President Donald Trump leveled his latest attack against a female journalist, saying she asked a “stupid” question, while he spoke to press aboard Air Force One on Sunday. And experts in American studies and mental health emphasize that his ongoing behavior toward female reporters needs our attention.

Trump was asked about the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran — where activists say a deadly crackdown on protests have left at least 2,000 people killed — when he raised the insult.

When the journalist asked Trump whether he thinks Iran takes his threats seriously, the president fired back: “I think so. Don’t you think so, CNN?”

“She says — CNN — ‘Do you think they take your threats seriously?’” he later added in a mocking tone. “Wouldn’t you say they do after all of the things we’ve done? What a stupid question.”

The journalist was not identified in a clip of the exchange, though Trump said the reporter was from CNN. (Reporters working in the capacity of the network pool represent all of the TV networks — not their individual employers.)

In November, the president called New York Times reporter Katie Rogers “ugly,” and he called Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey “piggy” that same month. Last month, he attacked CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins in a rant on his Truth Social platform, calling her “stupid and nasty.” He also called ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott “the most obnoxious reporter.”

Kari J. Winter, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo — whose expertise includes gender, feminism, race and class — said that Trump is “bursting with contempt for women in the same way that he is red-in-the-face with hatred for Black and brown people.”

But she told HuffPost she believes the president’s “aggressive insults” doesn’t just reveal the “hateful stew boiling inside of him” — it reveals something else.

“It also reveals that he does not know how to formulate reasoned responses to reasonable questions,” she said. “His violent flashes of anger suggest an unhinged mind, frankly. He seems incapable of offering restrained, coherent, informative answers.”

“His type of explosive behavior would be a red flag in anyone, but it’s especially alarming from someone who has a nuclear arsenal under his command,” she continued.

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images

President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One on Jan. 11, 2026.

Trump’s responses to being challenged by a woman communicates a lot, experts say.

Alexandra Cromer, a licensed professional counselor with Thriveworks, said that given Trump’s well-documented history of berating female journalists, it’s “observable that he gets very frustrated when he perceives that he is being challenged or questioned by a woman.”

“This is rooted in misogynistic thinking and posits that women are ‘less than’ not just him, but men in general,” she told HuffPost, adding that she believes Trump “views women as having less self-worth and less capacity than men (particularly, him).”

“This belief is ego-advantageous, delusional and downright dangerous,” she said.

And as it relates to Trump’s pattern of attacking women’s appearances, Cromer said she believes that it’s largely due to his “own belief that women only have value in their physical appearance, a belief that is centered on a compulsively heteronormative and Caucasian viewpoint of attractiveness, sex and sexuality.”

“When Trump comments on women’s appearances, he not only is seeking to deeply wound women, he’s trying to maintain a dominant power structure over women and encourage ‘obedience,’” she added.

Winter said that Trump’s “repetitious insults are fueled by the most common tropes of misogyny.”

“Men who hate women constantly push the idea that the most important thing about a woman is her appearance,” she said. “Attacking women’s intelligence is the second-most common move.”

Experts also stress Trump’s treatment of female reporters can’t be normalized and should never go unchallenged.

While there are several issues both domestic and abroad that need our attention, experts emphasize that it’s important to not normalize any of Trump’s alarming behavior — including his pattern of insulting and berating female journalists.

“Yes, there are many significant domestic and international issues that require activism, but this is still a very worthy cause that people should speak out against,” Cromer said. “If the president’s behavior is not challenged and continues to be normalized, we could see women lose rights, respect, and we can even predict a potential increase in violence toward women as a whole.”

Winter said that “historians have long observed that violence breeds violence.”

“If we want to live as moral, self-respecting people, we cannot allow his treatment of female reporters to go unchallenged any more than we can remain silent in the face of ICE’s murder of Renee Good and the battery of other outrages perpetrated every day by this regime,” she later continued, referencing Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7.

“Can you hope to live with a shred of dignity if you remain as silent as the Germans who were afraid to challenge Hitler?” Winter said, before adding: “For the sake of our very souls, we have to draw the line and refuse to condone or collude.”