US president\u2019s flustered response to shouts calling him a \u2018pedophile protector\u2019 was to issue rude hand gesture<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump gave someone the middle finger<\/a> on Tuesday, reportedly responding to shouts admonishing him as a \u201cpedophile protector\u201d as he toured a Michigan Ford plant. The celebrity news and gossip site TMZ shared a short video featuring the US president\u2019s flustered response to someone heckling off-screen, during which he appears to issue the hand gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump spent Tuesday afternoon touring Ford\u2019s River Rouge complex in Dearborn before giving a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House communications director, Steven Cheung, didn\u2019t confirm whether Trump flashed his middle finger, but said in a statement issued to the Guardian that he gave an \u201cappropriate and unambiguous response\u201d when \u201ca lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the roughly 15-second clip, a person can be heard yelling from the floor of the Ford plant while Trump looks down from a railing. TMZ claims Trump yelled obscenities before giving the finger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesperson for Ford told TMZ they were generally proud of how their employees represented the company and that it was a \u201cgreat event\u201d. But, they added, they don\u2019t condone \u201canyone saying anything inappropriate\u201d in their facilities. \u201cWhen that happens, we have a process to deal with it but we don\u2019t get into specific personnel matters,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The yelling, and Trump\u2019s reaction to it, comes as the Trump administration faces increasing pressure<\/a> to release the so-called Epstein files, documents expected to expose the dealings of the disgraced financier and sex trafficker in greater detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the files, according to court filings in the first week of January, even after a federal law required they be released in full in mid-December. Last week, two US representatives, California Democrat Ro Khanna and Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, pushed a US district judge to release the files in full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n