U.S. President Donald Trump sharply criticized two female journalists this week, including referring to one as “piggy” during an exchange about the Jeffrey Epstein files aboard Air Force One.
The remark surfaced Tuesday when video from a recent flight showed Trump pointing at Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey and telling her, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy,” after she questioned why he would not release documents related to Jeffrey Epstein if there was nothing incriminating in them. The comment drew widespread criticism, “disgusting and completely unacceptable.”
Just days later, Trump clashed with Mary Bruce during a White House meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bruce pressed Trump on whether his family’s business dealings with Saudi Arabia posed a conflict of interest. She also questioned the crown prince directly about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, citing U.S. intelligence assessments that he approved the operation.
Trump cut her off, denouncing ABC as “fake news” and “one of the worst in the business.” He insisted he has “nothing to do” with the Trump Organization, which his two eldest sons currently oversee and which recently announced a new resort project in the Maldives with a Saudi developer.
The president defended the crown prince’s denial of involvement in Khashoggi’s murder and admonished Bruce for her line of questioning, saying she was “embarrassing our guest.”
Tensions escalated further when Bruce later raised the topic of the Epstein files, which Congress voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to make public. Trump lashed out again, saying, “It’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter.” He repeated his claim that the Epstein scandal is a “hoax/”
Trump also urged the head of the U.S. broadcast regulator to examine the network’s licence. Pointing once more at Bruce, he concluded: “No more questions from you.”
