WASHINGTON — President Trump viciously mocked a “way out of shape” male reporter on Thursday when the journalist asked him about the reason he canceled a Saturday campaign trip to Kansas — telling the man “you look like hell.”
Trump, 80, bristled at the suggestion that he was worn out from a rigorous travel schedule to boost Republicans in close congressional races.
“Mr. President, you’ve been doing a lot of travel. We’ve been doing a lot of travel with you. How are you doing? How is your health?” the reporter asked after Air Force One returned from a stop in South Carolina.
“I think very good. I think you see that,” Trump, replied before pivoting to say “we had a great rally” and that “we’re going to have a strong Tuesday night.”
Trump unloaded on his questioner when the journalist pressed him.
“So you not going to Kansas has nothing to do with you being sick of traveling?” the reporter inquired, prompting Trump to turn the focus on the reporter’s own health.
“You are a sick guy. Reuters is terrible, by the way,” the president fumed.
“Look at this guy. He’s way out of shape, look at how badly — he comes to me, ‘Sir, you’re not going to go to Kansas.’ I’m not going to Kansas because [Sen. Roger Marshall] is doing very well. I’m going to do a tele-rally. Tomorrow I’m doing Florida,” Trump said.
“He said, ‘What’s the reason?’ After doing what, 28? He says, ‘What’s the reason for this, sir, that you’re not going to Kansas?’
“You know what the reason is? I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas. I’m going to Florida tomorrow, and I’ll do [more] if something else comes up. But he said, ‘You’re not going to Kansas, sir. Are you feeling well?’
“You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.”
The White House’s rapid response team celebrated the takedown and tagged the reporter, Jacob Bogage, on X.
Trump has previously mocked reporters, but generally it’s women on the receiving end of the barbs about their appearance, calling one “piggy,” at least two others ugly “inside and out” since returning to office last year.
Lately, he has taken to praising the physique of men in the final stretch of the campaign, including repeatedly speaking about the muscular posterior of Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), while promoting the previously obscure appointed senator’s football-playing past to voters.
A White House official told The Post in response to a question about the canceled Kansas trip this weekend that Trump “will continue connecting directly with Americans nationwide through more than 20 tele-rallies before Election Day.”
Trump is very sensitive to suggestions of infirmity, with his first-term communications director Hope Hicks famously pronouncing, “Donald Trump is never tired and he is never sick.”
