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How did major news organizations report and fact-check claims that Trump called the press 'piggy'?
Executive summary
Major news outlets reported that President Trump told a female reporter “Quiet, quiet, piggy” during a Nov. 14 Air Force One gaggle while she asked about Jeffrey Epstein files; multiple national publications published video or transcripts and identified the reporter as a Bloomberg correspondent [1] [2] [3]. Coverage emphasized the clip was released by the White House, drew bipartisan criticism, and arrived amid pressure to release Epstein-related documents [2] [4].
1. How the incident was reported: straight quotes and video clips
News outlets from The Guardian to Newsweek, People and Metro published the exchange using the White House video or uploaded footage, quoting Trump saying “Quiet, quiet piggy” as a female reporter began to ask about the Epstein files [1] [2] [3] [5]. Many outlets ran short captions and video clips showing the moment was brief and occurred on Nov. 14 during a press gaggle on Air Force One; some noted the clip was shared publicly by the White House [2] [4].
2. Who the press organizations named and how they sourced it
Several outlets reported that the reporter was from Bloomberg, citing colleagues and a CBS News reporter who first flagged the exchange; The Guardian and Syracuse.com's coverage repeat that attribution while noting journalists subsequently identified the correspondent as Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey [1] [6]. The Independent and UK outlets also reported the Bloomberg link, referencing contemporaneous reporting and social posts from reporters [7] [8].
3. Fact-check tone: consensus on the wording, varying emphasis on context
Mainstream outlets uniformly quoted the line “Quiet, quiet piggy,” treating the wording itself as established because of the White House footage; Newsweek, Deadline and People all published the phrase verbatim [9] [2] [3]. Beyond the direct quote, coverage diverged: some pieces framed it primarily as an example of Trump’s treatment of women journalists and past insults, while others emphasized the political backdrop—pressure to release Epstein files and the pending House vote—rather than gendered commentary [10] [2] [4].
4. Political and journalistic reactions reported
Reports noted backlash across the political spectrum and among journalists: outlets cited colleagues and some public figures condemning the language and behavior as unprofessional and misogynistic; others highlighted that Republicans were breaking with Trump on the Epstein-files issue, creating the immediate political context for the exchange [5] [11] [4]. Several reports recall earlier instances where Trump reportedly used similar insults toward women, connecting the episode to an established pattern in their narratives [10] [8].
5. How outlets handled sourcing and attribution
Coverage made clear where claims came from: CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs was repeatedly named as among the first to report the Bloomberg connection, while many stories explicitly stated the clip came from the White House release [1] [6] [4]. Some outlets included a White House official’s response or a statement from press aides, while others focused on witness accounts and the video itself as primary evidence [12] [13].
6. What the reporting did not settle (limitations in available coverage)
Available reporting establishes the quote and the video source, but current articles vary in the depth of corroboration of surrounding details; for instance, available sources do not mention any independent transcript beyond the clip or exhaustive contemporaneous audio verification beyond the released footage (not found in current reporting). Some pieces linked the incident to historical anecdotes about Trump calling other women “piggy” or “Miss Piggy,” but those references are presented as context or past allegations rather than new, independently verified claims about this specific moment [8] [10].
7. Why this mattered to newsrooms and readers
News organizations treated the exchange as newsworthy because it involved the sitting president addressing a journalist on camera with a disparaging epithet during a high-profile controversy (Epstein files) and because it fit into longer debates about presidential norms and press treatment; outlets combined the clip with reporting on the legislative fight to release the files to convey both immediate and wider significance [2] [4].
Bottom line: Across the cited coverage, the line “Quiet, quiet, piggy” is reported consistently and attributed to Trump via White House-released video, outlets identify the reporter as from Bloomberg per contemporaneous sourcing, and reaction pieces place the moment in both a political and historical context about Trump’s comments toward women [1] [2] [3].