President Trump has sparked major controversy by calling a female reporter “ugly, both inside and out” on his Truth Social platform this week, as per People. This incredibly personal attack against The New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers happened less than two weeks after the president’s widely criticized “Piggy” remark toward another journalist.
The president, who is 79, launched a lengthy public outburst aimed at The New York Times after they published a story to which Rogers had contributed. That piece implied that Trump was currently facing the “realities of aging in office.” The story specifically pointed out that he was undertaking less domestic travel than he did during his first term. The piece also referenced a viral moment where the president appeared to fall asleep during an official event, something he has since flat-out denied.
Trump slammed the outlet and its reporters in a long post, declaring, “The Creeps at the Failing New York Times are at it again.” He then specifically targeted Rogers, who wrote the story alongside Dylan Freedman. Trump claimed Rogers “is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
Trump’s latest attack on Rogers establishes a terrible pattern of behavior
This comes quickly on the heels of another confrontation aboard Air Force One. During a terse exchange with Bloomberg’s White House press correspondent Catherine Lucey, Trump cut off a follow-up question about Jeffrey Epstein and the release of the Epstein files after the DOJ’s desperate attempts, snapping, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”
The White House has strongly defended the president’s actions in both cases. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told People that President Trump “has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency.” Jackson insisted the attacks had “nothing to do with gender” and everything to do with the public’s low trust in the media.
Regarding the “Piggy” comment, the White House stated that Lucey “behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane.” They added a pretty blunt assessment: “If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on this support during a press briefing. She stated that the American people re-elected the president because of his “frankness.”
Unsurprisingly, The New York Times isn’t backing down. A spokesperson for the outlet provided a statement, confirming that the Times’s reporting “is accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts.” The spokesperson made it clear that “Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that,” adding that their journalists “won’t hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this.”
Published: Nov 26, 2025 03:00 pm