The Insult Ledger

A catalogue of Donald Trump’s harassing, bullying, and demeaning public statements — the nicknames, the attacks, and the escalated rhetoric that defined a decade of American political speech.

Any single insult from Donald Trump is forgettable. That is the point of them. The power is cumulative. What makes a catalogue worth building is not the inventory of rudeness — it’s the documentation of a method. Rule by public humiliation of anyone who applies scrutiny. A permanent operating posture that conditions journalists, judges, prosecutors, foreign allies, former staff, veterans, disabled people, women who accuse him, women who question him, and women who simply exist in his line of sight, to expect personal degradation as the cost of proximity to power. The ledger is the argument.

§ IThe Nickname Arsenal

Trump’s signature rhetorical device is the derisive nickname — a short, sticky, repetitive label designed to humiliate, caricature, and displace the target’s actual identity in public discourse. He has used hundreds across his political career. The pattern is consistent: attack a physical trait, allege dishonesty, or invent a diminutive.

Political rivals — primaries and beyond

§ IIAttacks on Women

A long pattern of gendered insults, appearance-based mockery, and degrading language directed at women — journalists, politicians, accusers, former aides, and private citizens.

The physical-appearance attacks

• Rosie O’Donnell — Repeatedly called her “fat,” “a pig,” “a slob,” “disgusting,” “a loser” over years. One of his longest-running public feuds.
• Heidi Cruz — Retweeted an unflattering image of Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife alongside a glamour photo of Melania Trump with the caption “no need to ‘spill the beans.'” (March 2016)
• Carly Fiorina — “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” (Rolling Stone, September 2015)
• Mika Brzezinski — “Low I.Q. Crazy Mika,” and in a June 2017 tweet claimed she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at Mar-a-Lago.
• Megyn Kelly — After she pressed him on misogynistic comments at an August 2015 debate, Trump said she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” — widely interpreted as a menstruation reference.
• Arianna Huffington — “Unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man — he made a good decision.” (Twitter, 2012)
• Bette Midler — “Extremely unattractive (both inside and out).” Repeated “ugly” attacks over years.
• Cher — “A loser,” “washed up” on multiple occasions.
• Katie Rogers (NYT) — Nov. 26, 2025: “A third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,” after she co-authored a piece on signs of Trump’s aging.

The accusers and witnesses

• E. Jean Carroll — After she accused him of sexual assault, he said she was “not my type.” A jury later found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding her $83.3 million in damages (January 2024).
• Stormy Daniels — “Horseface.” (Twitter, October 2018)
• Summer Zervos, Jessica Leeds, and other accusers — Repeatedly dismissed as “liars” and in some cases ridiculed their appearance (“She would not be my first choice”).
• Christine Blasey Ford — Mimicked and mocked her Kavanaugh hearing testimony at a Mississippi rally (October 2018) — “I had one beer. How did you get home? I don’t remember.” Crowd laughter.

Women journalists — the late-2025 cluster

Over a roughly 30-day stretch in late 2025, Trump attacked multiple women White House reporters in rapid succession. A representative sample:

• Catherine Lucey (Bloomberg), Nov. 14, 2025 — “Quiet, piggy,” on Air Force One after she pressed him on the Epstein files.
• Mary Bruce (ABC News), Nov. 18, 2025 — Called her question “horrible, insubordinate” and her “a terrible person and a terrible reporter” after she asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about Khashoggi’s murder.
• Nancy Cordes (CBS), late Nov. 2025 — “Are you a stupid person?”
• Kaitlan Collins (CNN), Dec. 2025 — Called her “always Stupid and Nasty” in a Truth Social post.
• Rachel Scott (ABC), Dec. 8, 2025 — “You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place… you are an obnoxious, a terrible — actually a terrible reporter.”
• Weijia Jiang (CBS), Libbey Dean (NewsNation) — Berated during an Air Force One gaggle after Jiang asked which body part was examined in his undisclosed MRI.

Other prominent attacks

• Alicia Machado (former Miss Universe) — Called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” and publicly body-shamed her; surfaced during the first 2016 debate.
• Fani Willis (Fulton County DA) — “Racist,” “incompetent,” “crooked,” and repeatedly by first name in mocking cadence.
• Letitia James (NY AG) — “Peekaboo” — a nickname widely condemned as racially coded — plus “racist” and “crooked.”
• Omarosa Manigault Newman — After she released a tell-all book, Trump called her “that dog.” (August 2018)

§ IIIMockery of People with Disabilities

• Serge Kovaleski (NYT / WaPo) — At a November 2015 South Carolina rally, Trump visibly imitated the journalist’s arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting joint movement, while mocking him: “You gotta see this guy.” An August 2016 Bloomberg poll identified this as the single most offensive of Trump’s acts to that point. Trump has never apologized; he denied he knew the reporter was disabled despite having been interviewed by him repeatedly over years.
• Marlee Matlin (Celebrity Apprentice) — Former staff reported Trump called the Oscar-winning deaf actress “retarded.” Trump denied it.

§ IVAttacks on Veterans, POWs, and Gold Star Families

• John McCain — “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” (Family Leadership Summit, Iowa, July 2015.) McCain spent 5½ years as a POW in Vietnam, where he was tortured. Trump — who received five draft deferments including a bone-spurs diagnosis — continued attacking McCain for years, including after McCain’s death in 2018.
• The Khan family — After Khizr Khan — Gold Star father of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004 — spoke at the 2016 DNC saying Trump had “sacrificed nothing and no one,” Trump attacked Ghazala Khan for standing silently beside her husband: “She had nothing to say.” Widely read as an Islamophobic smear.
• La David Johnson (Gold Star family) — After Sgt. Johnson was killed in Niger in 2017, Trump disputed the account of his widow, Myeshia Johnson, and Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) of his condolence call — later publicly attacking Wilson as “Wacky” and mocking her on social media.
• “Losers and suckers” — September 2020 Atlantic reporting — corroborated in part by Fox News and others — alleged Trump referred to American war dead at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery as “losers” and “suckers,” and asked, “Who were the good guys in this war?” Trump denies. Former Chief of Staff John Kelly later confirmed the account on the record.
• Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — Active-duty officer and Purple Heart recipient who testified during the first impeachment. Trump called him “Never Trumper” and fired him two days after his acquittal.
• Gen. Mark Milley — Former Joint Chiefs Chairman. In September 2023, Trump suggested Milley had committed “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”

§ VRacial and Ethnic Attacks

• Judge Gonzalo Curiel — Said the Indiana-born federal judge had an “absolute conflict” presiding over the Trump University fraud case because he was “of Mexican heritage.” Speaker Paul Ryan called this “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” (June 2016)
• Mexican immigrants (campaign launch) — June 16, 2015: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
• “Shithole countries” — In a January 2018 Oval Office meeting on immigration, Trump reportedly asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” — referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations — and asked why the U.S. couldn’t have more immigrants from places like Norway.
• “Go back” tweets, July 2019 — Told four congresswomen of color (“The Squad” — Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, Pressley) to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Three were U.S.-born; all are American citizens. The House passed a resolution condemning the tweets as racist.
• “Kung Flu” / “China Virus” — Sustained 2020 use of these terms for COVID-19, blamed for contributing to documented spikes in anti-Asian hate crimes.
• Elijah Cummings / Baltimore — July 2019: Called the late congressman’s district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”
• LeBron James and Don Lemon — “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.” (August 2018)
• Maxine Waters — “An extraordinarily low IQ person.” Repeatedly mocked her intelligence.
• Native Americans (Pocahontas) — Used the slur as Warren’s nickname even while speaking at a November 2017 White House event honoring Navajo Code Talkers.

§ VIFormer Allies and Staff Who Fell Out of Favor

A well-documented pattern: fulsome praise while loyal, savage personal attacks the moment they part ways. Representative examples:

• Jeff Sessions — After the AG recused from the Russia probe: “weak,” “disgraceful,” “DISGRACEFUL,” “a total disaster.”
• Rex Tillerson — “Dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell” after Tillerson was fired as Secretary of State.
• John Bolton — “Wacko,” “sick puppy,” “dumbest person in Washington,” after Bolton’s book was published.
• James Mattis — “The world’s most overrated general.”
• John Kelly — “Weak and ineffective,” “not even close to being up for the job.”
• Bill Barr — “Weak, slow moving, lethargic, gutless, and lazy” after Barr said there was no widespread 2020 election fraud.
• Mike Pence — After Jan. 6, “a very weak person” who “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” Rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” that day.
• Anthony Fauci — “Disaster,” “not a team player,” “full of crap,” and repeatedly attacked through the pandemic and after.
• Michael Cohen — After Cohen cooperated with prosecutors: “A rat,” “weak,” “a liar.”

§ VIIJudges, Prosecutors, and Law Enforcement

• Judge Arthur Engoron — Presided over the NY civil fraud case. Trump called him “deranged,” “Trump-hating,” “psycho,” “a disgrace.”
• Judge Juan Merchan — Presided over the NY criminal hush-money case. Trump called him “highly conflicted,” a “hack,” “a disgrace,” and repeatedly attacked his daughter — drawing a gag order.
• Judge Tanya Chutkan — “Highly partisan,” “biased,” “Trump-hating.”
• Special Counsel Jack Smith — “Deranged,” “psycho,” “thug,” repeatedly over months.
• Alvin Bragg (Manhattan DA) — “Racist,” “animal,” “Soros-backed.”
• FBI and DOJ — Following the Mar-a-Lago search: “The FBI and DOJ have been weaponized” and “corrupt”; called agents “thugs.”
• Robert Mueller — “Conflicted,” “crazy,” “a disgrace,” “totally discredited.”
• James Comey — “Slimeball,” “showboat,” “leaker,” “worst FBI Director in history.”

§ VIIIMedia — Institutional and Individual

• “Fake news” / “Enemy of the people” — Applied broadly to CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Washington Post, and others. “Enemy of the people” is language with a documented history in Stalinist and Maoist purges; multiple press-freedom organizations and U.S. newspaper publishers formally condemned the phrase.
• Jim Acosta (CNN) — “Rude, terrible person,” “fake news.” White House briefly revoked his press pass in 2018; courts ordered it restored.
• April Ryan — “A loser,” “nasty,” “a very nasty person.”
• Chuck Todd — “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,” “pathetic,” “dumbest man on TV.”
• Joe Scarborough — “Psycho Joe,” including a now-infamous 2020 pattern of Trump amplifying a conspiracy theory accusing Scarborough of murder, prompting the widower of the deceased intern to publicly beg Trump to stop.
• George Stephanopoulos / ABC — “Slimeball,” “very dishonest.”

§ IXForeign Leaders and Allied Nations

• Kim Jong Un — “Little Rocket Man,” “short and fat,” at the UN in 2017 — though Trump later spoke admiringly of “beautiful letters” between them.
• Justin Trudeau — “Very dishonest and weak,” “two-faced.” Second-term: Trump repeatedly referred to him as “Governor Trudeau” of “the 51st state.”
• Angela Merkel — Repeatedly hostile; accused Germany of being “captive to Russia.”
• Theresa May — Told The Sun her Brexit approach would “kill” any UK–US trade deal, during his own state visit to the UK.
• Emmanuel Macron — Mocked France’s “very low” approval ratings and “VERY HIGH” unemployment.
• Volodymyr Zelensky — February 2025: Called Zelensky “a Dictator without Elections” and berated him in a live Oval Office meeting.
• Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London) — “Stone cold LOSER,” “very dumb and incompetent,” and attacked his height.

§ XThe Catch-All Insult Vocabulary

A recurring set of disparaging adjectives and nouns Trump deploys promiscuously — often stacked — at almost any target who displeases him. Useful as a pattern-recognition glossary:

§ XIEscalated Rhetoric — Threats and Incitement

Where Trump’s language crosses from insult into threat, dehumanization, or suggestion of violence. Different register. Belongs in any serious documentation.

• “Vermin” (November 2023) — Speaking of political opponents: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” Historians noted the rhetorical overlap with 1930s fascist language.
• “Poisoning the blood of our country” (December 2023) — Said of undocumented immigrants — language widely identified with Mein Kampf.
• “Animals” — Applied to MS-13 gang members, but the framing was condemned for sliding into application to immigrants generally.
• “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” (May 2020) — Posted during George Floyd protests; Twitter flagged the tweet for glorifying violence.
• “Second Amendment people” (August 2016) — “If [Hillary] gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”
• “Knock the crap out of them” (February 2016, Cedar Rapids) — Speaking about protesters at his rally: “I’ll pay for the legal fees.”
• “I’d like to punch him in the face” (February 2016, Las Vegas) — Of a protester being removed.
• Mark Milley (Sept. 2023) — Suggested the retired general’s conduct was “so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
• Liz Cheney (Nov. 2024) — “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her.”