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Roger Rabbits with |
How damned rude! How unpresidential, how unstatesmanlike.
That’s why, two weeks after he called a female reporter ‘Piggy’ I am still smouldering, still bothered, by DJTs ghastly verbal assault on the sisterhood – my female journalist colleagues.
“Typical,” observed one of them. “Sadly,” she said, “women face less extreme versions of misogyny far too often in our daily lives”.
‘Piggy-gate’ was much worse, dare I suggest, than ‘Ponytail-gate’ when a couple of Prime Ministerial mitts got a bit free and easy with a café waitress’s ponytail 10 years ago.
“Can I have a flash Parnell Venti Iced Caramel Macchiato with almond milk. And a tweak of your ponytail please?”
Probably didn’t ask, just tweaked and, understandably, it wasn’t appreciated. It caused a right old stink, then he apologised.
Unbefitting
Now the most powerful man on the planet has fired a cheap, sexist, personal shot at a female journalist because he didn’t like her question about Objectionable Jeffrey, Odious Epstein. That’s his style, or lack of it.
He levelled an index finger at the reporter and snapped “Quiet Piggy!”
Piggy? Where did that come from? The rarified atmosphere of Air Force One at 35,000 feet perhaps. Or more men’s locker room behaviour like his infamous and unsavoury women’s genitalia comment. The ‘Piggy’ shot was unforgiveable and has continued to ripple and draw condemnation. Unbefitting a President. Unbefitting anyone.
The White House passed off the ‘Piggy’ snipe as Trump being a loveable Trump, the President being “frank and honest – one of the reasons he was re-elected”. I wonder if that would work for me? Would that be a legitimate defence strategy if I had called Work Wife ‘Piggy’. After being excoriated by the barbs of her mercilessly funny tongue, I would have been summoned to an emergency summit of Human Resources to discuss an actionable employment issue.
“Just being frank and honest,” I would have pleaded. “Why people love me.” Nervous chuckle.
Oink
And they would have said, well this is just US being frank and honest back at you, as they handed me an appropriately porcine pink slip of termination.
One oink deserves another oink!
I wonder how this would have gone down at home in Trump Tower? Would Mr Trump have ever pointed a digit at Mrs Trump and said: “Quiet Piggy”?
I suspect not. She would have torn that strange orange coif by the roots and told the President “naj te koklja brcne”, her native Slovenian for “May the chicken kick you”. In the tail feathers probably.
And what message does ‘Piggy’ send to boy-Trump. To any boy, anywhere, for that matter. “Why did you say that Dad?” “Because I am all powerful and I can say what I like, with impunity. All part of the package, part of my eminently loveable self.”
Boy Trump might think it empowering – good enough for a President, good enough a Dad, good enough for me.
Comb-overs
If we’re getting personal, then I have a cheeky question. Is it pre-requisite for powerbrokers to sport comb-overs? “Uncle Vlad” in the Kremlin who’s fighting on two fronts – an illegal expansionist war, and baldness. He’s losing one of them. Aleksandr Lukashenko who’s been hanging on to power in Belarus for 30 years. But not his hair. His parting is creeping dangerously close to the top of his ears. Soon it will have nowhere to go. Raise it with him and you’ll end up in a Gulag.
There’s “Uncle Bibi” with that curious signature purple, or blue, or grey comb over. What’s hiding under there?
And of course there’s the unfathomable orange thatch swirling around an orange tinted face in the Oval Office.
It needs to be said these comments aren’t coming from beneath a lustrous head of hair. It’s embarrassing on the beach when people are lathering SPF50+ on svelte bodies and I’m smearing it on my head.
Ouch!
A week before his disparaging ‘Piggy’ taunt, he called another female reporter “rude” for asking Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about alleged state sanctioned murder. Rude because journalists apparently lie, spread mis- and dis- information. And we’re “fake”. Whatever that means.
Anyhow DJT intercepted the question and booted it into touch with an insult. Who was the rude one?
Then a female CBS reporter got a presidential spray – “Are you a stupid person?…you’re asking questions because you are a stupid person”. Why gather your wits when you can get petty and personal?
Yet another female reporter who dared challenge the President also got a vicious lashing – “…a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out”. Ouch! Global issues suddenly come down to personal attacks. The male reporter who co-penned the story wasn’t mentioned.