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What is 'Miss Piggy'? Trump's old remark surfaces after barb at Bloomberg reporter
President Donald Trump sparked outrage after calling Bloomberg's White House correspondent, Catherine Lucy, ‘piggy’ for asking him about the Epstein files.
President Donald Trump sparked a row saying ‘quiet piggy’ to Bloomberg's White House correspondent Catherine Lucy, aboard the Air Force One, when she asked him about the Epstein files. Now, an old remark of Trump's has now resurfaced, where he called another woman ‘Miss Piggy’.
Meanwhile, the current backlash has only grown with New Mexico Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury joining in as well. On X, the lawmaker wrote “As a part of the Miss Piggy generation, I just want to leave this right here.”
What is ‘Miss Piggy’ and whom did Trump say this to?
Alicia Machado, who gained fame in 1996 for being crowned Miss Universe at the age of 19, had claimed that Trump called her ‘Miss Piggy’. The Venezuelan-born model claimed that these remarks came as she'd put on some weight after her win, BBC reported.
Machado also claimed that Trump had threatened to take her crown after she gained weight. “He was overwhelming. I was very scared of him. He'd yell at me all the time. He'd tell me: 'You look ugly' or ‘You look fat’. Sometimes he'd 'play' with me and say: 'Hello, Miss Piggy', ‘Hello, Miss Housekeeping’,” she said, as per BBC.
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A person on X also brought up this clip which had been shared by Hillary Clinton when she was running against Trump. "@catherine_lucey @marykbruce Thank you for showing that journalistic integrity still exists. Too bad none of your @WHCA colleagues supported you. You're among a group of women that the misogynistic chief abuser has attacked. He also called Miss Universe 1996 ‘Miss Piggy’.”
Former Miss America, Gretchen Carlson, also shared her own experience, saying "Pres Trump calling the reporter #MissPiggy is disgusting and degrading. It strikes at the core for me since I faced similar shame. One of my Miss America celeb judges William Goldman wrote an entire book calling me "Miss Piggy" saying I had been too fat to win -- at 105 lbs."
Yet another person said, “The entire press corps would wear Miss Piggy masks to the briefings if they had any guts at all.”
Miss Piggy is a muppet character known for her appearance in sketch comedy series The Muppet Show. In a 1979 New York Times interview, Frank Oz, the performer, had outlined Piggy's biography, saying, “She grew up in a small town (most likely Keystone, Iowa); her father died when she was young and her mother wasn't that nice to her. She had to enter beauty contests to survive. She has a lot of vulnerability which she has to hide, because of her need to be a superstar.” Miss Piggy is also believed to have been inspired by jazz singer Peggy Lee.
