By Sandy Davidson, JD
Presidents and reporters clash.
Take this 22-day span in late 2025: On November 14, 2025, Catherine Lucey of Bloomberg News asked President Trump, who was on Air Force One, about the Jeffrey Epstein files. His response? “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
On November 18 in the Oval Office, Trump lambasted ABC’s Mary Bruce after she asked the Saudi crown prince a question about the “brutal murder” of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and asked Trump why he didn’t just release the Epstein files himself.
Trump responded, “It’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions.”
He also called her a “terrible person.”
On December 6, 2025, Trump called CNN’s Kaitlan Collins “always Stupid and Nasty” in a Truth Social post. He misspelled her name and said she works for “Fake News CNN.”
But this isn’t a rant about Donald Trump or Republicans. In mid-June 2021, President Biden lashed out at Collins, too. She had asked why he was “so confident” that Vladimir Putin would “change his behavior.”
Biden snapped, “I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior…Where the hell – what do you do all the time? When did I say I was confident?”
After a little more exchange, Biden said, “…you’re in the wrong business,” and walked away.
At least he soon apologized, saying that “I owe my last questioner an apology” and acknowledging that “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy…”
On January 24, 2022, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Biden, “Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?”
A hot mic caught Biden’s answer: “It’s a great asset – more inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”
Again, Biden soon apologized.
President Obama wasn’t without blemish, either. In the October 15, 2010, edition of Rolling Stone, the interviewer asked: “What do you think of Fox News? Do you think it’s a good institution for America and for democracy?”
Obama’s answer included his saying that Fox News has “a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”
But Obama’s comparatively mild-mannered rebuke of Fox was accompanied by a wave of intrusions on press freedom during his presidency. For example, the Department of Justice in May 2010 obtained a search warrant for the emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen. This was part of the DOJ’s crackdown on persons suspected of leaking classified information to the press in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917. Also, the DOJ seized Rosen’s and even his parents’ phone records.
In April and May 2012, the DOJ seized phone records of 20 Associated Press reporters.
Speaking of the AP, Trump booted its reporters and photographers from the White House press pool for nearly two months until a judge ordered them reinstated on April 8, 2025. But then the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that Trump could still ban AP reporters from smaller spaces while the court case continues. The AP angered Trump by not using the name “Gulf of America.”
But what has this got to do with Cathy Kuhlmeier and all the student journalists who have had or will have contentious encounters with school officials?
Journalism students learn from these negative experiences because the chances are high that they’ll run into negative experiences during their careers as journalists. Students learn resilience, how to “take it on the chin” and keep going. Students are building character. If students have been there before at the receiving end of unpleasantries, they know from experience that they can survive – and thrive. They can also learn resilience through stories about other journalists’ challenging journeys.
Cathy Kuhlmeier’s story is inspirational, and her Foundation is one important avenue to share her story with journalists of the future.
Cathy Kuhlmeier Foundation 