ArcaMax

Right. It's the media who are hostile for seeking presidential accountability. "You talk about someone who's a loser," Trump said of Ryan. "She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. She gets publicity and then she gets a pay raise, or she gets a contract with, I think, CNN. But she's very nasty and she shouldn't be. You've got to treat the White House and the office of the presidency with respect."

And the president should treat the rest of us Americans with respect too.

Phillip drew Trump's contempt after she asked whether he hoped Matthew Whitaker, Trump's appointee as acting attorney general, would "rein in" special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Trump's presidential campaign.

"What a stupid question that is," Trump responded. "What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions." Again, what was "stupid" about that question? The president did not say. He just walked away from Phillip and a gaggle of other reporters shouting questions.

Of course, these presidential run-ins were overshadowed by the president's biggest blowup of the week, the lifting of CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta's White House press pass for continuing to ask a question after the president told him to sit down. CNN filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning against the president and others in Team Trump, alleging the suspension violated Acosta's and CNN's First and Fifth Amendment rights.

I wish them luck. Acosta's not black, and he's not a woman. (His father was a refugee from Cuba.) But like the aforementioned black women -- plus a white male reporter who tried to defend Acosta to Trump -- the president lashed out at journalists for doing what journalists do.

Since I can't read his mind, I can't call Trump a full-on racist. But his candid expressions of whatever happens to be on his mind make it easy for everyone to judge for themselves.

========

(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.