It wasn\u2019t the first time \u2013 not even the hundredth time \u2013 the US president has attacked the media. And it\u2019s hard for any storyline to break through the administration\u2019s \u201cflood the zone\u201d strategy, much less one like this. Nothing seems to stick. But the \u201cquiet, piggy\u201d clip has taken off, several days after the admonishment occurred on Air Force One last Friday, and without much help from the media itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why the \u2018Piggy\u2019 thing is bothering me so much,\u201d wrote Hank Green, a YouTuber and author. \u201cIt\u2019s one more unforgivable thing in a list of 20,000 unforgivable things, but I\u2019ve been mad about it for like 12 straight hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is going through a string of losses: Democrats dominating in off-year elections, having to reverse course on the Epstein files, Republicans refusing to get rid of the filibuster to end the shutdown, a faltering economy. There\u2019s a possibility that he\u2019s losing his air of impenetrability, and his grip on the right could maybe, just maybe, be loosening.<\/p>\n
The anger he displayed in the clip could be a sign of someone on the back foot, overreacting to a question Bloomberg correspondent Catherine Lucey was asking about why Trump was fighting against releasing the Epstein files \u201cif there\u2019s nothing incriminating in the files\u201d. The files related to the child sexual abuser released so far by Congress show that Epstein communicated regularly, and derogatorily, about women with a host of prominent friends.<\/p>\n
![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4963.jpg\")
Trump tells reporter ‘quiet piggy’ after Epstein question \u2013\u00a0video <\/p>\n
Lashing out at a female reporter with a derogatory insult amid a news cycle dominated by politicians splitting hairs over a man who ran a sex-trafficking outfit \u2013 it was pretty on the nose.<\/p>\n
But the clip also pinged around the internet in the same news cycle as Trump telling another female reporter it was rude to ask Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist whom the CIA determined was killed at the direction of the crown prince.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,\u201d Trump said of Khashoggi, responding to a question from ABC News\u2019s Mary Bruce. \u201cA lot of people didn\u2019t like that gentleman that you\u2019re talking about. Whether you like him, or didn\u2019t like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don\u2019t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The combined force of two outbursts at female journalists in a single news cycle \u2013 for asking about a child sexual abuser and a murdered colleague \u2013 went beyond the standard-fare Trumpian attacks on the media.<\/p>\n
Part of the collective ire could be that no one in the press gaggle jumped to Lucey\u2019s defense in the video, underlining that those attacked by Trump often stand alone while others fear becoming next on his list; the media backbone that stiffened in his first term has wilted, under exhaustion and at the hands of Trump-friendly owners, in his second. The condemnations of Trump and accolades for both journalists came after the fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese incidents are not isolated; they are part of an unmistakable pattern of hostility \u2013 often directed at women \u2013 that undermines the essential role of a free and independent press,\u201d the Society of Professional Journalists said in a statement<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n The White House, meanwhile, has doubled down on the comment, saying Lucey had \u201cbehaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane\u201d, providing no details on what that meant. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to give it, you have to be able to take,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Beyond the clip\u2019s power to outrage, though, is a sign that the leftwing media ecosystem and its creators are starting to command attention and elevate stories that media outlets aren\u2019t jumping on.<\/p>\n As Democratic digital strategist Parker Butler pointed out on X, the \u201cquiet, piggy\u201d clip grabbed millions of views on online accounts four days after it happened, saying: \u201cIt got almost NO coverage when he said it \u2026 A viral post can shape an entire news cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n