Donald Trump lashed out at ABC reporter Rachel Scott after she pressed him on his $5,000 “Trump Dividend” pledge, continuing a pattern of heated exchanges with female journalists.
Donald Trump has verbally attacked yet another journalist when speaking with reporters on Thursday night at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott asked him directly about the $5,000 “Trump Dividend” he promised every American adult earlier this week, if Republicans win the midterms.
“On the checks, we have $40 trillion in debt,” Scott said. “If your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote?”
Trump brushed off the framing, shifting blame to Biden.
“I didn’t do it as an incentive to vote, I’m doing it as a reward for people having to put up with five years and four years of a horrible situation caused by Biden,” he said.
Things escalated when she followed up
Scott moved on to ask about his earlier, unfulfilled promise of $2,000 tariff refund checks, a pledge made last year, out of which not a single one has been mailed as of now.
This comment rubbed the president the wrong way, causing him to lean in close to her.
“Not you! Hey!” he said with a raised voice.
Other reporters described his expression as visibly contorted as he pointed at Scott and told her, “Your network and you, you’re the worst,” before turning to take a question from a male reporter instead.
Scott later posted video of the exchange on X, simply captioning it, “My question to Trump tonight.”
Only the newest part of an ongoing pattern
This is only the newest part in a longer pattern of Trump lashing out at reporters, and especially female ones. Scott herself has clashed with Trump before, with him previously calling her “stupid” after she asked about gas prices.
Just days earlier, another ABC reporter, Mary Bruce, asked Trump about Republicans skipping his convention and got a similar response: “ABC fake news. One of the worst, you are the worst of all, in my opinion.”
The pattern also extends well beyond just ABC. In April, Trump snapped “Quiet, quiet, quiet!” at CNN’s Kristen Holmes over a question about US-North Korea relations.
He’s also made transphobic remarks aimed at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, telling reporters she’s “a young, beautiful woman” who “never smiles” and appears to have “hatred in her eyes.”
Last year, he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey, “Quiet, Piggy,” and in May, told 60 Minutes’ Norah O’Donnell she was “a disgrace.”
The financial questions haven’t gone away
The underlying policy question remains unanswered.
Economists have pushed back hard on the $5,000 pledge, with Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimating it would cost roughly $1.2 trillion in a single year. For reference, $1.2 trillion is more than all three rounds of COVID relief checks combined.
