Trump puts 10-year-old on the spot as he berates female CNN reporter: ‘Very disrespectful in front of this young man’

Trump puts 10-year-old on the spot as he berates female CNN reporter: ‘Very disrespectful in front of this young man’ President has history of losing his temper when questioned by female journalists who are not sufficiently sycophantic - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments President Donald Trump berated a female CNN reporter in the Oval Office on Monday, invoking the 10-year-old boy seated in front of him as grounds for cutting her off, then turning to the teenage lifeguard who rescued the child to ask him to agree. Trump was hosting Ryder Williams, the 16-year-old from Santa Cruz, California, who was filmed last month pulling Nathaniel Rai from heavy surf at Seabright State Beach, along with Nathaniel himself. The rescue went viral and prompted the president to invite Williams to the White House for what he called "a High Civilian Honor." As the reporter, veteran correspondent Kristen Holmes, tried to ask the president about whether there are sufficient supplies and food aboard U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, he angrily cut her off and cited Rai’s presence as a reason to do so. "Quiet! You're very disrespectful in front of this young man," he said. He then turned to Williams, seated beside him, and asked: "Don't you find her disrespectful?" "He understands. Quiet!" Trump added. When the reporter identified the outlet she works for, the president told her: "You're fake news. Be quiet! You're a fake reporter." He then complained about the network’s reporting on conditions aboard the Lincoln, which will soon be relieved after nearly a year at sea — a deployment repeatedly extended due to the war Trump started with Iran in February. "That was a fake CNN report. Over the years, we had them out there much longer. An admiral told me, 'I have been on ships much longer than that, sir.' And people on the Lincoln say it's beautifully taken care of," he said. The carrier has been at sea in the Middle East for more than 265 days, and relatives of sailors aboard have publicly raised concerns about food and hygiene. Trump rejected those concerns last week as well, telling reporters at Joint Base Andrews that the families were not worried, and noting the ship would be replaced by the USS George Washington. Monday's confrontation follows a documented pattern of the president singling out women who question him — though enlisting children he is honoring as witnesses to their supposed rudeness is new. In November, Trump attacked New York Times White House reporter Katie Rogers, who has covered the beat since 2014, after the paper published an analysis finding his official engagements had fallen 39 percent compared with the same stretch of his first term. He accused her of being "assigned to only write bad things" about him and called her "a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out." The Times said in response that its reporting was "accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts," adding that "name-calling and personal insults don't change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this." Days before that, aboard Air Force One, Trump jabbed his finger toward Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey as she pressed him on whether his administration would release files from the FBI's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. "If there's nothing incriminating in the files, sir, why not…" Lucey began as Trump interjected to insult her. "Quiet! Quiet, piggy," he said. It is the same word he reached for twice on Monday, this time with a 10-year-old and a 16-year-old in the room. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the president's remarks, or on whether the families of either boy were told in advance that they might be drawn into an exchange with the press. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments