President Donald Trump’s recent clash with a White House correspondent revived an insult that once targeted him during a bitter 1980s political dispute in New York.
On November 14, aboard Air Force One, Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey asked Trump a question about his past connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump cut her off. He pointed at her and said, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
Highlights
- In 2025, President Trump said 'quiet, piggy' to a reporter aboard Air Force One, sparking viral outrage over his treatment of journalists.
- The 'piggy' insult Trump used echoed a 1987 feud when then-Mayor Ed Koch called Trump 'piggy Donald Trump' during a tax break dispute.
- Trump's 1980s plan for 'Television City' in Manhattan failed after opposition and Koch refused large tax breaks, damaging Trump's vision.
Video of the moment went viral, sparking widespread criticism of his treatment of journalists.
Trump’s recent ‘piggy’ insult isn’t new or original
Image credits: John McDonnell/Getty Images
The remark echoed an insult that Trump himself heard decades earlier, in a very different context.
In the 1980s, Trump, then a real estate developer, pushed a massive development proposal on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
He wanted to create “Television City,” a sweeping project anchored by what he hoped would become the world’s tallest building, and the new headquarters for NBC.
Many local residents opposed the proposal, and Mayor Ed Koch grew especially skeptical when Trump sought large tax breaks to support the development.
Koch said the tax relief Trump requested was far larger than anything the city had granted before. Trump disagreed and insisted the incentives were essential to prevent NBC from leaving New York.
Image credits: Chris Hatch/Getty Images
Their fight escalated in spring 1987.
In written notes and verbal jabs, Trump called Koch a “horrible manager” and “moron” who “can’t hack it anymore” and “should resign from office,” archived newspaper articles show, People magazine reported.
In a press conference, Trump said, “The City of New York, is suffering, in my opinion, the worst corruption scandals in the history of the city and suffering from totally incompetent management,” according to The New York Times.
He said Trump was acting “greedy, greedy, greedy” and declared that he would not “give away the city’s treasury” to a private developer.
Image credits: Getty Images
“If Donald Trump is squealing like a stuck pig, I must have done something right. Common sense does not allow me to give away the city's treasury to Donald Trump,” he said.
Although Koch briefly said he did not want the dispute to sink into “a barnyard kind of contest,” he soon delivered a jab that became one of the most memorable lines of the feud.
According to reporting at the time, Koch referred to Trump as “piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy Donald Trump.”
Trump ultimately lost the battle. NBC kept its headquarters at Rockefeller Center, and his grand vision for the world’s tallest building collapsed.
Koch left office in 1989 and died in 2013. But his “piggy” insult lingered and resurfaced when Trump used the same word against Lucey nearly four decades later.
During a 1987 feud, the then-mayor of New York called him ‘piggy Donald Trump’
Image credits: John McDonnell/Getty Images
The White House defended Trump after the Air Force One exchange. A spokesperson said, “This reporter behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane. If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later addressed the remark at a briefing. She said Trump’s “frank and honest” style should be “respected.”
“I think everyone in this room should appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis,” she said.
The Air Force One moment is not the first time Trump has been accused of using the word “piggy” towards a woman. During the 2016 campaign, former Miss Universe Alicia Machado said Trump mocked her weight and sometimes greeted her by saying, “Hello, Miss Piggy.”