President Donald Trump is well-known for the sick, obsessive pattern in the way he handles female journalists. He routinely attacks women reporters at press conferences when he doesn’t like their tough questions, which is almost always. The pattern has become one of the most defining and disturbing features of his presidency, and critics say it reveals a man who simply can’t handle being challenged by a woman.
In just the past 14 months of his second term, he has called a Bloomberg reporter “piggy,” and labeled other women journalists “stupid,” “ugly,” and “rotten.” These aren’t offhand remarks made in the heat of the moment. They are repeated, calculated attacks that follow a clear and troubling pattern.
He also lashed out at a CNN journalist earlier this year, calling her “the worst reporter” and criticizing her for never smiling at him. The insults keep piling up, and each new attack makes the last one look tame by comparison. For many Americans watching from home, it has stopped being surprising and started being something much more serious.
Now, one woman appears to be getting under Trump’s skin more than most. Jessica Tarlov, a co-host on Fox News’ popular show The Five, has become a recurring obsession he apparently can’t shake. She is the lone dissenting, more moderate voice on a panel of four conservative hosts, and that alone seems to drive him toward his worst nightmare scenario.
The idea that Fox News, his own longtime media safe haven, still gives Tarlov a platform clearly blows up his carefully managed sense of control. Critics say the dynamic frustrates him deeply. A man who demands loyalty from everyone around him apparently cannot stand the fact that his favorite network keeps letting a critic speak freely on national television.
On Thursday, April 17, while flying on Air Force One toward a campaign event in Las Vegas, an enraged Trump fired off a deeply personal attack against Tarlov on his Truth Social platform. He didn’t keep it political. He made it personal, and he made it ugly.
“I am watching one of the Least Attractive and Talented People on all of Television, Jessica Tarlov,” Trump wrote. “Her voice is so grating and terrible, I had to ‘turn her off!’”
He continued his tirade, claiming her “Democrat soundbites are FAKE” and that “she makes up Poll Numbers.” He then pivoted to bragging about his own approval ratings, telling his followers that CNN had him at “100%,” saying they had “never seen that before.” It was a claim that fell apart almost immediately.
CNN had actually reported that Trump held strong support among a poll of Republicans, not the general American electorate. The latest New York Times poll shows just over 39 percent of Americans approve of his overall performance. His numbers have been dragged down significantly by his deeply unpopular war on Iran and a wave of rising fuel and food prices hitting everyday families.
Still, Trump wasn’t done. He ended his rant with a full-throated demand directed at Fox News leadership. “GET HER OFF THE AIR, SHE IS BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY!” he wrote, in all capital letters. It was the kind of authoritarian power move that his critics have come to expect, and it was about to blow up right in his face.
What specifically set him off was Tarlov’s on-air segment revealing Trump’s dismal polling numbers, including figures showing him at “over -30 on cost of living, -28 on taxes.” Those are devastating numbers for any sitting president. Tarlov had put them on the screen, named them clearly, and let them speak for themselves.
But Tarlov didn’t flinch. She took Trump’s personal attack and flipped it straight back at him, using his own power move against him in a way that turned his outburst into a marketing goldmine. It was a move right out of his own playbook, and it worked perfectly.
Guess I’ll take this opportunity to mention that my numbers are far from fake – Trump really is that unpopular. And you can pre order my book I Disagree as of today!! https://t.co/HJ0ht7whiu pic.twitter.com/5uNypNRAlo
Guess I’ll take this opportunity to mention that my numbers are far from fake – Trump really is that unpopular. And you can pre order my book I Disagree as of today!! https://t.co/HJ0ht7whiu pic.twitter.com/5uNypNRAlo
— Jessica Tarlov (@JessicaTarlov) April 17, 2026
“Guess I’ll take this opportunity to mention that my numbers are far from fake — Trump really is that unpopular,” Tarlov replied publicly. She then used the moment to announce the pre-order of her new book, I Disagree, turning Trump’s furious attack into a nationwide advertisement. It was sharp, confident, and exactly the kind of response that drives him to his worst nightmare.
Social media exploded almost immediately. Thousands of users flooded platforms to react, many expressing outrage at Trump’s behavior and admiration for Tarlov’s calm and clever response. The contrast between the two was impossible to miss.
MSN reader John Gow wrote, “It tells what Trump would like to do to our First Amendment when not even right-wing fake FOX News media isn’t good enough for him. Trump wants America to be like North Korea, Iran or Russia where the news is controlled by his government.”
View on Threads Another commenter added, “Veteran, Christian, and former law enforcement here. We must wonder with the vile comments we must hear every day what he sees when he looks in the mirror. Obviously not what the rest of the world sees.”
Others were even more direct. “He hasn’t a clue, does he?” one user wrote on Threads. Another fired back, “Nope! You are the least attractive and worst president in the history of our country. Shut up Donnie!”
Many users online quickly rallied around Tarlov’s book announcement, seeing it as the perfect act of resistance. “She has a book coming out and I feel it’s our duty to ensure it makes number one on the NYT Bestseller list,” wrote one user named Simon. Others shared screenshots of their purchases almost immediately after her post went live.
But Trump wasn’t finished with just one target that day. In the same Truth Social post, he turned his fury toward former allies who have since broken with him. He lumped Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens into the same basket, ranting that their audiences are “dying fast” and that “nobody believes them anymore.”
“They were FAKE MAGA, and now they’ve been exposed!” Trump raged in the same post. All three had publicly criticized Trump in March over his decision to go to war with Iran. They argued it was a direct betrayal of his “America First” campaign promise to keep the United States out of foreign conflicts.
Trump’s relationship with Fox News has been one of the most powerful and symbiotic partnerships in modern American political media. He was close friends with Fox owner Rupert Murdoch for years, and the network has long provided him with favorable coverage while downplaying controversies surrounding him and his family.
Hosts like Sean Hannity and the Fox and Friends morning crew are known MAGA loyalists who have consistently championed Trump throughout both of his terms. That built-in support has made Fox feel like home territory for Trump for over a decade. Which makes Tarlov’s continued presence there, and her ability to call out his real poll numbers on live television, all the more infuriating for him.
In the end, Trump set out to silence a critic and humiliate a woman he clearly can’t stop obsessing over. Instead, he handed her a national spotlight, a viral moment, and a rocket-fueled book launch. That is what happens when a man who can’t handle the truth goes to war with someone who is very good at telling it.
