President Donald Trump woke up to a front page reminder that he is 79 years old, and he did not take it well. By midmorning, he had launched a full scale tirade against New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, accusing her of writing a “hit piece” about his health and calling her “a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
The offending article, titled “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office,” details a presidency that looks noticeably slower than his first stint in the White House. The Times reported that Trump’s public schedule has shrunk, that most of his appearances now fall between noon and 5 p.m., and that his travel has shifted away from barnstorming domestic rallies toward carefully scripted foreign trips.
Trump insisted the piece was not just unfair, but flatly wrong. In a sprawling Truth Social post, he fumed that “the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite.” He complained that “they know this is wrong, as is almost every thing that they write about me, including election results, ALL PURPOSELY NEGATIVE. This cheap ‘RAG’ is truly an ‘ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.’”
Then he turned his fire directly on Rogers. “The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,” he wrote, pointedly ignoring her male co author on the piece.
Trump responds to a detailed report about his waning energy and propensity to sleep through on-camera events by calling the New York Times’s Katie Rogers ugly pic.twitter.com/DReu5zVmOX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 26, 2025
Trump also tried to reframe the health questions as proof of his productivity. “I settled 8 Wars, have 48 New Stock Market Highs, our Economy is Great, and our Country is RESPECTED AGAIN all over the World,” he boasted in one post, adding, “To do this requires a lot of Work and Energy, and I have never worked so hard in my life.”
He pointed to what he described as a “PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (‘That was aced’) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN,” insisting that “it certainly is not now” that his energy is flagging.
The Times story did not claim Trump is incapacitated, but it did state that he appears to be slowing down, citing the visible bruising on his hand, swelling in his legs and shorter workdays. White House doctor Sean Barbabella has countered that “President Trump exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the commander in chief and head of state.”
This is hardly Trump’s first clash with the press, or with a female reporter. Less than two weeks ago, he snapped “Quiet, piggy” at a Bloomberg journalist aboard Air Force One, drawing another wave of condemnation from press freedom groups and women’s advocates.
For media critics, the latest eruption is part of a familiar pattern. Trump treats any coverage of his age, health or stamina as a personal insult, then responds with personal insults of his own, while simultaneously touting his victories. In the same breath that he calls Rogers “ugly, both inside and out,” he is also claiming he “settled eight wars” and presides over an economy that is “RESPECTED AGAIN all over the World.”
The New York Times has stood by its reporting, and Rogers has not publicly responded. But the message from Trump’s post is clear enough. He is not just fighting the story about his health, he is trying to make an example of the reporter who wrote it.
