Trump thinks calling someone a 'baby' is the ultimate insult
WASHINGTON -- Listening to President Trump recently, the question arises: What's he got against babies?
"I'm not a baby," Trump felt compelled to assure CBS News' Lesley Stahl -- twice -- during his 60 Minutes interview.
First, on the subject of Kim Jong Un, when Stahl described his "cruel kingdom of repression, gulags, starvation," asking, "This is a guy you love?"
Trump: "Sure. I know all these things. I mean -- I'm not a baby. I know these things."
Second, on the question of whether he trusts his own White House staff. "I'm not a baby," Trump assured Stahl. "It's a tough business. ... This is a vicious place."
Then, on Friday, The New York Times' Emily Cochrane asked Trump what evidence he had "that these are hardened criminals that are coming to the United States," Trump shot back, "Oh please. Please. Don't be a baby. OK?"
This is not a new development, although there does seem to have been something of a baby boom of late. Back during the presidential campaign, Joshua Green reported in "Devil's Bargain," Trump exploded at then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort over a New York Times report that campaign aides took to television to get Trump's attention.
"You think you've gotta go on TV to talk to me? You treat me like a baby!" Trump said, in Green's recounting. "Am I like a baby to you? I sit there like a little baby and watch TV and you talk to me? Am I a f -- king baby, Paul?"
More recently, Bob Woodward, in "Fear," recounts Trump's similarly phrased unhappiness with Rudy Giuliani when the former New York mayor took to the airwaves in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood tape.
Woodward: "Rudy, you're a baby," Trump said loudly. "I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?"
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