President Donald Trump took an apparent jab at CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's sexuality in his latest Truth Social rant, sparking outrage on social media.
Trump reacted angrily to reports that the airstrikes he ordered against Iran didn't destroy their nuclear capabilities.
"The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it," wrote Trump. "Only the Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible — And even they say they were 'pretty well destroyed!' Working especially hard on this falsehood is Allison Cooper of Fake News CNN, Dumb Brian L. Roberts, Chairman of 'Con'cast, Jonny Karl of ABC Fake News, and always, the Losers of, again, Concast’s NBC Fake News. It never ends with the sleazebags in the Media, and that’s why their Ratings are at an ALL TIME LOW — ZERO CREDIBILITY!"
Trump's use of the term "Allison Cooper" to refer to one of America's most famous openly gay news anchors prompted immediate reaction.
"Trump makes a homophobic attack on Anderson Cooper, calling him 'Allison Cooper,'" wrote Public Notice's Aaron Rupar.
"This is the guy in charge of our nuclear arsenal, deploying active duty troops to our US cities and just started a war with Iran," wrote former Republican adviser Tara Setmayer. "THIS guy. The competent, sane, black lady never would've gotten away with one sentence of this. NEVER. God Help us."
"The Commander in Chief, during an incredibly important time, offers up a homophobic slur, pathetic and predictable, indefensible, but watch, it will be rationalized or the always available, I didn't see it," wrote podcaster Chad Hartman. "Shameful."
"Waiting to find out this was a slip owed to Trump playing 'Poison' by Alice Cooper on repeat off his iPad DJ list," wrote former Republican strategist Liz Mair.
"We’ve dumbed down and reduced the American presidency to a drunk, ignorant man at a bar is able to meet the qualifications," wrote columnist Robert Covington Jr. "Seriously, ANYbody can become president if he or she is a Republican. The sickness and lies of white supremacy continues to ruin the country."
