Trump Calling Reporter ‘Piggy’ Was ‘Frankness,’ White House Says

Last week, President Trump snapped at a journalist when she asked him about Jeffrey Epstein. “Quiet!” the president told Catherine Lucey, a reporter for Bloomberg News. “Quiet, piggy.”

Mr. Trump’s use of a schoolyard epithet raised eyebrows. “Disgusting and completely unacceptable,” scolded CNN’s Jake Tapper. A press watchdog group said that “targeting women reporters with humiliating insults should not be tolerated.”

On Thursday, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, put a different spin on the remark.

“I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis,” Ms. Leavitt told reporters during a briefing in the West Wing.