Donald Trump Couldn't Tell the Difference Between Two Female Reporters During a News Conference
Donald Trump has boasted that “no one has more respect for women” than he does—but he sure seems to have trouble telling them apart.
The president struggled to tell the difference between two blonde female reporters at a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö on Monday. As Niinistö called upon a member of the Finland press corps to ask a question—a reporter who happened to be a woman with blonde hair—Trump interjected.
“Again? You’re going to give her the same one?” he asked, alluding to a different blonde-haired woman who had asked a question earlier.
“No, she is not the same lady,” Niinistö retorted. “They are sitting side by side.”
https://twitter.com/NBCNightlyNews/status/902273886837989381
The reporter gamely offered her own insight, telling the President, “We have a lot of blonde women in Finland.” Then she got back to business, launching into a question about Finland’s role in the relationship between Russian and the U.S.
This isn’t the first time Trump has struggled to get through a basic interaction with the press. In the roughly seven months since he took office, his tempestuous relationship with the media has seen an impromptu press conference turn downright hostile, a campaign-style rally built mostly on media attacks, and a truly cringe-worthy moment when the President singled out an Irish reporter to compliment her “nice smile.”
As for Monday’s gaffe, even a cursory glance would indicate that the two women who were subjects of the President’s mix-up, Maria Annala and Paula Vilén, don’t really look alike:
As Annala lamented, “We have a lot of blonde women in Finland” could, sadly, be her journalistic legacy forever.