Thank you and goodbye - Trump's response to tough questions

Donald Trump has a new way of dealing with impertinent reporters who ask tenaciously penetrating questions on such matters as the Covid-19 pandemic and his handling of it, the trade war with China and his handling of it, Russia's interference in the 2020 election and his handling of it, whether masks are a good thing or a bad thing and his handling of it, riots and looting in American cities and his handling of it etc etc. He glares at the individual reporter, says "thank you and goodbye", and turns away from the lectern in the White House media briefing room and high-tails it back to the Oval Office where reporters are not allowed. In the old days, well older days when Trump was first president, he would stay and get angrier and angrier at the reporters in front of him but hold his ground, like the famous back and forth he had with the White House reporter from CNN Jim Acosta who asked the same question again and again and again. Eventually Trump said he was a bad man and should shut up and waved his index finger at him, and then carried on with other questions as if Acosta no longer existed. He then got his media team to ban Acosta from the White House. Now that was all great theatre and filled the headlines. I thought at the time Acosta pushed his luck and eventually became boorish, with him at the centre of the row instead of the question and the answer it probably deserved. But Trump has learnt his lesson from the Acosta days, particularly when he faces female reporters. Female reporters in Washington seem to be especially insistent and demanding and you can see Trump just longing to leave the lectern and go face-to-face with them. But, presumably after advice from his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, he has realised that shouting back doesn't get him good headlines. So, instead, he does the lectern whirl around and bids the room good day. Whether this premature ending of the press conference irritates the rest of the White House correspondents or whether they all go along with the female reporter who has prevented them from asking their questions I don't know. But I expect it's a bit of both. Can you imagine, you are sitting at the back of the room representing a less glamorous newspaper and have this tantalising question to ask the president about a visit he made to blah blah blah, and suddenly Trump is off, and that woman reporter from a posh newspaper is still standing up demanding an answer to her interminable questions, you might be less than pleased. I can recall standing - no seat for the gentleman from The Times - right at the back of the media briefing room and waving my arm in the air pointlessly to ask a question and never being called upon to address the president. And that was with Barack Obama. Life is tough as a reporter in the White House!