House then launched a remarkable personal attack on her on social media.
On Monday, CNN’s senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes asked Trump for a response to a widely shared comment by Democratic senator Jon Ossoff in a speech on Sunday.
Ossoff had told a crowd that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” of president” and would rather “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar”.
The comment seemed to be a reference to Trump’s executive assistant Natalie Harp, who has become the source of speculation and focus due to her apparent closeness to the president.
Well, it’s safe to say Trump didn’t like this perfectly legitimate question from Holmes. After dismissing her question and calling Osoff a “Pee-wee Herman lookalike,” he later lost his temper with Holmes as she tried to follow up.
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In one exchange, he repeatedly told her to be quiet and said she was “very disrespectful.”
When Holmes said she worked for CNN, Trump responded: “Fake news, you’re fake news, you’re a loud boisterous person. You’re fake news. Be quiet. Be quiet. You’re a fake reporter and you report fake news.”
This wasn’t the end of things though. Later in a post on X, the official White House Rapid Response account posted a personal and vindictive attack on Holmes, calling her a “disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession.”
They added in a second post that her children will be “sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive.”
CNN has since hit back at the White House, condemning their attacks in the “strongest possible terms” and making clear they “stand firmly behind” Holmes.
The broadcaster said the journalist is “one of the most respected and accomplished journalists covering the White House” and was “doing her job” in asking a “tough, relevant and newsworthy question on behalf of the American people.”
“Public officials are free to challenge reporting they disagree with, but personal attacks on journalists for asking questions are beneath the office and inconsistent with the principles of a free press,” they added.
This is of course far from the first time Trump has shown his true colours in how he talks to and treats women.
In November, the Republican told a female reporter to be “quiet piggy,” whilst there are multiple occasions this year where he has lost his patience after scrutiny from female journalists, including one occasion when he walked out of an interview.