At 1:51 this afternoon, the president of the United States grew increasingly frantic for the entire world to see on live TV. Seated in the Oval Office, with gold lame medallions glued on the walls behind him and a heroic teenage lifeguard and the child he saved both seated less than two feet away, Donald Trump launched into an unprovoked attack on a CNN reporter.
Trump: "Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. You're very disrespectful in front of this young man, okay? Don't you find her disrespectful?" (He turned to the ten-year-old. The boy did not respond.) "He understands. Quiet. Who are you with?"
CNN Reporter Holmes: "I'm with CNN."
Trump: "Fake news. You're fake news. You're a loud, boisterous person. You're faking news. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. You're a fake reporter, and you report fake news."
All Holmes wanted to know was whether Kim Jong Un had asked him to scale back South Korean military exercises. For that, the President of the United States told her to be quiet, called her fake, and then turned to a ten-year-old boy sitting next to him in the Oval Office and tried to recruit him into the attack. The child said nothing. Because what do you say when the most powerful man in the world points at a woman doing her job and asks you, a grade schooler, to help him condemn her?
Watched Ryder Williams a 16-year-old heroic lifeguard during that Oval Office event. Also, the "young man" in the room, Nathaniel Rai, 10 years old, both of them maintained a quiet, straightforward expression, listening intently to the back-and-forth without reacting dramatically or changing either of their postures, throughout that vileness that came out of his mouth.
Even a 10 year old didn’t respond when Trump turned to him and asked, "Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands".
During his first term, was having lunch with a friend who was watching her then 3-4 year old grandson who heard a sound bite of whatever that vile creature even ten years ago came out of his mouth on the news and this toddler said, — “That wasn’t a nice thing to say, Grandma. Why would he say that?”
We both just sat there. As grandparents we had absolutely no answer to provide, other than explain there are sometimes bad people in the world and we shouldn’t become like them…
To this day that many should really have an answer for their children because they voted for this not just once but twice or even three times… again as to why a preschooler had a better sense of manners and values than the President of the United States even ten years ago.. Let alone today. Should just bring all adults to their knees and beg for forgiveness to all our children…
Maybe we as adults in the room should really think about weighing in as anyone who even thinks about parenting, teaching, coaching, mentoring should be able to respond to any child’s reaction to this creature who just so happens to be POTUS… you get the idea…
Let this marinate.. how many young people have basically grown up only really knowing Trump and the way he runs this country. Runs his mouth, using derogatory terms towards people, treats people, lies about most everything, cheats and cons people, sexually assaults people… this is just a drop in the ocean… Now within these younger peoples lives there was Biden who was given just a blip but if any of those children were exposed to a majority of right wing media, even Fox (since they did lie about the 2020 election results and did get sued and lost), well what a mess that can cause, since that’s another entire cesspool of propaganda. It's such a wild departure from how a democracy was intended to work. You know normally done…. Maybe when Congress comes back from vacation we should just have all the adults watch one of those School House Rock videos of “Three Ring Government”, or “I’m Just a Bill”, “US Constitution” to just name a few..
As my great-grandmas always taught me “You create what you bake”… be very careful what ingredients you put into what you want as your end result…
Couldn’t agree more .. A 16-year-old boy shared a message for his generation: “Try to look out for everybody around you. And just try to help everybody out as much as you can.”
love this from your great grandma - "You create what you bake”… be very careful what ingredients you put into what you want as your end result…". good advice
And there you have it. . . Why Stockholm Syndrome has spread so quickly throughout the Trump Administration.
I am going to start calling people who report to Trump, “Trump’s bullied puppets” because if the behavior we saw from Donald Trump in that room today is how his staff is treated on a daily basis, no wonder they treat him like “Dear Leader” every time they have to talk about or interact with him.
Having said that, unlike with his staff, Trump can’t fire the journalists. And that is an advantage people who don’t work for Trump have when questioning his motives or pointing out the truth during their interactions. So thank you and it up journalists and news reporters! The truth is the only thing that will keep us free . . .
(Just a note, Trump has found his new Roy Cohn and pre enlightened Michael Cohen in the form of Blanche. I suspect things will get worse for the American people before they get better.)
Unfortunately it would be better to say Stockholm Syndrome, but this is willing Cult/KKKult…MAGA/MAWA KKKult material. For the RepubliKKKans and EPSTEIN Class and Six corrupt SCOTUS, it is all about money and proximity to power and Power itself.
If you’ve ever read anything about cults, you will see it is absolutely cult/KKKult behavior for the average person. You may or may not know about Jim Jones and Jonestown, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Scientology, Charles Manson.
Add to that the division of our country and the racism and hatred allowed all the way from the “top” of the heap💩.
Lance Rosen also wrote about cults, but you can also do your research. Jan.6, 2021 was the big event, but before that, we’ve always had the KKK, White Supremacists, etc., now they have permission to be out and vocal and violent….no repercussions .
That's it in a nutshell..they now have PERMISSION to say it out loud because of this shit bag. All the progress made and here we are. MORE than bad behavior.
I wish that, for just one time, each reporter would simply ask the same question posed by a previously abused reporter. Just keep asking; no change of subject. He would implode.
Thank you, Heather for a great summary of how our Nation is being led by a misogynistic, wannabe dictator.
Since GOP leaders were noticed by their silence after it was disclosed that Trump had unilaterally decided to criticize and then reduce the planned military exercises between the United States and South Korean armies, it became a very legitimate question to ask our President if his decision was influenced by the leader of North Korea….unfortunately, the question is one he didn’t want to answer, so instead, he turned to defaming Kristen Holmes, ridiculing her, her work and her employer.
I wondered the extent to which he has engaged in this type of behavior that would justify a complaint of creating a hostile workplace environment to the EEOC - if Trump were a CEO and this was a private company.
So I asked ChatGPT if it would summarize the history of Trump’s derogatory comments against journalists and here is the response:
“The evidence doesn’t establish that Trump is hostile to female journalists but not male journalists. He is hostile to both. What the evidence does show is a recurring qualitative difference: when attacking women who challenge him, Trump has repeatedly incorporated specifically gendered attacks involving their bodies, appearance, femininity, demeanor and sexuality.”
I then asked for and received a summary of incidents that have occurred and received this response:
“Megyn Kelly — 2015: bodily/gendered reference → “blood coming out of her wherever”
Mika Brzezinski — 2017: appearance/bodily attack → “bleeding badly from a face-lift”
Kaitlan Collins — 2018 onward: “nasty,” “stupid,” criticism of her demeanor and later her failure to smile
April Ryan — 2018: “loser,” “nasty”
Abby Phillip — 2018: “stupid” question
Catherine Lucey — 2025: “Quiet, Piggy”
Katie Rogers — 2025: “ugly, both inside and out”
Mary Bruce — 2025: “terrible person,” “insubordinate”
Kristen Welker — 2026: “corrupt,” “crooked or stupid”
Kristen Holmes — 2026: “loud,” “boisterous,” “fake reporter,” followed by the White House’s attack on her personally and reference to her children.”
The world continues to be too silent a witness to the behavior of a convicted sex offender. This behavior pattern - taken alone - would serve as a basis for being fired for any teacher, administrator, co-worker, etc., yet he remains in office even though this behavior, combined with policies that are creating chaos in the World, and are threatening our safety and making our economy worse serve as grounds for dismissal.
I imagine the 10 year old boy, Nathanial, left there thinking “Why does our President act like the worst bully in my school.”
Excellent as always. Two things: First-the reporter should have asked: “are you taking instructions from Kim Jong- un on how to be an autocratic, Communist dictator?” It may have been the last question the reporter asked, but at this point, does it matter?
Second: every woman this sad, sick, demented cartoonish man confronts is E Jean Carol. He loathes her and he loathes any and every woman who attacks his version of himself. She has made it clear, all the way through the trump Supreme court that he is an adjudicated rapist and a felon. It’s going to be tough rewriting that history.
Yes! Ask the hard questions! Don’t let him off the hook!
Fair questions deserve respectful answers. And professional reporters deserve the same respect that president expects from them. Two-way street, you know?
Yes that is exactly why they need to hammer harder at him..his responses are now being limited by the degradation in his brain so he can only resort to the hateful rhetoric that is ingrained in it. Go after him every chance they can.
A brain with dementia is not able to think and respond with the clarity and quickness of a brain that is not filled with damaging plaque.
The responses become more rote..drawing from places that are so ingrained and inherent types of personality so ..if a person is nasty by nature and always has been..that is what comes to the forefront..it is all that is left. What comes out of the mouth is no longer able to be controlled..processed by rational thought..filtered.
This is what has been happening with him for quite awhile and it’s getting worse.
He did not discuss his latest destructive move regarding N and S Korea on the tarmac on Sunday because his handlers knew what the press reaction would be and they knew he couldn’t handle the intense questions that he would be bombarded with so they did it in the solitude of a tweet.
They knew the questions would come but they thought they could prepare him first. Wrong..not with his addled brain and a hair trigger hateful temperament.
This is NOT what we rightfully demand as a nation with a free press..our leaders are not allowed to cull what they tell us because they won’t like or..more importantly CANNOT handle the questions asked of them.
We must pushback on this and push back hard..not only because we are entitled to ask and have the questions answered in a sane way but because the more we push back the more he’ll flail and fall apart…the more obvious his deterioration becomes.
He is like a rabid dog..he bites immediately when cornered and he’s always going to be cornered because everything that comes out of his mouth is a dangerous lie and he keeps getting caught.
There have been so many things he has done so far and said that are 25th Amendment worthy but unfortunately we have a confederacy of greed leading this country right now ..they will keep the status quo for THEMSELVES not us.
Our only option is to fight and support any and all that will challenge and question every move he makes as Heather has so aptly suggested.
Keep it up and if you haven’t done so yet..it’s a perfect time to start. Support CNN..independent media..people like Heather and Heather Cox Richardson..Meidas and Parnas..Dan Rather..all who have the courage and the duty and the will to speak truth to power on a daily basis. If you can’t subscribe..forward their posts to everyone you can…spread this word..it’s imperative.
Rabid dogs are dealt with..they are stopped from biting…we have to bite back.
I find it extremely disappointing that the OTHER members of the press do not stand up to POTUS (they damn well do NOT work for him), and support each other when he mistreats one of them, which seems to be happening with much greater regularity. Next reporter should ask the same damn question, what the hell are they afraid of?
The sad irony is that first we have enormous amounts of our tax dollars squandered and wasted by this incompetent excuse of a "president" and then the pressure is placed on "US" to donate non-stop, multiple times per day, what little we still have left to get rid of the creep. Hmmmmm.
Once again Trump hijacks a ceremony to honor someone who has done something notable and, in this case, heroic, and makes it about himself. Only a malignant narcissist would say I wonder if I would have done it. I probably wouldn’t. A normal President would have been prepped with background material on this lifeguard and spoken about him exclusively. But Trump uses this young man as a prop to satisfy his own, ever needy, ego.
As for Steven Cheung, just one question, where does Trump find these people? This guy is consistently hyper aggressive and nasty. Jackoff and cuck. Playground words. Definitely not words that should be uttered in defense of the POTUS.
My mind fast forwards to how can We The People ensure that nobody with the degree of mental illness that Trump has be elected President again. That’s why I will be especially mindful of the demeanor and conduct of every Democratic Presidential candidate in 2028. I will not be parsing their positions on Medicare for All, for example, as much as I will be probing for insight into their character. Because the travesty that is unfolding now can never happen again
"I could shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any votes", oh really, we'll see in 76 days. Right now he is shooting at all of us, and republicans could and should have taken the weapon away and locked it up, but they didn't. We are the ones now that have to put a stop to it, we can disarm this MFer and we have too.
Thank you Heather.
Watched Ryder Williams a 16-year-old heroic lifeguard during that Oval Office event. Also, the "young man" in the room, Nathaniel Rai, 10 years old, both of them maintained a quiet, straightforward expression, listening intently to the back-and-forth without reacting dramatically or changing either of their postures, throughout that vileness that came out of his mouth.
Even a 10 year old didn’t respond when Trump turned to him and asked, "Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands".
During his first term, was having lunch with a friend who was watching her then 3-4 year old grandson who heard a sound bite of whatever that vile creature even ten years ago came out of his mouth on the news and this toddler said, — “That wasn’t a nice thing to say, Grandma. Why would he say that?”
We both just sat there. As grandparents we had absolutely no answer to provide, other than explain there are sometimes bad people in the world and we shouldn’t become like them…
To this day that many should really have an answer for their children because they voted for this not just once but twice or even three times… again as to why a preschooler had a better sense of manners and values than the President of the United States even ten years ago.. Let alone today. Should just bring all adults to their knees and beg for forgiveness to all our children…
Maybe we as adults in the room should really think about weighing in as anyone who even thinks about parenting, teaching, coaching, mentoring should be able to respond to any child’s reaction to this creature who just so happens to be POTUS… you get the idea…
Let this marinate.. how many young people have basically grown up only really knowing Trump and the way he runs this country. Runs his mouth, using derogatory terms towards people, treats people, lies about most everything, cheats and cons people, sexually assaults people… this is just a drop in the ocean… Now within these younger peoples lives there was Biden who was given just a blip but if any of those children were exposed to a majority of right wing media, even Fox (since they did lie about the 2020 election results and did get sued and lost), well what a mess that can cause, since that’s another entire cesspool of propaganda. It's such a wild departure from how a democracy was intended to work. You know normally done…. Maybe when Congress comes back from vacation we should just have all the adults watch one of those School House Rock videos of “Three Ring Government”, or “I’m Just a Bill”, “US Constitution” to just name a few..
As my great-grandmas always taught me “You create what you bake”… be very careful what ingredients you put into what you want as your end result…
Couldn’t agree more .. A 16-year-old boy shared a message for his generation: “Try to look out for everybody around you. And just try to help everybody out as much as you can.”
Ryder Williams was the adult not POTUS…
love this from your great grandma - "You create what you bake”… be very careful what ingredients you put into what you want as your end result…". good advice
Dynamite takeaway from a solid column on just how vile a President we suffer today.
And there you have it. . . Why Stockholm Syndrome has spread so quickly throughout the Trump Administration.
I am going to start calling people who report to Trump, “Trump’s bullied puppets” because if the behavior we saw from Donald Trump in that room today is how his staff is treated on a daily basis, no wonder they treat him like “Dear Leader” every time they have to talk about or interact with him.
Having said that, unlike with his staff, Trump can’t fire the journalists. And that is an advantage people who don’t work for Trump have when questioning his motives or pointing out the truth during their interactions. So thank you and it up journalists and news reporters! The truth is the only thing that will keep us free . . .
(Just a note, Trump has found his new Roy Cohn and pre enlightened Michael Cohen in the form of Blanche. I suspect things will get worse for the American people before they get better.)
Unfortunately it would be better to say Stockholm Syndrome, but this is willing Cult/KKKult…MAGA/MAWA KKKult material. For the RepubliKKKans and EPSTEIN Class and Six corrupt SCOTUS, it is all about money and proximity to power and Power itself.
If you’ve ever read anything about cults, you will see it is absolutely cult/KKKult behavior for the average person. You may or may not know about Jim Jones and Jonestown, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Scientology, Charles Manson.
Add to that the division of our country and the racism and hatred allowed all the way from the “top” of the heap💩.
Lance Rosen also wrote about cults, but you can also do your research. Jan.6, 2021 was the big event, but before that, we’ve always had the KKK, White Supremacists, etc., now they have permission to be out and vocal and violent….no repercussions .
That's it in a nutshell..they now have PERMISSION to say it out loud because of this shit bag. All the progress made and here we are. MORE than bad behavior.
Lance Rosen cult piece..https://substack.com/@lancefrosen/note/p-193605194?r=71veyx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I wish that, for just one time, each reporter would simply ask the same question posed by a previously abused reporter. Just keep asking; no change of subject. He would implode.
ME, TOO. Same question. One by one. Over and over again. Why do they not do that? Or even better, why do they keep showing up?
Thank you, Heather for a great summary of how our Nation is being led by a misogynistic, wannabe dictator.
Since GOP leaders were noticed by their silence after it was disclosed that Trump had unilaterally decided to criticize and then reduce the planned military exercises between the United States and South Korean armies, it became a very legitimate question to ask our President if his decision was influenced by the leader of North Korea….unfortunately, the question is one he didn’t want to answer, so instead, he turned to defaming Kristen Holmes, ridiculing her, her work and her employer.
I wondered the extent to which he has engaged in this type of behavior that would justify a complaint of creating a hostile workplace environment to the EEOC - if Trump were a CEO and this was a private company.
So I asked ChatGPT if it would summarize the history of Trump’s derogatory comments against journalists and here is the response:
“The evidence doesn’t establish that Trump is hostile to female journalists but not male journalists. He is hostile to both. What the evidence does show is a recurring qualitative difference: when attacking women who challenge him, Trump has repeatedly incorporated specifically gendered attacks involving their bodies, appearance, femininity, demeanor and sexuality.”
I then asked for and received a summary of incidents that have occurred and received this response:
“Megyn Kelly — 2015: bodily/gendered reference → “blood coming out of her wherever”
Mika Brzezinski — 2017: appearance/bodily attack → “bleeding badly from a face-lift”
Kaitlan Collins — 2018 onward: “nasty,” “stupid,” criticism of her demeanor and later her failure to smile
April Ryan — 2018: “loser,” “nasty”
Abby Phillip — 2018: “stupid” question
Catherine Lucey — 2025: “Quiet, Piggy”
Katie Rogers — 2025: “ugly, both inside and out”
Mary Bruce — 2025: “terrible person,” “insubordinate”
Kristen Welker — 2026: “corrupt,” “crooked or stupid”
Kristen Holmes — 2026: “loud,” “boisterous,” “fake reporter,” followed by the White House’s attack on her personally and reference to her children.”
The world continues to be too silent a witness to the behavior of a convicted sex offender. This behavior pattern - taken alone - would serve as a basis for being fired for any teacher, administrator, co-worker, etc., yet he remains in office even though this behavior, combined with policies that are creating chaos in the World, and are threatening our safety and making our economy worse serve as grounds for dismissal.
I imagine the 10 year old boy, Nathanial, left there thinking “Why does our President act like the worst bully in my school.”
Excellent as always. Two things: First-the reporter should have asked: “are you taking instructions from Kim Jong- un on how to be an autocratic, Communist dictator?” It may have been the last question the reporter asked, but at this point, does it matter?
Second: every woman this sad, sick, demented cartoonish man confronts is E Jean Carol. He loathes her and he loathes any and every woman who attacks his version of himself. She has made it clear, all the way through the trump Supreme court that he is an adjudicated rapist and a felon. It’s going to be tough rewriting that history.
Yes! Ask the hard questions! Don’t let him off the hook!
Fair questions deserve respectful answers. And professional reporters deserve the same respect that president expects from them. Two-way street, you know?
It seems that as the stress on him increases, his responses get weaker, more tedious and repetitive, running out of steam. He is being worn down.
Yes that is exactly why they need to hammer harder at him..his responses are now being limited by the degradation in his brain so he can only resort to the hateful rhetoric that is ingrained in it. Go after him every chance they can.
I think it’s time to stop calling him the most powerful man in the world
Looks like the narcissistic collapse is accelerating.
A brain with dementia is not able to think and respond with the clarity and quickness of a brain that is not filled with damaging plaque.
The responses become more rote..drawing from places that are so ingrained and inherent types of personality so ..if a person is nasty by nature and always has been..that is what comes to the forefront..it is all that is left. What comes out of the mouth is no longer able to be controlled..processed by rational thought..filtered.
This is what has been happening with him for quite awhile and it’s getting worse.
He did not discuss his latest destructive move regarding N and S Korea on the tarmac on Sunday because his handlers knew what the press reaction would be and they knew he couldn’t handle the intense questions that he would be bombarded with so they did it in the solitude of a tweet.
They knew the questions would come but they thought they could prepare him first. Wrong..not with his addled brain and a hair trigger hateful temperament.
This is NOT what we rightfully demand as a nation with a free press..our leaders are not allowed to cull what they tell us because they won’t like or..more importantly CANNOT handle the questions asked of them.
We must pushback on this and push back hard..not only because we are entitled to ask and have the questions answered in a sane way but because the more we push back the more he’ll flail and fall apart…the more obvious his deterioration becomes.
He is like a rabid dog..he bites immediately when cornered and he’s always going to be cornered because everything that comes out of his mouth is a dangerous lie and he keeps getting caught.
There have been so many things he has done so far and said that are 25th Amendment worthy but unfortunately we have a confederacy of greed leading this country right now ..they will keep the status quo for THEMSELVES not us.
Our only option is to fight and support any and all that will challenge and question every move he makes as Heather has so aptly suggested.
Keep it up and if you haven’t done so yet..it’s a perfect time to start. Support CNN..independent media..people like Heather and Heather Cox Richardson..Meidas and Parnas..Dan Rather..all who have the courage and the duty and the will to speak truth to power on a daily basis. If you can’t subscribe..forward their posts to everyone you can…spread this word..it’s imperative.
Rabid dogs are dealt with..they are stopped from biting…we have to bite back.
I have no words for that man. And parents/grandparents should not let their children anywhere within seeing or hearing him. I never have.
Beyond appalled
I find it extremely disappointing that the OTHER members of the press do not stand up to POTUS (they damn well do NOT work for him), and support each other when he mistreats one of them, which seems to be happening with much greater regularity. Next reporter should ask the same damn question, what the hell are they afraid of?
I agree and even wrote about it several months ago:
https://jaywilson1.substack.com/p/the-day-miss-piggy-talks-back?r=10sd39&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
The sad irony is that first we have enormous amounts of our tax dollars squandered and wasted by this incompetent excuse of a "president" and then the pressure is placed on "US" to donate non-stop, multiple times per day, what little we still have left to get rid of the creep. Hmmmmm.
Once again Trump hijacks a ceremony to honor someone who has done something notable and, in this case, heroic, and makes it about himself. Only a malignant narcissist would say I wonder if I would have done it. I probably wouldn’t. A normal President would have been prepped with background material on this lifeguard and spoken about him exclusively. But Trump uses this young man as a prop to satisfy his own, ever needy, ego.
As for Steven Cheung, just one question, where does Trump find these people? This guy is consistently hyper aggressive and nasty. Jackoff and cuck. Playground words. Definitely not words that should be uttered in defense of the POTUS.
My mind fast forwards to how can We The People ensure that nobody with the degree of mental illness that Trump has be elected President again. That’s why I will be especially mindful of the demeanor and conduct of every Democratic Presidential candidate in 2028. I will not be parsing their positions on Medicare for All, for example, as much as I will be probing for insight into their character. Because the travesty that is unfolding now can never happen again
Steven Cheung looks and acts like a thug.
"I could shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any votes", oh really, we'll see in 76 days. Right now he is shooting at all of us, and republicans could and should have taken the weapon away and locked it up, but they didn't. We are the ones now that have to put a stop to it, we can disarm this MFer and we have too.