The White House on Monday lashed out at a CNN reporter after she asked a question about US President Donald Trump’s relationship with an aide, in the latest in a series of attacks on female journalists.
During an event in the Oval Office, reporter Kristen Holmes asked Trump to respond to comments by a Democratic lawmaker about the president’s executive assistant Natalie Harp, 35.
“Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question,” the White House’s “Rapid Response” team said in an X post directed at Holmes and linking to a video of Trump’s response.
The US president later berated Holmes as “very disrespectful” as she asked a question on North Korea.
The event was to honour a teenage lifeguard who saved a child from swells, but the president opened the floor to questions on unrelated issues, as he regularly does.
“You’re a loud, boisterous person, you’re fake news, be quiet,” Trump said to Holmes.
CNN said the attacks on Holmes were “beneath the office”.
“We stand firmly behind Kristen and reject these attacks in the strongest possible terms,” it said in a statement.
Natalie Harp has been the subject of recent internet commentary after it emerged she was one of the few aides with Trump during a secret Air Force One swap in July.
Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator and possible 2028 presidential contender, accused Trump in a campaign speech on Sunday of wanting to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” instead of doing his job.
Trump dismissed Ossoff as a “Pee-wee Herman lookalike” and defended his construction of a $400 million ballroom at the White House, but did not mention his aide.
The White House criticised Holmes for asking about Harp during an event with the lifeguard.
“@POTUS hosts a hero lifeguard in the Oval Office and she uses it as an opportunity to take a cheap shot about one of President Trump’s staffers,” the Rapid Response account said.
“These scumbags are the lowest of the low.”
Harp, a former television news personality, is frequently seen at Trump’s side and has been dubbed the “human printer” for supplying the president with print-outs of information.
In the book “Regime Change” published this year, two New York Times reporters wrote that Harp’s loyalty extended to writing him “adoring letters” including one that read: “You are all that matters to me.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung had earlier slammed Ossoff for the Harp comments, calling him “the biggest loser in politics”.
