President Trump’s inclusion in the Epstein files has been a hot topic of discussion this week. Trump was mentioned more than a thousand times in the nearly 23,000 emails released by the Epstein estate. It has become clear how much these discoveries have rattled the president.
On Friday, Nov.14, Catherine Lucey, reporter at Bloomberg, pressed Trump on his email correspondence with the convicted sex offender while aboard Air Force One. She asked him, “Mr. President, what did Jeffrey Epstein mean in his emails when he said, ‘You knew about the girls?’”
After Trump deflected blame to Bill Clinton and Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, Lucey pushed back, asking: “Sir, if there is nothing incriminating in the files, sir, then why are you acting like…”
Trump cut her off, pointed a finger in her face, and chided, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy!”
It is comical for him to compare someone else to a pig. But I digress.
The incident sparked appropriate outrage across social media, most of which I noticed came from people defending the reporter. The video went viral:
Donald Trump snaps at female reporter who asks about Epstein files:
“Quiet, Piggy!” pic.twitter.com/K42gA3uXCD
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 18, 2025
A few days later, Mary Bruce, Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News, received similar treatment from the President after asking him legitimate questions about the Epstein files and why he invited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House.
Bruce asked Trump about his business dealings in Saudi Arabia and whether they created a conflict of interest as President. And then she courageously directed a question to the Saudi leader:
“Your Royal Highness, the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr. President.”
Trump immediately asked her who she worked for before even considering the question. He has no real response of substance to offer, so he reverted to his old tired playbook: blame the networks, the Democrats, and the “fake news media.” Oh, and also accuse this highly respected journalist of having a bad attitude, even though her tone was professional and straightforward. Why not sprinkle some sexism in the mix?
He then threatened to pull ABC’s license, referring to himself in the third person:
“And we have a great (FCC) commissioner, the chairman, who should look at that because I think when you come in and you’re 97% negative to Trump. And then Trump wins the election in a landslide. That means, obviously, your news is not credible. And you’re not credible as a reporter.”
Trump eventually finds his way back to the issue at hand by minimizing the murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi with an indifferent “things happen.” He also made a point to say, “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you are talking about.”
“That gentleman” was a reporter for the Washington Post who was drugged and brutally dismembered in Istanbul. Khashoggi was very critical of the Saudi government’s policies and of Mohammed bin Salman in his articles. According to the BBC, in 2018, he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain divorce documents so that he could marry his Turkish fiancée.
He never walked out.
It doesn’t matter if he was “likable.” An American journalist was murdered.
The Society of Professional Journalists released a strong statement regarding these recent events and Trump’s callous dismissal of Khashoggi’s death:
“SPJ strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s latest attacks on journalists, including his disparaging treatment of ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce during Monday’s Oval Office press availability, and his recent “Quiet, piggy” insult aimed at Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey. These incidents are not isolated; they are part of an unmistakable pattern of hostility — often directed at women — that undermines the essential role of a free and independent press … Deflecting, minimizing and personally scolding reporters who dare raise the issue sends a dangerous message to governments around the world that violence against journalists is, at worst, negotiable and, at best, forgettable.”
In the grand scheme of things happening in our country—the Epstein files, the dismantling of the Department of Education, and the presence of ICE and the National Guard in our cities—these interactions may not feel like as big a deal.
I invite you to resist the urge to ignore or explain away this childish behavior. We are witnessing in real time Trump’s growing agitation with the press and the administration’s open hostility toward them.
I am not suggesting that Trump needs to become best friends with journalists. He doesn’t even need to like them. Leaders hardly ever want or choose to be questioned. At the bare minimum, though, we should expect our leaders to be respectful and professional rather than resort to name-calling and threatening litigation or cancellation when confronted.
The free press is often considered the unofficial fourth branch of government. Our reporters and journalists protect us by keeping us informed and holding our leaders accountable. Their job is constitutionally protected by the First Amendment.
Trump’s immature responses in these two separate events point to a problem that goes beyond the United States. We live in a world increasingly led by authoritarians who mistreat journalists.
“How to Stand Up to a Dictator” by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa is arguably one of the most important books of our time. Ressa, an inspiration to journalists everywhere, documents her experience under the thumb of Philippine dictator Rodrigo Duterte.
She chronicles the events leading to her phony arrests, including her article series about Duterte’s inhumane “war on drugs,” which welcomed the indiscriminate killing of individuals in impoverished communities. Their government minimized the volume of killings, but her media organization, Rappler, kept track of every single one. She suggests it was “like living in Gotham City.”
Ressa details the rise of pro-Duterte bot accounts on Facebook that overwhelmingly added to the sexist and violent harassment she received as a female journalist who dared to question authority.
What stood out to me most were the moments of bravery displayed by the young journalists in her newsroom, the women at Rappler who didn’t break or bend in the face of governmental intimidation tactics.
These young women shook in fear but stood tall and still in the face of law enforcement and government officials. They just kept doing their job.
It is typical for many to shrug off these instances of disrespect as “Trump being Trump,” but we need to sit back and really consider who is sitting in the Oval Office—the people’s house. If straightforward, fair questions can trigger the president this easily, then what does that say about his ability to lead? His temperament?
Donald Trump is simply too emotional for the job.
The health of our democracy and our society is equally measured by how we treat women and the press. Our current leadership is displaying contempt and disrespect for both. We must take note of this week’s events and remember them when the next election cycle swings around.
As we know, this is not even the hundredth time Trump has disparaged journalists. We also know that he tends to file tedious lawsuits against news organizations. It is one of his many pastimes.
Back in February 2017 (which feels like a lifetime ago), Trump called the media the “enemy of the people” in a now-infamous tweet. He doubled down on his statement at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a week later.
In an interview with Chuck Todd, the late Republican John McCain, after admitting he hates the press, including Todd, responded:
“We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital. … if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started. They get started by suppressing free press.”
Ressa often says that “we live in a world where fear and hate spread faster than facts.” Trump’s school-yard insults represent our era of “gotcha politics” that rewards meanness over merit. Catherine Lucey and Mary Bruce offer an example we can all follow—they showed us how to carry ourselves with class and courage in a culture that expects the opposite.
Journalists are the beating heart of our democracy. Let us treat them as such.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Cally Chisholm is our Creative coordinator for publishing and marketing at Good Faith Media. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Missouri Southern State University and her Associate of Arts degree from Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri. Chisholm was an Ernest C. Hynds Jr. intern with GFM for the summer of 2021.
