Molly Jong-Fast Says Trump Can’t Stop Himself From ‘Lashing Out’ at Female Reporters: ‘Less Able to Control’ Behavior As He Ages

MS NOW on Sunday compiled clips of President Donald Trump denigrating female journalists after his latest outburst against ABC reporter Rachel Scott late last week.

Scott asked Trump why he was spending so much time renovating D.C. landmarks while we’re in the middle of war with Iran.

“You know why? Because I want to keep our country beautiful and safe,” Trump answered, before telling those around him, “This is one of the worst reporters. She’s with ABC fake news, and she’s a horror show.”

Host Alex Witt played additional clips of Trump saying things like, “Quiet, piggy!” and slamming a female reporter’s “attitude,” adding, “I think you are a terrible reporter.”

Another clip showed him ask a reporter, “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” before telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “You are so bad. You are the worst reporter.”

MS NOW political analyst Molly Jong-Fast said she’s observed a “shift” in the president’s behavior since she started covering him a decade ago.

“You’ll remember when he was debating Hillary Clinton or Vice President [Kamala] Harris, we would see him sort of say misogynistic things or be misogynistic and dismissive. But what is new here, which I think is relevant and important, is that he really does lash out at these reporters in a way that seems unplanned, right?” Jong-Fast said. “Like we’ve seen him sort of do things where it is not tasteful to us. We don’t like it. It doesn’t feel good, but it doesn’t seem quite as emotional.”

“And I think this is meaningful because, you know, he’s 79, he’s about to be 80,” Jong-Fast continued. “And as you get older, sometimes you see people who start to slow down are less able to control their sort of their behavior and speech. And it does strike me that the fact that he can’t prevent himself from getting angry at these women reporters and lashing out is new.”

Witt asked about the president’s behavior becoming “normalized.”

“In a previous decade, this kind of behavior would be so outside of the norm that people would just be apoplectic,” Jong-Fast said. “I mean, he said to a journalist, ‘Quiet piggy,’ to a woman journalist. I mean, yeah, that’s no precedent for that. It’s not like something that Nixon did.”

“But I also think that part of his situation is that he’s a person who likes the people who vote for him and doesn’t like the people who don’t vote for him. And he said as much. And, you know, he’s never really been able to sort of keep up with women voters the way he has with men. And part of the MAHA movement was about trying to get those women voters, so you could see how him lashing out at women voters is also somewhat narcissistic.”

Watch the clip above via MS NOW.

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