The New York Times produced a detailed, data-driven report on President Trump displaying indicators of growing old. The president, 79, responded by calling the female reporter who co-wrote the story “ugly.”
Trump’s post to Truth Social on Wednesday got here lower than two weeks after he mentioned “quiet, piggy” to a different female reporter, which drew consideration to his gendered insults and normal brusqueness.
The Times’ story analyzed Trump’s public schedules this yr and people throughout his first time period in workplace. Americans see Trump “less than they used to,” The Times discovered. He “has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips.”
Trump additionally “keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to,” and “when he is in public, occasionally, his battery shows signs of wear.” However, the story identified, Trump “remains almost omnipresent in American life” and takes questions from the press “far more often” than Joe Biden did.
Trump responded on Wednesday morning by saying, “The Creeps at the Failing New York Times are at it again.”
He didn’t point out the male reporter who co-wrote the story, Dylan Freedman, who’s on the newspaper’s AI initiatives group, however he personally attacked the female reporter, Katie Rogers, who’s a White House correspondent.
“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,” Trump wrote.
The president wrapped the insult into an extended promotional publish about how laborious he has labored this yr. “I have my highest Poll Numbers, ever,” he falsely claimed — his approval is definitely down markedly from the second-term peak.
“There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone,” Trump mentioned, “but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (‘That was aced’) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!”
Part of The Times’ story centered on Trump’s well being, together with the truth that he underwent an MRI scan in early October, however has but to publicly disclose the rationale why.
The Times mentioned it submitted detailed questions on Trump’s well being however didn’t obtain solutions.
Instead, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued an announcement deriding Biden and claiming Trump and his group “have been open and transparent.”
Trump’s response additionally bashed The Times at size, calling it “the soon to fold New York Times,” disregarding the publication’s profitability and its rising digital subscription companies.
The president can also be at the moment suing The Times for defamation, although authorized specialists have asserted that his case is weak and prone to fail.
A spokesperson for The Times responded to the insults on Wednesday by defending Rogers and the establishment as an entire.
“The Times’ reporting is accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts,” the outlet mentioned. “Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this. Expert and thorough reporters like Katie Rogers exemplify how an independent and free press helps the American people better understand their government and its leaders.”