On Nov. 14, aboard Air Force One, the president of the United States pointed at Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey and snapped, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” Why? She had the audacity to ask him a legitimate question about the Epstein files.

Days later, instead of apologizing, the White House defended him and implied that she somehow brought it on herself — that she was “inappropriate” and “unprofessional.”

So, let’s be clear: Calling a woman “piggy” from the most powerful office in the world is abuse, not banter.

Suggesting she brought it on herself is classic abuser logic. And when the “CEO of the free world” behaves this way in front of cameras, he is not just expressing a personal opinion — he is modeling a pattern.

Verbal abuse and violence: what data actually shows

Public health and domestic violence research has been warning us for years:

• The CDC identifies hostility toward women and attitudes that justify aggression as key risk factors for intimate partner violence.

• CDC materials and other IPV research note that abuse often begins with emotional and psychological attacks — name-calling, humiliation, and verbal degradation — which can escalate over time into physical violence.

Before the shove, there is the sneer. Before the bruise, there is the insult. Before the blow, there is the belittling.

And while October’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month has just passed, the deeper concern is not timing at all. It is the pattern.

What the president displayed is the same kind of demeaning, belittling language that experts warn often mirrors the early stages of emotional abuse. The fact that this happened so soon after a national month of education and awareness only sharpens the contrast between what we claim to value and what we tolerate from our highest office.

We cannot claim to care about domestic violence and then shrug when the president publicly body shames a woman and blames her for it.

This is also about racism and power

In this incident, the reporter appears to be white. But we cannot pretend this moment exists in a vacuum. The same president has a long, documented history of calling women pigs, including calling Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy” and referring to Rosie O’Donnell as a “big, fat pig.”

And when you step back, a broader pattern comes into focus: Women who challenge him are “nasty,” “fat” or “no longer a 10.”

Women of color who challenge him are often hit with sexist and racialized language.

Black feminist scholar Moya Bailey coined the term “misogynoir” to describe exactly this: the combination of anti-Black racism and misogyny. International research on women journalists confirms that sexism, racism and other forms of hate often blend in attacks — especially against women of color. Reports from the UN Human Rights Office, ICFJ, and academic studies show that:

• Women journalists face disproportionately high levels of online and offline abuse.

• Women of color are targeted with a mix of gendered slurs and racist stereotypes.

• Those who are most visible and outspoken are more likely to face threats, harassment and sometimes offline attacks.

So even when a specific slur isn’t explicitly racial, it sits inside a larger ecosystem of contempt for women and especially for women of color. That’s the water we’re swimming in.

When leaders talk like this, others follow

This isn’t just about one ugly moment. Social science research shows that when politicians use hateful or demeaning language, hate speech and harassment increase among their supporters. Studies of leader behavior and online discourse find that:

• Exposure to derogatory language from elites normalizes prejudice and harassment.

• Hate speech can spread through networks rapidly when it is modeled by those in power.

In other words, when the president calls a woman “piggy,” it doesn’t stay on the plane. It travels — into homes, social media feeds, school hallways, locker rooms and workplaces. If the president can talk this way unchallenged, what stops:

• The supervisor who already resents women on his team?

• The boyfriend who already uses words as weapons?

• The teenage boy online who thinks humiliation is just “content”?

Body-shaming is not politics.

It is emotional violence. Teen girls are already navigating brutal pressures — filters, “perfect” bodies on Instagram, bullying in group chats. When they see the president call a woman “piggy” for doing her job, what are we teaching them? That your worth is in your waistline. That your dignity is disposable if a powerful man decides to entertain himself. That if a man in authority abuses you, people will say you brought it on yourself.

And what are we teaching our sons if we let this slide? That real men dominate and degrade. That power means never having to apologize. That empathy is weakness.

This is the part that should haunt us:

• When pastors, principals, CEOs, editors and community leaders say nothing, their silence sounds like approval.

• Journalists who fail to speak up when one of their own is demeaned help normalize abuse of the press.

• Political leaders who look the other way help normalize the abuse of women.

• Communities that shrug and say “that’s just how he talks” help normalize the abuse of power itself.

We cannot tell women to report harassment and domestic violence out of one side of our mouths while we excuse identical patterns of behavior from the most powerful man in the world out of the other.

What we must do now

This is the moment for all of us — parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors, coaches, mentors, journalists — to:

• Name this behavior for what it is: abusive, demeaning and dangerous.

• Teach our children explicitly that mocking someone’s body or humanity is never acceptable, no matter who does it.

• Model a different kind of strength — one rooted in respect, self-control, and courage, not cruelty.

• Speak up, publicly and privately, when leaders cross these lines. Not just when it’s politically convenient, but when it’s morally necessary.

Because if the president can call a woman “piggy” and blame her for it, and the country shrugs, then the problem is bigger than one man. We owe women better. We owe our children better. We owe our democracy better.

Dr. Draper is President and CEO of the Afro newspaper