President Donald Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, D.C., July 24, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Erns
President Donald Trump goes particularly "ballistic" when women expose him as a "fraud," one author and commentator told The Daily Beast, explaining further why they "really get under Donald Trump's skin."
Jennifer Welch is co-host of the popular progressive political podcast, "I've Had It," and author of the book "Not Today, Fascists," known for outspoken attacks against conservatives and Trump, as well as her criticism of the current leadership of the Democratic Party. On Sunday, she was a guest on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, where she told hosts Joanna Coles and Nell Scovell that Trump fits the textbook definition of "delusions of grandeur," particularly when it comes to his physical attractiveness and charisma, which is why he reacts so violently against women who puncture those delusions.
Coles pressed Welch for more about what it is about those sorts of women that sets Trump off.
"Rosie O'Donnell, Taylor Swift, there's a very specific kind of woman... they don't necessarily seem to have very much in common, apart from the fact that they can really get under Donald Trump's skin," Coles said. "And they're the women, like E. Jean Carroll and her lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, who...you know, have won against him, have won."
Welch, in response, explained how these women set off Trump's inherent narcissism and cause him to flail when his ego is damaged.
"So I think that these women, what they all have in common is that they have revealed to Trump that they know he's a fraud," Welch said. "And so they put a mirror up to him, and they've created and induced a narcissistic injury to him, and when a narcissist is injured, they lash out in the way that he has towards every single one of these women, the most vicious way possible."
She continued: "And so he is a con artist; he's a blowhard. He is a snake oil salesman. And to the suburban women, he can pull it off. They're like, 'Oh, that locker-room talk of Trump, what a hoot he is. That Melania? She's such a class act. We just love her. But when there's an intelligent woman that says, 'You're a bulls—— artist, and I know you are, and you're not attractive, the Stormy Daniels case, and you're a terrible lay, two-pump chump.' And then he just completely goes ballistic because they have exposed him for the fraud that he is. And that's what they all have in common. I think they put a mirror up, and they've injured him, and they've caused narcissistic injury to his ego."
