As Epstein questions linger, Trump falls back into familiar habit: lashing out at female reporters

"Since the early days of his political career, Donald Trump has been critical of the media, but in recent days his hostility has reached a new peak particularly when it comes to questions about his association with the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Trump invoked the phrase piggy a term he has used before to describe a female reporter on Friday, and has aggressively responded to at least one other female reporter over the past week, including threatening to revoke ABC's license."

"The outbursts come at a tense time for Trump, after the Republican party issued arguably its largest rebuke to the president since he cemented his position as the GOP leader. With as many as 100 House Republicans had been expected to defy Trump in voting to release the Epstein file, Trump was forced into a humiliating U-turn on the subject last weekend."

"Quiet. Quiet, piggy, Trump, 79, told a reporter from Bloomberg on Friday, after she began to ask him why he was behaving so erratically if there's nothing incriminating in the files. In a statement to the Guardian, a White House official said: 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."

Donald Trump has recently intensified hostile interactions with the media, reacting especially strongly to questions about his association with Jeffrey Epstein. He used the term "piggy" to address a female reporter and has threatened actions such as revoking ABC's license. The confrontations emerged amid a major Republican rebuke when as many as 100 House Republicans were poised to defy him over releasing the Epstein file, prompting a public U-turn. Trump maintained a close friendship with Epstein for more than a decade, and questions about that relationship appear to provoke unusually emotional and gendered responses from him. The White House defended its response, citing inappropriate behavior by a reporter on a plane.

Read at www.theguardian.com