{"id":81106,"date":"2025-11-19T10:56:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=81106"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:56:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:56:53","slug":"these-little-piggies-wont-be-quiet-mr-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/these-little-piggies-wont-be-quiet-mr-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"These Little Piggies Won\u2019t Be Quiet, Mr. Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fine, call us women who push back “pigs” – we’ll still continue to ask tough questions, and speak about what’s right, this op-ed says. (Credit: PickPik<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> had cruel words for a female reporter who recently asked him some uncomfortable questions: \u201cQuiet, piggy.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While talking to members of the press on Air Force One late last week, Bloomberg News correspondent Catherine Lucey sought to press Trump on the continued confidentiality of the files pertaining to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>\u2019s case. That remark was his response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Oval Office several days later, he reprimanded another reporter<\/a>, Mary Bruce of ABC News, for asking Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman about the 2018 death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi \u2013 a violent end that U.S. intelligence officials say was carried out on Salman\u2019s orders. Trump called hers \u201ca horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.\u201d When Bruce then asked about the Epstein files herself, Trump called her \u201ca terrible person and a terrible reporter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n \"Rage\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n

\n \n What 2 Women Learned Breaking Stuff in a Rage Room, As a New Conflict Begins\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

His intent in both contexts is clear: Shame reporters, women especially, into shutting up. Make them feel ugly, unqualified and unintelligent \u2013 or perhaps even endangered \u2013 so they no longer feel empowered to press him on difficult subjects. To speak at all. Do so publicly and on camera, to worsen the humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, lobbing insults \u2013 puerile ones especially \u2013 at those viewed as dissenters, naysayers, or competition is nothing new to Trump. Anyone with even a passing interest in political discourse will be familiar with his lengthy list of dim-witted nicknames<\/a> for such individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when it\u2019s women who challenge him, the pushback becomes all at once more cutting, and more shallow. (This pattern, too, is well-documented<\/a>.) There is plenty that could be said, in a broader sense, about the ways in which fascist rulers like Trump create an ideal of visual conformity<\/a> and then shame those who deviate from it<\/a>, particularly those who already have less privilege to fall back upon \u2013 all as a means of taking more control over how people act and speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only\u2026 it\u2019s not working now. Especially not on women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Republican women<\/a> are refusing the silent option these days. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina \u2013 three individuals who have been more than happy to tow Trump\u2019s hateful lines in the past \u2013 are now pushing back when it comes to the Epstein case, both in words and votes. It\u2019s pushback the Trump administration has branded as \u201chostile<\/a>\u201d and traitorous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greene addressed Trump\u2019s treatment of the matter in a recent social media post<\/a>. \u201cAggressive rhetoric attacking me has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type of rhetoric being directed at me right now. This time by the President of the United States,\u201d she wrote of \u201cthe man I supported and helped get elected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added: \u201cI now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal must feel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could argue that Greene is simply now being asked to lie in a bed of her own making \u2013 but the threat, the danger, the attempts to silence all extend well beyond her.\u00a0Yet so does the refusal to give into that pressure from the top to shut up. In recent days, both ABC\u2019s Bruce<\/a> and Bloomberg\u2019s Lucey<\/a> have continued to report on the Epstein files, which contain information about the various powerful figures who might have sought Epstein\u2019s sex-trafficking services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s wrongdoing that saw women\u2019s lives ruined \u2013 women who also refuse to be silent<\/a>. It\u2019s wrongdoing that will<\/em> come to light, as a bill to release those files makes its way<\/a> at last to Trump\u2019s desk, as of publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s wrongdoing that, no matter the attempts to pressure women into ceasing to speak or even ask about it, won\u2019t be brushed aside.  ◼️<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n \"Bannon\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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\n \n Musk, \u2018Zuck,\u2019 Vance and Bannon \u2013 The Men I Fear My Son Hearing\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president referred to a female reporter as swine for asking Epstein questions. But insults aren\u2019t stopping women from speaking up anymore, Candice Helfand-Rogers writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":81107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"Fine, call us women who push back \"pigs\" - we'll still continue to ask tough questions, and speak about what's right, this op-ed says.","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f","date":"2025-11-19T15:56:33+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3m5ymjy4tcq2l","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:l2n6ydtigm3gtra4vb4rfl7f\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3m5ymjy4tcq2l\",\"cid\":\"bafyreifqhsuukce4nfxidzdadkdvmah3bhnj47ug6ns2ppj24rwrhfghdm\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreif7qo5ngw3vrvhsjomgrqzs4oazzs4xdtxv7mtzt5ls4ridnwqbz4\",\"rev\":\"3m5ymjy553a2l\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19648],"tags":[21456,19645,21340,20066],"class_list":["post-81106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-empowerment-and-resistance","tag-opinion","tag-political-discourse","tag-women-in-journalism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn President Donald Trump Demeaning Outspoken Women<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trump referred to a female reporter as swine for asking Epstein questions. 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