White House defends Trump calling female reporter ‘Piggy’

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/20/trump-reporters-piggy/

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s decision to call a female reporter “Piggy” on Air Force One, claiming the insult reflected the “frankness” that helped him win a second term.

As he faces political blowback for his handling of the files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump has escalated his disparagement of female reporters.

Days later at a White House event with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump called Mary Bruce, the chief White House correspondent for ABC News, a “terrible person and a terrible reporter” and called her network “fake news.” He also urged his Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, to revoke ABC’s broadcast licenses in response to Bruce’s questions, which concerned the killing of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the Epstein files.