Silent treatment?

Reader question:

Please explain “silent treatment” in this headline: Why Dan Rather’s Once-Cordial Relationship with Donald Trump Soured into a 17-Year Silent Treatment (People.com, April 20, 2017).

My comments:

This is old news. Dan Rather is a former anchor of 60 Minutes on CBS, one of the most famous investigative news programs in the United States.

Back in the day, as the story goes, Rather had a rather, pun intended, friendly relationship with Donald Trump, now President for a second time. However, after what Trump considered was a negative piece of reporting by 60 Minutes aired on CBS, Trump got mad at Rather – and quite severely, too according to the renowned journalist.

That was in the year 2000. Trump had a grudge with Rather, held onto it and would not speak to the latter again.

That’s why, by 2017, their relationship had soured into a 17-year silent treatment.

Silent treatment means, literally, to treat another person with silence. When they talk to you, you respond with silence, i.e. without uttering a word.

This type of behavior usually happens when you are upset or angry with someone, as is the case with Trump.

Also, people may resort to silent treatment simply to avoid dealing with a difficult issue.

In terms of relationships, silent treatment is considered a passive-aggressive type of behavior. Though it appears passive, silent treatment is really aggressive in nature.

Needless to say, the party on the receiving end of silent treatment may end up feeling hurt, sometimes very hurt.

To see exactly how it feels to give or be given the silent treatment, though, we need to examine a few media examples. Here they are:

1. Justin Theroux finds it “infuriating” when his wife Jennifer Aniston gives him the silent treatment.

The ‘Leftovers’ star, 44, has admitted there’s nothing that frustrates him more than when the 46-year-old actress refuses to talk to him after an argument.

Speaking to ‘Entertainment Tonight’ he said: “Someone once said, ‘Silence is the most unbearable rejoinder.’ And that’s true in relationships. If someone’s giving you the silent treatment, there’s nothing more infuriating.”

Meanwhile, the couple tied the knot last month at their lavish home in Bel Air, California, in front of 75 friends and family – including stars such as Ellen DeGeneres, Orlando Bloom and Sandra Bullock – following a three-year engagement.

And the handsome star has admitted married life so far has been “easy” and he’s enjoying calling Jennifer his “wife.”

He said recently: “Oh my god. It’s really nice to say ‘my wife’. I’m not [used to saying wife]. I don’t want to get used to it for a while. It’s nice to drop the fiancée moniker.”

- Justin Theroux finds silent treatment ‘infuriating’, FemaleFirst.co.uk, October 2, 2015.

2. AC Milan were given the silent treatment by thousands of frustrated supporters during Sunday’s thrilling 3-3 home draw with Genoa as their disappointing Serie A season crawls to its conclusion.

Fans unfurled banners demanding improvements to the team, while the hardcore ultras stayed silent in protest throughout a match which ended all square after Malick Thiaw’s 87th-minute own goal handed mid-table Genoa a point.

The entire Curva Sud section of the San Siro, which is where the ultras stand and holds thousands of supporters, missed Thiaw’s unfortunate error as it emptied shortly after Olivier Giroud fired Milan 3-2 ahead in the 75th minute.

Left behind was a banner which simply read “the sound of silence”.

The protest dampened the atmosphere for what was effectively a dead rubber, with second-placed Milan already guaranteed Champions League football and promoted Genoa safe from relegation.

Fan discontent stems from the 18 points which separate Milan from champions and local rivals Inter Milan, who secured their 20th league title by winning their local derby a fortnight ago.

That, and being dumped out of the Europa League by fellow Italians AS Roma, angered supporters and means Stefano Pioli, the man who guided Milan to the 2022 Serie A title, will be dismissed at the end of the season after nearly five years at the helm.

“The fans chose that form of protest, you have to respect it,” said Pioli to DAZN. “Our fans have always been of huge value over these years, they’ll have their reasons for the way they protested.”

- ‘Sound of silence’ for troubled Milan as Juve inch towards CL, Dawn.com, Day 7, 2025.

3. Keir Starmer admitted he has had the silent treatment from Donald Trump since the US President blasted his dithering over the Iran war. The Prime Minister said the pair have not spoken since the first day of the conflict.

Trump has since accused Starmer of taking ‘far too much time’ to act, branded him a ‘loser’ in private, ‘no Winston Churchill’ in public and claimed he has plunged the two nations’ ‘special relationship’ into meltdown.

The PM yesterday announced Britain would be sending four Typhoon jets, missile-destroying helicopters and drones to the Middle East. But they will not arrive until tomorrow – a week after the war started.

And warship HMS Dragon – needed to protect drone-bashed RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus - will not get there for a fortnight as it is undergoing welding work in Portsmouth.

But addressing the nation a defiant PM insisted he was providing ‘calm, level-headed leadership’ while accusing Trump of plunging the Middle East into ‘chaos’.

He said the UK had been deploying anti-aircraft missiles to the region since December and – though he and Trump have not talked personally – Transatlantic ties were still working despite the spat.

“While the region has been plunged into chaos my focus is providing calm, level-headed leadership in the national interest,” Sir Keir said. This conflict could continue for some time.

“The long-standing British position is that the best way forward for the regime and the world is a negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions.

“It’s for me as the British PM to take the decisions that I consider to be in the best interests of the UK.”

The duo fell out after Starmer initially refused to let US troops use Brit air bases in the Middle East for Operation Epic Fury – reportedly on the advice of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

- Starmer gets silent treatment from Trump since US President blasted his Iran war dithering, DailyStar.co.uk, March 6, 2026.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）