President Donald Trump has spent the last week offering a disturbing vision for how he thinks the press ought to operate and how little he regards actual journalism. Two incidents tell the tale.
The first of the two incidents occurred on Air Force One last Friday during one of those scrums onboard the plane in which reporters are traditionally allowed to ask the president questions about any subject on their minds.
During the presser, Trump suddenly cut off a reporter for Bloomberg News, Catherine Lucey, as she tried to ask why he had not personally released the Epstein files, which was within his presidential purview.
“Quiet!” the president said. “Quiet, piggy.”
Just like back when he owned the Miss Universe pageant — an unusual training ground for the international affairs aspect of the presidency — and used to refer to Alicia Machado, a contestant he thought should lose weight, as “Miss Piggy.”
Dehumanizing language for simply doing their jobs is, or should be, beneath the office of the presidency or any position of authority.
Trump’s hostility toward journalists was further reinforced when he faced another reporter — another woman — during his Oval Office welcome of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Mary Bruce of ABC News asked bin Salman about the murder of the Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi, whose opinion columns in the Washington Post were often critical of the Saudi royal family.
United States intelligence services have determined that bin Salman ordered the killing, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. This week is the first time bin Salman has been back to our country since that determination.
Instead of expressing any regrets over the murder, Trump was mad the question was even asked.
“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump told Bruce. He later referred to her query as “a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.”Insubordinate? An American reporter is subordinate to a Mideast hereditary ruler? Well, that’s certainly news we can use.
Then, Trump let us know how he really feels about what was done to one pesky reporter: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said, referring to Khashoggi. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
That’s one way to describe the murder and dismemberment of a journalist for the crime of being a journalist.
The president of the United States has no doubt inculcated a hostility to journalists who do their jobs among his followers.
But the Fourth Estate can and must continue to do the work that Trump’s favored propaganda outlets and social media influencers can’t.
