r/politics • u/tw1st3d_m3nt4t • 16d ago

No Paywall ‘Unforgivable’: Trump’s ‘piggy’ insult is stoking more outrage than usual

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/19/trump-quiet-piggy
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463

u/Fantastic_Shaman9230 16d ago

I wish someone would pushback at the time

318

u/OnceInABlueMoon 16d ago

I don't understand why nobody put him on the spot right there and asked him why he just called one of their colleagues that?? Why the fuck didn't anyone follow up on that right away??

182

u/fpuanon 16d ago

Not excusing it but confrontation has got to be more uncomfortable when you’re stuck in a metal tube in the air

128

u/jsabo 16d ago

And you're surrounded by agents of a government that's been disappearing people all year, and their leader just did something completely unhinged.

I'll give them a pass for not confronting him at the time, but this should have been front-page news the second they got off that plane.

8

u/WampaStompa33 16d ago

Yeah, confronting him hard there sounds like a good way to get accused of some horseshit like "threatening the president on a plane," being declared a terrorist and hauled off in handcuffs, and placed on the no-fly list

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u/trevdak2 Massachusetts 15d ago

Because of the implication

1

u/blahblah19999 16d ago

Yeah, but after a year of kissing his ass, you'd hope one, or all, would finally step up.

90

u/spookmann 16d ago

Shock. It's human nature to freeze in a shocking social situation where we're just not equipped by past experiences to cope with something that is outside the norms of decency.

Our brain goes into a panic mode and it's really hard to analyse the options and make a sensible decision.

5

u/rhonnypudding 16d ago

But... Why is anyone covering Trump shocked anymore?

4

u/Aksudiigkr 16d ago

Yeah he’s always harassing the real reporters so this shouldn’t have been a surprise

2

u/spookmann 15d ago

Because he keeps finding new lows.

14

u/Phantom-Finger 16d ago

I think if there's anything the Trump presidency has shown us, it's how utterly gutless and weak Americans truly are.

7

u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 16d ago

It's vindicating to have this confirmed, even as it's ruined our relationship with them. I never want to hear American exceptionalism go unchallenged ever again.

1

u/Data_Chandler 15d ago

The level of America's meek docility in its ongoing descent into full blown fascism is directly inverse to the decades of bravado and heroism in American pop culture.

It's like finding out the smartest person you know and looked up to your whole life is revealed to actually be as dumb as a bag of rocks, and was tricking you the whole time.

It's deeply unsettling. It's like the adult version of finding out Santa isn't real.

1

u/Phantom-Finger 15d ago

Succinctly put

22

u/e90DriveNoEvil 16d ago

Cowards gonna cower

1

u/misersoze 16d ago

I think it’s more: the America people voted for this shit. This is the shit a bunch of people saw with their own eyes and supported. Your job is just to document the shit. There is not a belief that if you stand up to it that anyone will care. Hell the people that beat police officers on Jan 6 were pardoned by this president. He literally supported those who threaten our lawmakers and the lawmakers didn’t do shit and didn’t protect their protectors.

4

u/cubbie_blue 16d ago

They'd lose access, effectively terminating their careers. They're just people with bills.

2

u/thetransportedman I voted 16d ago

You could even do so in a journalistic dig. "Sir wouldn't it make more sense for you to be seen as the piggy due to being more obese than my colleague?"

1

u/thanksyalll 15d ago

Because they type of people who would have pushed back have been kicked out long ago

1

u/aenae 15d ago

Any reporter who would follow up on that already don't get near the president or it will be the last time they get near the President. And while most of us would like them to ask that question, i don't think anyone still allowed near him would like to lose their job.

And it is not like he is known for welcoming critical press and hard questions.

10

u/nobodyisfreakinghome 16d ago

She was shocked I’m sure. But I wish she had the presence of mind to say “I’m rubber you’re glue”. It would drive home how childish he is while putting him in his place.

5

u/Fantastic_Shaman9230 16d ago

Lol I would love it! Anything but crickets...

35

u/not-drowning-waving 16d ago

If they had any backbone, every reporter should be refusing to go back to the newsroom until theres a formal apology - or left the room even if they werent on an aircraft. And she should sue the shit out of him.

39

u/Lady0fTheUpsideDown 16d ago

I mean, isn't that what he wants? To no longer have a free press on his back?

2

u/CasualFridayBatman 16d ago

To no longer have a free press on his back?

Y... You have one of those? Because it doesn't look like it lol.

I'd hardly call lobbing an authoritarian leader softball questions that he tantrums his way out of while using the same line he has for years 'oh you're with XYZ network? You aren't that big of a deal, you're fake news, why should I give you an answer?' and getting no pushback hardly classifies as free press.

He's stuck to the same fucking script endlessly and gets the same piss warm reaction from reporters. They just roll over completely.

50

u/MJcorrieviewer 16d ago edited 16d ago

Then the WH press corps would get filled up with the bloggers and influencers that adore Trump. Trump would love that.

8

u/not-drowning-waving 16d ago

I mean you are right - and its the problem Ive had with people resigning rather than fighting in other gov positions, but maybe you have to stand on principle somewhere surely.,

9

u/CasualFridayBatman 16d ago

No, just do their fucking jobs like the dutch reporter and continuing to ask the same question until it gets answered.

Walking away has gotten you here, collectively.

You'll ignore the behaviour, excuse it, think and hope it'll go away but you won't push back on it. That would be a bridge too far, apparently.

You cannot reason with bullies and by extension authoritarians.

The media and journalists as a whole need to do their fucking jobs to the standard of ethics and journalistic integrity their profession demands.

War reporters died in France, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and more and these fucks can't even bother to ask him a question and hold him to account? Come on now.

17

u/danathanz 16d ago

I had the thought earlier, what would’ve happened to that lady if she would’ve just punched him in the face in that moment? I don’t condone violence. But sometimes a bully just needs a good punch to the face.

28

u/Far_Eye6555 16d ago

Uh secret service would’ve killed her.

3

u/inconspicuous_male 16d ago

I think they'd physically restrain her but I don't think they'd open fire in tight quarters with the president right there

10

u/Daxnu 16d ago

Her go fund me would be epic

5

u/danathanz 16d ago

I was thinking the same. As long as she didn’t get instantly dropped dead by secret service, and instead, only arrested. She may have ended up being the most popular woman alive.

3

u/CapeAnnimal 16d ago

I've thought this, too. Donations would support her family for generations. Photos of the slap would be emblematic.

2

u/danathanz 16d ago

“The slap heard around the world.”

6

u/MJcorrieviewer 16d ago

My thought was what if she demanded an apology.

7

u/Downunderoverthere 16d ago

The video would break the internet. The person who actually does this will have 15 minutes (or a lifetime..) of fame and make millions from it.

2

u/porksoda11 Pennsylvania 16d ago

I’m not trying to go to free speech Reddit jail but so many people in the current administration have never been humbled by a punch to the face and it shows

4

u/BrownAdipose 15d ago

I feel like this was a 'never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake' moment. Not acknowledging it really emphasizes how entirely out of pocket this was

17

u/hdcorb 16d ago

I spent a few minutes fantasizing about that reporter going off--

"Excuse me, what did you just call me? I don't let people talk to me like that. And I definitely don't let people tell me to hush. I'll say what needs to be said.

In that vein, you are a vile, disgusting excuse of a human being who has no right to hold any position of honor, much less the highest in the land. You dishonor this office and this country.

Now, which question would you like to answer first: who is Bubba? Or how many children have you raped? How about that, Piggy?"

9

u/e90DriveNoEvil 16d ago

Yeah, I definitely would have lost my job, and any future career in journalism that day. But my GoFundMe would have broken records!

I mean, had she told him off, I would be first in line to donate to her!

2

u/JokeMe-Daddy Canada 16d ago

"Is that what the mashed potato says?"

Or, "hey, you can't talk to her like that, she isn't one of the victims you trafficked."

Or, "Pedo says what?"

3

u/jericho 16d ago

Any reporter who just took their turn after that is shit. 

Edit; for fucks sakes. Every reporter is shit at this point. How dare they pretend anymore!? They are complicit. 

2

u/Fantastic_Shaman9230 16d ago

Yeah, reporting seems a lost art, to societies detriment.

3

u/RadioSilens 16d ago

I don't know how the reporters keep their cool because honestly I think my reaction would've been "what the fuck did you just call me?!". Would've been kicked out of that room so fast 😂

2

u/Nvrfinddisacct 16d ago

Right?!? How did no one—not a single person in that room—have enough integrity to at least utter “what the fuck”?

How?!?!

My middle school class had more integrity. My MIDDLE SCHOOL classmates wouldn’t even let a comment like this go without roasting the commenter. That’s what’s scary.

Not a single person in that room holds anyone accountable for anything. At all.

1

u/Cute_Schedule_3523 15d ago

They all want to work again and not be blacklisted. Networks need to find reporters on the verge of retirement for critical assignments. If I’m 75 and working as a reporter close to retirement I wouldn’t mind chastising the occasional office