Trump Attacks Yet Another Female Reporter

Donald Trump continues to attack female Reporters who ask him questions that he doesn’t like. That has basically been is script since the start of his second term.

But, the most striking aspect of the scene aboard Air Force One on Friday was not President Donald Trump’s aggression toward a journalist, but the silence from the rest of the press corps as it happened. When the President launched a personal attack against Washington Post reporter Natalie Allison, cutting her off and disparaging her outlet, the surrounding gaggle of reporters remained quiet, leaving their colleague to weather the verbal assault in isolation.

The interaction began when Allison attempted to ask the President about his "MAGA base" and their satisfaction with his deportation policies. Before she could finish, Trump interrupted to ask who she represented. Upon learning she was with The Washington Post, he pivoted immediately to insults, declaring the paper was "doing very poorly" and telling Allison, "You have a very bad attitude." Despite the proximity of the press pool in the tight quarters of the presidential aircraft, no other reporter interjected to defend Allison or redirect the conversation back to the substance of her question, tacitly allowing the President to dictate the terms of engagement through intimidation.

This lack of collective pushback is becoming a defining feature of the White House beat, even as the frequency of such personal attacks accelerates. Just a day prior, on Thursday, the press corps watched as Trump lashed out at CNN senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. After Collins asked about justice for victims of Jeffrey Epstein, Trump labeled her "the worst reporter" and made bizarre, personal comments about her appearance, claiming he had never seen her smile because she knows she is "not telling the truth." In both instances, the target was singled out and berated while the broader group of journalists continued to document the spectacle rather than challenge the behavior.

The President’s strategy of isolating and humiliating individual reporters—particularly women—relies heavily on this absence of a unified defense. Over recent months, he has berated a CNN reporter for asking a "stupid question," asked a CBS News correspondent if she was "a stupid person," and told a Bloomberg reporter, "Quiet, piggy." As Trump on Friday moved on to boast that his base "has never been stronger" and consists of "very good people," the moment passed with the norm re-established: a reporter had been publicly demeaned, and her colleagues had let it happen without a word.