Trump gets $10mn funds, raises fresh stink with tweet
US President Donald Trump held his first fundraiser for his 2020 re-election campaign on Wednesday, raising an estimated $10 million but adding fuel to the long-running war he has had with the media.
At the fundraiser — held at a closed-door dinner at the Trump International hotel — the media were barred. About 300 donors and supporters attended the $35,000-a-plate dinner, reports said. At the event, Trump ranted about the press, particularly CNN, after the network retracted a story about his campaign aide’s alleged Russia links.
On Thursday morning, he escalated his attack on the media, insulting a female news anchor in terms so offensive even conservatives were appalled. He called Mika Brzezinski — co-host on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show — “low IQ Crazy Mika” in a tweet, writing that “she was bleeding badly from a face-lift”.
In his diatribe on Twitter, he also insulted Joe Scarborough, the other host of the show, calling him “Psycho Joe”.
Trump had appeared on the show several times as a candidate, but turned on it after the two anchors became critical of him.
The White House and the First Lady came out in full support of the tweets. Melania Trump’s office said the she believes that “when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder”.
Some Republicans disagreed very publicly. “This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women,” five-term Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins tweeted. She supported Trump in the presidential race.
Republican senator Lyndsey Graham, who ran against Trump as a party nominee and has been generally critical of him, tweeted: “Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.”
Nothing more was heard from Trump till the writing of this report.
However, his tweets brought up memories of his remarks about another female TV anchor, Megyn Kelly. Irritated by her tough questioning during a president debate, Trump had said, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her whatever.”