President Donald Trump dismissed a female reporter who was questioning him about the Epstein files, calling her “Piggy” as she pressed him on his past relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
During a press gaggle on Air Force One on Friday, the reporter asked the president about one of the emails Epstein wrote about him that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released last week. When she tried to follow up with a question about potentially incriminating details in the Epstein files, Trump pointed and said, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”
When she tried to follow up with a question about potentially incriminating details in the Epstein files, Trump pointed and said, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”
In a response to MS NOW’s request for comment, 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.” (It’s unclear what behavior the official was referring to; reporters typically talk over each other at press gaggles.)
In 2016, former Miss Universe Alicia Machado said Trump had called her “Miss Piggy” in reference to her weight after she won the beauty pageant in 1996 at age 19. Trump did not deny that he made those comments or apologize, saying that Machado had “gained a massive amount of weight” after the pageant and that he “saved” her from getting fired because of it. Trump has struggled to shrug off the controversy around the Epstein files. After repeatedly trying to dismiss it as a “hoax,” he made an about-face on Monday and said he would sign a bill to release all of the government’s files on Epstein if Congress passes it.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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