A 19-year-old New Hampshire college student says she faced a torrent of death threats and internet hate after President-elect Donald Trump insulted her on Twitter for asking tough questions at one of his campaign rallies.

Lauren Batchelder told The Washington Post that she was a freshman at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire in October 2015 when she took the microphone at a political forum in Manchester and spoke her mind to Trump.

“So, maybe I’m wrong,” Batchelder said. “Maybe you can prove me wrong, but I don’t think you’re a friend to women.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have picked her!” Trump said, before discussing the many opportunities he gave women at his various companies. “I love women, I respect women, I cherish women,” he said at one point.


Batchelder, who is studying history and gender studies at St. Anselm, took the microphone back.

“I want to get paid the same as a man, and I think you understand that,” Batchelder said. “So if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man, and do I get to choose what I do with my body?”

“You’re going to make the same if you do as good of a job,” Trump said. “And I happen to be pro-life, okay?”

That was the end of Batchelder and Trump’s face-to-face interaction. But thanks to two tweets from the president-elect calling her an “arrogant young woman” and accusing her of being a plant for the Jeb Bush campaign, Batchelder faced the full fury of Trump’s rabid supporters.

The arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at No Labels yesterday was a Jeb staffer! HOW CAN HE BEAT RUSSIA & CHINA? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

How can Jeb Bush expect to deal with China, Russia + Iran if he gets caught doing a “plant” during my speech yesterday in NH? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2015

Batchelder told the Post that her voicemail, Facebook feed and email inboxes began filling up with anonymous threats of bodily harm that were often sexual. As Trump supporters circulated her address online, she left campus in fear.

Even a year later, Batchelder says the harassment hasn’t stopped. She told the Post that five days before the election, she received a Facebook message that said, “Wishing I could f***ing punch you in the face. id then proceed to stomp your head on the curb and urinate in your bloodied mouth and i know where you live, so watch your f***ing back punk.”


“I didn’t really know what anyone was going to do,” Batchelder told the Post. “He was only going to tweet about it and that was it, but I didn’t really know what his supporters were going to do, and that to me was the scariest part.”