Plus Vanity Fair’s plucky decision to feature only men in its Hollywood Issue and the reporter fired after RFK Jr ‘sexting scandal’
We’ve all said things that didn’t come out right, and it’s my instinct – stand by for some counter-intuition! – that Donald Trump’s “quiet, piggy” admonishment of a female reporter on Air Force One this week was a very weird attempt at affection, or possibly flirtation. As with everything the man does, the effect was disastrous and totally inappropriate. But rewatching the video, I saw from the president less an example of his usual bigotry and more an attempt at what looked like “OK, kiddo” cuteness that, catastrophically, and before I could nip it in the bud, had triggered a tiny sprig of sympathy.
It didn’t last two seconds, obviously. The day after his piggy remarks, the US president sat in the Oval Office alongside Middle East-based tyrant Mohammed bin Salman and sucked up to him for all he was worth. There was nothing affectionate in Trump’s response to Mary Bruce, the chief Whitehouse correspondent for ABC News and hero of the hour, when she asked the Saudi crown prince about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi – which, she suggested bravely, US intelligence agencies had concluded “you orchestrated” – then informed the Saudi leader that “9/11 families are furious that you’re here in the Oval Office”, and rounded it off with: “Is it appropriate, Mr President, for your family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while you’re president?” (According to Forbes magazine, Trump’s extended family put through $50m in business deals connected to Saudi Arabia in 2024 alone.)
