The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman has discussed Donald Trump’s insults of her and his wider pattern of attacks on female reporters, saying his rhetoric has become much more vicious during his second term.
Trump’s “attacks on female reporters have gotten much nastier and much more aggressive and much less just about being a keyboard warrior where he would do it on Twitter [now X] in term one,” Haberman told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on the latest episode of her podcast, “Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files.”
Haberman noted that Trump has attacked her for years, including calling her a “hag,” referring to her as “Maggot” and commenting on her appearance.
She dismissed the invective, saying, “I mean, who cares? I mean, he can say whatever he wants.”
Amanpour asked why, when Trump lobs the personal insults when other journalists are present, “the rest of the press corps doesn’t do what I believe in, which is an attack on one is an attack on all, and either you all don’t go or you all don’t show up or each and every one of you ask that person’s question until it is answered or until they’ve run out of breath.”
Haberman disagreed with that approach, arguing that a fight with journalists “is actually the distraction that he is sometimes looking for” and that she is “much more interested in having him answer questions,” but admitted, “that has gotten very, very hard.”
Haberman, the co-author of the new Trump tell-all “Regime Change,” said that following up on reporters’ questions has become more difficult since the White House took control of the press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association.
“My colleagues will ask a tough question, and the follow-up is from some very friendly media toward him,” she said. “‘Mr. Trump, how are you so handsome?’ Or something. So, it’s really hard. That is where he has succeeded, and it is one of the ways that he has been more effective.”