IF TRUMP CALLS SOMEONE 'VERY EVIL' & 'BAD,' IS HE TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF?  PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, in white hat, speaking in Texas; First Lady Melania Trump is at left, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. PHOTO CREDIT: White House video screenshot IF DONALD TRUMP TOLD THE WORLD that you were “a bad person” and “a very evil person” should you take a day – maybe an entire week – to think about that assessment and consider the implications? Because if there’s one subject in which Trump is truly expert, it’s what goes into being "very evil" and "bad." Last Friday, Trump made that kind of a diagnosis during the visit he and the First Lady made to the Hill Country of Texas, where nearly 300 people may have died in the catastrophic July 4 flood. It happened this way: Wearing a “USA” baseball cap, Trump presided over a “round table” of Texas and federal officials, who variously mourned the tragedy and praised the ongoing rescue and recovery operations. At one point, the session was opened to reporters, one of whom asked this question: “Several families we heard from are obviously upset because they say those warnings, those alerts didn’t go out in time, and they also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?” Trump’s first reply: “Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances.” And then, instinctively, the president of the United States remembered that Job One is not reflection about how well government serves the country, but character assassination, public humiliation and reputation destruction. Like a judge pronouncing the death penalty, Trump intoned: “Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.” A Texas Congressman, Republican Rep. Chip Roy, chimed in, according to The Daily Beast: “For all of the media clamoring to ask that ridiculous first question and try to point fingers, the governor (Greg Abbott) said it best when he said pointing fingers is for losers.” None of the news stories I ran across took Trump’s assessment of the reporter’s character to heart, noting that his attack was one of his standard “distraction” ploys, saying something personal and mean about someone, instead of addressing the question. Indeed, most stories didn’t name the journalist at all, identifying her simply as “the reporter,” since it’s no longer news that any media type who asks a bothersome question could get that kind of response from the one person in America capable of blowing the world to bits. But I wondered how the reporter – any reporter – would feel to be labeled “bad” and “very evil” on national television.  MARISSA ARMAS PHOTO CREDIT: Armas' Facebook page A SUPERFICIAL SEARCH of the Internet found one story that identified “the reporter” – aired by the Texas TV station she’s worked for since earlier this year, KTVT Dallas-Fort Worth, which refers to itself as “CBS News Texas.”
She’s Marissa Armas. According to a Texas blogger, Armas has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s in journalism from Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado. She’s worked as an anchor and reporter at stations in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, and at NBC Digital and Latino. At Columbia, she was chapter president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She’s a native of Denver. My quick scan of the Internet found no journalist defending her, nor any echoing Trump’s smear. Armas posted a short mention of the incident on her Facebook page: “Friday, I asked President Trump about whether there were sufficient warnings to people in Kerr County before the devastating floods, and this was his response.” She posted a video clip of Trump’s comment. Later, Armas was back at being her “bad” and “very evil” self, covering a vigil a week after the flood. “With flowers and candles, in front of a large wooden cross, the Kerry County community mourned,” she said, and held up a microphone to Ava Vanwinkle, who said: “It’s very devastating to happen to such a small town; nothing like this has ever happened before.” “As tears streamed down their faces,” Armas' narration continued, “community members looked at the photos attached to a growing memorial wall, showing the faces of the dozens of people who were killed and are still missing, a week later.” So, Armas did what journalists are supposed to do, just kept on doing her job, while letting Trump’s rudeness speak for itself, Maybe she took Trump’s attack as a badge of honor, the way people used to brag about finding their names on President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list.” BUT HURTFUL WORDS have meaning and real-world effects. If reporters seem to laugh off Trump’s attacks, are they still wounded? I also wonder whether some reporters – the real ones, not the sycophants who also roam the White House press room these days – tone down or even skip pointed questions, not wanting to trigger the commander-in-chief’s venom. And more to the point, how many people who respect and follow Trump have added “the reporter” to their own encyclopedic lists of people to despise and disparage? Trump’s long war against the press is far more serious than his schoolyard taunts against Melissa Armas. He’s seeking to defund NPR (National Public Radio) and PBS (the Public Broadcasting Service), with a House-passed bill pulling back money for two of the nation’s most trusted news sources. The measure could reach a critical Senate vote this week. He’s bullied ABC and CBS into offering spurious “settlements,” hurting both organizations' bottom lines and credibility, while Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, seems determined to weaken that great newspaper, ostensibly to cozy up to Trump. BECAUSE TRUMP SEEMS TO BE A NARCISSIST, thereby thinking of himself first , it’s possible that when he calls people names, he’s really talking about Donald J. Trump, and not you, me or Marissa Armas. A case can be made that he’s at least a second-hand murderer. By canceling most of the USAID program, he’s condemning millions of foreigners to early deaths from treatable diseases; his big, beautiful bill will cause millions of Americans to lose medical care, and some will die early. His pull back on efforts to combat climate change could devastate the planet. His immigration “policies” rip apart families and deport people to dangerous countries. His tariffs threaten the economy and the well-being of people in our own and other countries. His foul, mean and dehumanizing language increases the possibility of political and cultural violence. Talk about bad and very evil. The following sites were used in this posting:
2 Comments
Henry David Abraham
7/14/2025 10:52:51 am
Brian,
Neale
7/14/2025 07:15:48 pm
Asking questions of politicians can be very tricky. I appreciate that Armas was trying to humanize the story. If anything, she was giving Trump a chance to show a human side, to express empathy with the victims of the flood. The question tried to focus on the victims: "Some families we heard from... What do you say to those families?" But Trump doesn't do empathy, and Armas should have known that. Leave a Reply. |
BRIAN C. JONES
I'VE BEEN a reporter and writer for 61 years, long enough to have learned that journalists don't know very much, although I've met some smart ones.
Mainly, what reporters know comes from asking other people questions and fretting about their answers. This blog is a successor to one inspired by our dog, Phoebe, who was smart, sweet and the antithesis of Donald Trump. She died Feb. 3, 2022, and I don't see getting over that very soon. Occasionally, I think about trying to reach her via cell phone. |
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