US President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at a female journalist for asking a simple question during a Thanksgiving press conference after his interaction with US military personnel, which was part of a recent wave of insults he has hurled at women covering his activities, reports HuffPost, writes UNN.
Details
"Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?" he asked the journalist during a tense conversation about a suspect in an attack on two US National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
During the event, Trump announced the death of one of the victims, 20-year-old Sarah Backstrom, and spoke out against former US President Joe Biden's immigration policies, as the suspect, who cooperated with the CIA in Afghanistan, was allowed to enter the United States under a resettlement program in 2021. However, this year, the Trump administration granted him asylum. "He was vetted, and the vetting came back clean," the reporter noted.
"He went crazy," Trump replied. "I mean, he went crazy, and that happens too. It happens too often with these people."
Trump insisted that Afghan migrants were allowed in without vetting and showed a photo of a crowded plane with asylum seekers. "There was no vetting or anything like that, they came in without vetting," he said.
"In fact, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice just this year reported that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI conducted thorough vetting of these Afghans who entered the US," she insisted. "So why are you blaming the Biden administration?"
As the publication notes, "Trump did not like this question at all."
"Because they let them in," he retorted sharply. "Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came on a plane with thousands of other people who don't belong here, and you're asking questions simply because you're a stupid person."
Trump said it was "virtually impossible" to deport people who arrived under the program.
"They can't be kicked out once they arrive," Trump stated, whose administration claimed to have deported 527,000 migrants this year (though that figure has been disputed).
As the publication notes, "Trump has long attacked the media, but in recent weeks he has reacted particularly sharply to the women who cover him."
He called Katie Rogers of the New York Times "ugly" after she co-authored an article about his less busy schedule with age. He criticized Mary Bruce of ABC for asking what he called a "terrible, undisciplined, and just awful question" about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's presence in the Oval Office. And when Katherine Lucy of Bloomberg asked about Jeffrey Epstein's files, he sharply replied, "Quiet, piggy!"
His staff followed suit, telling New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer to "shut up with all due respect" when she questioned the appropriateness of sending National Guard troops to Washington after the attack.
Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the president's niece, said the attacks were telling. "He's a little scared," she said on her podcast earlier this week.