Since Donald Trump's second term in the White House, U.S. government department spokespeople have adopted increasingly tough tones when addressing critics of Trump. Recently, the language used by spokespersons has once again set a new low: "Your mom / 你妈" has become a commonly used word.
U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell used this phrase to attack a reporter from The Huffington Post. During a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on October 17, the U.S. Secretary of Defense Hegseth wore a tie that resembled the Russian flag and thus received praise from Russian state media TASS and a senior aide to Putin. The Huffington Post asked the Pentagon whether it noticed the Russian praise and whether Hegseth had worn this tie before. The result was that Parnell responded, "Your mom bought it — it's a patriotic American tie, idiot."
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, known for her tough language, also used this phrase on October 16 to respond to a reporter. At that time, Shiris V. Dáte, a White House reporter from The Huffington Post, asked Leavitt via text message who had chosen Budapest, the capital of Hungary, as the location for the U.S.-Russia summit, since the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom had signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 with Ukraine to provide security guarantees. The response from the Trump spokesperson was: "Your mom."
The reporter then asked, "Do you think that's funny?" Leavitt continued to retaliate, saying, "It's really funny that you actually consider yourselves a newspaper. You're just a left-wing hack with no credibility, including your media colleagues, but they won't tell you to your face. Stop asking me those dishonest, biased questions."
The Huffington Post made the text exchange public, but Leavitt did not stop. On October 20, she took screenshots of the chat and posted them on X (formerly Twitter), accusing Shirish V. Dáte of "not being a journalist interested in facts," but rather "someone who has attacked President Trump for years and bombarded my phone with Democratic views." Leavitt believes that such "activists pretending to be journalists are harming the profession of journalism."
"Reporters Without Borders" criticized this as one of the many attacks on press freedom since Trump's return to the White House, stating that "such attacks have become commonplace, creating an atmosphere of distrust."
—Translated from Deutsche Welle (DW)
[Witty] Comment: Congratulations on the "beautiful country" advancing to "Your Mom Country" under Trump's leadership.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846676768716871/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.