His reaction to any person or entity disagreeing with or even questioning him is hurl insults at them, as many as he can think of, in a rapid fire barrage. He has a standard set of adjectives that he draws on, including weak, pathetic, nasty, failing (as in "the failing New York Times" ), and many, many more.
He will NEVER address any of the issues his critics bring up, no matter how valid those issues are. His response to any criticism of him, whether explicit or implied, is to simply denounce, defame, and dismiss the source, and then change the subject. He has utilized this tactic for many years, since long before he ever ran for office.
From what I've read, this is something he learned from Roy Cohn, back in the 1970s, when Donald and his father Fred were being sued for racial discrimination in renting apartments. Cohn told Donald to never admit guilt, coaching him to just deny everything and fight. (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/donald-trump-roy-cohn-race-discrimination-lawsuit-fight-documentary-excerpt/)
Even though the Trumps didn't win that law suit, Donald Trump took Cohn's advice to heart and has conducted his business and his life by it ever since. By the time he announced his run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2015, this behavior pattern was so deeply ingrained that I don't think he'd have been capable of changing even if he'd wanted to (which he of course had no desire to do).
This behavior was bad enough when he was just a big mouthed NY businessman. In a president, it is (or should be) intolerable. Elected officials should be called to account for the lies they've told and the promises they've broken, but Trump always fends off any attempt to hold him accountable for anything by using the same time worn "deny everything and fight back" tactics.
How many times have we seen reporters ask him questions that the country deserves to know the answers to, only to back off as soon as he starts spewing insults and accusations? By now, this tactic of his has become boringly repetitious and predictable, but it somehow still works for him. We have all seen it play out countless times, and every time he gets what he wants, which is for people to stop asking him questions that he doesn't want to answer. It's something I don't think I'll ever understand, in the same category as the questions of how his followers can see him as a leader or continue to believe his lies.
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