Before departing Texas on Thursday evening, President Donald Trump berated another female member of the press who questioned his vow to award a $5,000 “Trump dividend” to every American if Republicans retain control of Congress in November.
“Not you. Not you … Your network and you, you’re the worst,” Trump snapped at ABC News’ Rachel Scott on the tarmac following the final night of the GOP’s unconventional midterm convention.
Scott had asked how the federal government could afford Trump’s $1.35 trillion promise to the American electorate, pointing out that the national debt sits at more than $40 trillion. She also asked the president why he felt he needed to incentivize voters with the promise of cash if his economic policies are working, as he often claims.
But instead of receiving an answer, Scott found herself on the receiving end of another outburst from Trump at a female journalist. Clips of Trump insulting Scott went viral and reminded the public of the president’s combative attitude toward the women tasked with holding him to account.
The exchange adds to a long list of Trump denigrating female reporters. In August, Trump told CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes to “be quiet” after she asked him about U.S. military exercises with South Korea. Holmes had questioned whether Trump had ordered a reduction in military activities at the request of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“You’re very disrespectful,” Trump told Holmes during the exchange, before adding that she’s a “loud, boisterous person” who needed to “be quiet.”
During an exchange with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in May, Trump lashed out at MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner, calling her “a dumb person” after she pointed out accurately that the cost of his ballroom had doubled from $200 million, when it was announced last summer, to $400 million.
“I doubled the size of it, you dumb person,” Trump told Gardner, who asked how the ballroom project’s cost overruns differed from the unforeseen costs of the Federal Reserve’s ongoing renovation of its Washington headquarters, which led Trump to demand former Fed Chair Jerome Powell be fired.
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Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.