Trump's attacks on women cross new line

Angry about election losses, the Epstein files and a faltering economy, he resorts to sexist slurs.

- ROBIN ABCARIAN COLUMNIST

PRESIDENT TRUMP, who all year has refused to release the Epstein files, capitulated after near unanimous votes in Congress.

(Anna Moneymaker Getty Images)

WHEN THE president of the United States pointed angrily at a reporter and called her “piggy,” I wish she had gone full Muppet: “Who? Moi?”

Of course, Bloomberg White House reporter Catherine Lucey did nothing of the sort. She was a consummate professional and did not respond to President Trump’s gratuitous insult after she asked why he had not already released the Epstein files if he has nothing to hide. But Trump's comment to her aboard Air Force One last week was so juvenile, so absurd and so beneath the dignity of his office that it seemed like he was parodying himself.

Except he wasn't. This is exactly who he is.

Trump’s been publicly denigrating women for years. Especially journalists.

In 2011, he sent New York Times columnist Gail Collins a copy of her own column, in which she described him as a “financially embattled thousandaire.” He'd circled her picture and scrawled “The Face of a Dog!” across it.

In 2015, during his first debate with Republican presidential hopefuls, moderator Megyn Kelly, then of Fox News, opened by quoting some of the misogynistic insults he'd lobbed at women, including “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals.”

“You once told a contestant on the ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?”

Kelly asked. Trump sputtered, then issued a veiled threat: “I've been very nice to you, although I could probably may be not be, based on the way you have treated me.”