US President Donald Trump’s brutal personal attack Thursday on television host Mika Brzezinski drew sharp and instant condemnation from politicians across the political spectrum.
It was hardly the first time.
Trump has targeted those he sees as his opponents, including women frequently, in shockingly personal terms.
In a single Tweet on Thursday, Trump described Brzezinski — a frequent critic of his — as “low IQ,” “crazy” and “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
Here is a sampling of other tweets and remarks from Trump that have caused sharp public reactions:
Angered by the sharp questioning of Megyn Kelly, then a Fox News anchor, during a Republican presidential debate, Trump complained later that she was “asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” adding, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.”
Trump later tweeted that by “wherever” he was referring to Kelly’s nose, but his comment was widely seen as meaning she was harsh in her questioning because she was menstruating.
He said in a campaign speech that Senator John McCain, who was captured in North Vietnam when his navy jet was shot down in 1967, was “not a war hero,” adding, with clear sarcasm: “He’s a hero because he was captured? I like people that weren’t captured.”
McCain suffered at least five fractures and nearly drowned in the crash.
Trump assailed Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala, whose son, an army captain, was killed in Iraq. After Khan addressed the Democratic National Convention last August, the then-Republican candidate tweeted, “Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over TV doing the same — Nice!” Khan had said that Trump, who received several military deferments during the Vietnam War, had “sacrificed nothing and no one.”
Referring to actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, a frequent critic of his, he said that if he were hosting a talk show she appeared on, “I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say ‘Rosie, you’re fired’.”
Their feud is long-running: She has called him “sadistic,” while he has frequently mocked her as fat, “obnoxious and dumb” and “a total loser.”
Trump fired off angry tweets last year against Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was hearing a lawsuit against Trump University, an unaccredited organization offering real-estate training. “I have a Mexican judge. He’s of Mexican heritage,” Trump tweeted. “He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things.”
Curiel is an American citizen, born in the state of Indiana. Trump ultimately paid $25 million to settle the lawsuit.
He called businesswoman and commentator Arianna Huffington “unattractive, both inside and out,” adding, “I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man — he made a good decision.”