The White House on Monday lashed out at a CNN reporter after she asked a question about 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, 80, 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 Republican leader later berated Holmes as “very disrespectful” as she asked a question on North Korea.
The event was to honor 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.
.@POTUS: “You’re very disrespectful in front of this young man… You’re a loud, boisterous person. You’re Fake News. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. You’re a fake reporter and you report FAKE NEWS.” https://t.co/ag30QbC3Iu pic.twitter.com/BciRrLrCKD
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 17, 2026
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 criticized 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 cuck loser in politics” — using internet slang for a submissive man.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
