Anderson Cooper expressed disbelief after President Donald Trump called a reporter “piggy” during a heated exchange aboard Air Force One, and commentator Ana Navarro warned that the press must resist becoming numb to repeated humiliations.
The incident occurred when Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey asked about the Epstein files and attempted a follow-up question. According to a clip aired by Cooper, the president snapped,
“Quiet, quiet, piggy!”
Cooper replayed the moment on his program and recalled a previous encounter in which Trump dismissed a female reporter by saying to Vice President JD Vance,
“I just like to watch her talk,”
then calling her “darling.” Cooper said the behavior was a clear dismissal and asked why such treatment keeps being tolerated.
“I just don’t understand how somebody acts like this time after time, and everyone just pretends like, ‘Oh, that’s just what this guy does,’” Cooper said, criticizing the inclination to shrug off repeated insults.
Navarro echoed his concern, saying many people — including journalists — have “grown numb to it.” She urged reporters present when the president berates a colleague to show solidarity rather than remain silent:
“We have to fight that urge to normalize it and get numb to it. Other journalists in the room have to express solidarity with the people getting berated, because today it might be ABC, but tomorrow it might be us.”
The exchange highlights ongoing worries among media figures about the tone and decorum of the president’s interactions with the press and raises questions about how journalists and news organizations should respond when colleagues are publicly demeaned.
