The President Who Cannot Be Questioned

Trump doesn’t dodge tough questions; he attacks them, revealing a president who lashes out because the truth, not the reporter, is the thing he can’t control.

Guest article by Michael Cohen. Remember to follow him on Substack for more by clicking here. Michael is also racing to 500K followers on YouTube! Subscribe today for free here.

If you grew up with siblings; or hell, if you survived the emotional Thunderdome known as American grade school, you learned early on that there were lines you didn’t cross. Call your brother “stupid,” you got grounded. Tell a girl on the playground she’s “ugly,” you got marched to the principal’s office by the ear. “Piggy”? That bought you a note home, a stern talking-to, and, depending on your zip code, a slipper to the backside.

But what do you do when the kid hurling playground insults isn’t eight years old with chocolate milk on his breath, but the 79-year-old President of the United States, the most powerful man on the planet, who keeps talking like the world’s oldest third-grader caught in an endless lunchroom tantrum? Where do you send him? Time-out? Detention? Mar-a-Lago already is detention, only with more comfortable seating.

This week, America got another reminder that something is fundamentally off-kilter inside Trump’s operation, and it’s bleeding straight out of his own mouth. And no, it’s not a diagnosis. It’s not a medical issue. It’s the consequences of pressure, bad advice, and a political strategy built on grievance gasoline with a match permanently lit. When the walls start closing in, Trump doesn’t adapt; he detonates.

Let’s start with Mar-a-Lago, where good questions go to die. CBS’s Nancy Cordes, professional, prepared, and doing the job the First Amendment demands, asked the president about Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect in the D.C. shooting of two National Guard members. Lakanwal isn’t the cartoon villain Trump’s been selling. The man worked with the CIA in Kabul for a decade. He came in during the evacuation and later received asylum under Trump’s own administration.

Cordes asked a reasonable question: If the inspector general found Afghan evacuees were thoroughly vetted, then why blame Biden?

Trump’s answer? His greatest hit:

“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?”

It wasn’t strategy. It wasn’t strength. It was a man feeling cornered by facts and defaulting to the same insult arsenal he used as a New York tabloid curiosity.

Saturday Afternoon News Updates - 11/29/25

This is what happens when a president surrounds himself with people who tell him every problem is someone else’s fault, every question is an attack, and every woman who challenges him is “disrespectful.” Bad advice produces bad behavior, and America is reacting exactly the way you’d expect: with frustration, exhaustion, and increasingly, concern.

But Cordes wasn’t the only target. Katie Rogers of The New York Times co-writes a careful, fact-based piece about the president’s age, mobility, stamina, schedule, and the MRI he disclosed, all documented and observable. Trump shredded her as “third rate” and “ugly, both inside and out.” He denounced the Times as a “rag” and “the enemy of the people,” never mentioning her male co-author.

Then Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey asked about the Epstein files, a sensitive topic for reasons Trump pretends are obvious “witch hunts” rather than legitimate scrutiny. His response: “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”

And ABC’s Mary Bruce dared to ask a question about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, a murder U.S. intelligence squarely linked to the Saudi Crown Prince. Trump scolded her for “embarrassing” MBS, then called her a “terrible person” and her question “insubordinate.”

Insubordinate.
As if he’s royalty and the White House press corps are disobedient subjects.

So what’s really going on here?

Here’s the truth from someone who lived inside the machine longer than any sane person should:
Donald Trump is under pressure—public pressure, media pressure, political pressure—and the advice he’s getting is telling him to treat that pressure like enmity.

He’s being told the press is out to get him.
He’s being told the public doesn’t “understand” him.
He’s being told to punch harder, bark louder, demean faster.
And he listens. He always listens to the worst people in the room.

This is not about instability. It’s about deflection.
It’s about avoiding accountability.
It’s about blaming journalists, especially women, because they’re the ones holding up mirrors he can’t bear to look into.

Karoline Leavitt stepped up and called this barrage “honesty” and “frankness,” as if “Are you stupid?” is presidential transparency. As if “piggy” is a bold new chapter in communicative candor. As if calling a journalist ugly is something the press should appreciate.

But America isn’t buying it. People see the hostility. They see the thin skin. They see a president absorbing the weight of a job his own advisers have convinced him is a battlefield, not a responsibility.

So here’s what we know: When presidents feel confident, they lead.
When they feel cornered, they lash out.
Trump isn’t lashing out because he’s strong; he’s lashing out because he’s under pressure, badly advised, and increasingly aware that the media questions he hates are questions millions of Americans are asking too.

And the women asking those questions aren’t the problem.
They’re the truth-tellers.
They’re the accountability he can’t silence.

And that, more than anything, is the truth he’s afraid you’ll hear.

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