The president described Ms. Brzezinski as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and claimed in a series of Twitter posts that she had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a social gathering at Mr. Trump’s resort in Florida around New Year’s Eve. The White House did not explain what had prompted the outburst, but a spokeswoman said Ms. Brzezinski deserved a rebuke because of her show’s harsh stance on Mr. Trump.
.. “My first reaction was that this just has to stop, and I was disheartened because I had hoped the personal, ad hominem attacks had been left behind, that we were past that,” Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine who is a crucial holdout on the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said in an interview.
“I don’t think it directly affects the negotiation on the health care bill, but it is undignified — it’s beneath a president of the United States and just so contrary to the way we expect a president to act,” she said. “People may say things during a campaign, but it’s different when you become a public servant. I don’t see it as undermining his ability to negotiate legislation, necessarily, but I see it as embarrassing to our country.”
.. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, urged the news media to move on, arguing during the daily White House briefing that Mr. Trump was “fighting fire with fire” by attacking a longtime critic.
Ms. Brzezinski had called the president “a liar” and suggested he was “mentally ill,” added Ms. Sanders, who defended Mr. Trump’s tweets as appropriate for a president.
.. “As the first lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder,” Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman wrote in a statement, referring to the first lady’s remarks during the campaign.
.. Mr. Trump’s oldest friends say it is difficult for him to distinguish between large and small slights — or to recognize that his office comes with the expectation that he moderate his behavior.
And his fiercest, most savage responses have almost always been to what he has seen on television.
.. After lashing out at Mr. Scarborough and Ms. Brzezinski at one point last summer, Mr. Trump told an adviser, “It felt good.”
.. reporters interrupted Ms. Sanders’s defense of the president to ask how she felt about them as a woman and a mother.
She responded that she had only “one perfect role model”: God.
“None of us are perfect,” she said.
Donald Trump’s Call With Taiwan Leader Raises Fresh Uncertainty Over U.S.-China Relations
President-elect’s telephone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen breaks diplomatic protocol, angers Beijing and puts North Korea sanctions at risk
Chinese representatives are sure to seek meetings with the Trump transition team to warn that the entire relationship would be at risk if Mr. Trump pursues closer relations with Taipei.
.. A range of global issues requiring cooperation between Beijing and Washington—from management of the global economy to climate change—stand to become more complicated if Friday’s call translates into a policy shift once Mr. Trump takes office. It could also worsen existing tensions, including recent Chinese activities in the South China Sea.
.. The phone call comes only days after China backed U.N. sanctions on North Korea, the result of a monthslong, U.S.-led diplomatic effort to get Beijing on board.
The U.S. has pressed China for years to use its clout as North Korea’s biggest investor, aid donor and trade partner to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear-weapons program.The Obama administration has conveyed its view to Mr. Trump’s team that North Korea should be the top security priority for the incoming administration, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Passage of the recent sanctions, which effectively target North Korea’s coal exports to China, had indicated Beijing’s willingness to send a message of impatience to its neighbor. Their success depends in large part on how rigorously China enforces the curbs and how well China and the U.S. continue to work together... Beijing had hoped he would follow through on indications during his presidential campaign that he would downgrade U.S. alliances in Asia... In 1996, it fired missiles into waters nearby, prompting the U.S. to send two aircraft carrier groups to the area... Mr. Xi, as is the case with Mr. Trump, is more of a populist than his predecessors and is keen to project an image as a strong leader who is unwilling to compromise, especially on national sovereignty... “One of the things Xi Jinping has made emblematic of his work style is, ‘If you do something to me, I do something to you,’”.. “So he’ll find some way to retaliate.”.. There is also concern in policy-making circles in Beijing and Washington that the phone call reflects the advice of several people advising Mr. Trump who have hawkish views on China and would like to see a closer U.S. relationship with Taiwan.