Trump has met his match with female reporters -- and he knows he's losing: columnist

According to Erin Gloria Ryan, writing for the Daily Beast, Donald Trump's abrupt departure from his press conference on Monday after a skirmish with two female reporters who refused to be bullied by the president was a sign that president was waving the white flag after meeting his match.

During Monday’s proceedings, the president was pressed by CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang about what appeared to be a racist retort to her about coronavirus testing in China which then led to a confrontation with Kaitlan Collins of CNN who refused to yield to the president after allowing Jiang to ask a follow-up question.

The president promptly called an end to the press conference and stormed off.

According to Ryan, Trump's departure was an admission that his attempt to keep lying to a heretofore cowed press had reached its end and he had lost.

Noting Jiang's grilling of the president on his China assertions that precipitated the blow-up, Ryan wrote, "The hamsters in the president’s brain huffed and puffed as they raced to their wheels and fired up his Comeback Generator. All of the blood rushed to his head at the same time. This was going to be a good one, as deep within the exhaust-folds of his face, the president’s beady little eyes lit up. 'Why don’t you ask China?' he snapped," before adding, "Jiang continued to follow up. Collins then tried to ask her question, and Trump stormed out of the press conference like a real tough guy. It was refreshing to see White House press corps members stand up for each other, or at least give each other space to confront the president’s insistent unreality."

According to the columnist, Trump's meltdown comes at a time when he is in a fragile state because the coronavirus pandemic has taken away his life-affirming MAGA rallies before unquestioning fans.

"Something tells me that, for the president, the most emotionally devastating aspect of the COVID outbreak isn’t the staggering loss of human life or the economic desperation many in the middle class find themselves in now," she wrote. "It’s that Trump had to cancel his rallies. He doesn’t get to do his tired stand-up act in front of a packed demolition derby field of dipshits who screech approvingly with every cheap shot. His only chance at a crowd is these press conferences, where he flops around gasping for approval like a fish on a dock."

Particularly galling to Trump is that he is being made to look bad by not only a female reporter, buts also one who is a woman of color.

"Jiang landed on the president’s bad side recently by committing the journalistic sin of being good at her job while being a member of several target demographics that the president’s supplicants and suck-ups love to see him shout at. She was born somewhere else, she’s not white, she’s a woman, she’s a journalist, she’s intelligent," Ryan explained. "She joins a pantheon of “nasty” female journalists Trump has targeted, including Katy Tur, Yamiche Alcindor,April Ryan, Jiang’s CBS colleague Paula Reid, Megyn Kelly, and Kaitlan Collins. And the people who would swallow bleach for the president love this stuff. They think that by storming off and losing his temper, he’s winning."

According to the columnist, outside of Trump sycophants, nothing could be farther from the truth.

"Scampering away from a microphone at the first sign of adversity isn’t a brave thing to do. Neither is losing your temper and screaming comebacks you practiced in a mirror. Along with stairs, sharks, and books without pictures, is the president afraid of women?" she asked. 

"Maybe he should be," she added before needling the president. "They stand poised to vote him out of office in November. They could very well hand the Senate to Democrats, and Trump’s legacy as a president would be the same as his legacy as a successful businessman: somebody who once played one on TV."

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