The food-fight between Donald Trump and Fox News is irresistible to watch.
Trump is such a drama queen!
It is utterly ridiculous that Trump is throwing such a hissy-fit over Megyn Kelly, the Fox News host and debate moderator, merely because she asked him a question that he didn't like in a prior debate. So Trump attempted to demand that Fox News remove Ms. Kelly as a moderator in the upcoming debate Thursday night in Iowa.
Seriously? I mean, this is hilarious!
Trump whines like a little sissy that Ms. Kelly did not treat him fairly last time and that she will not be fair towards him this time. Poor little Trumpy-poo. Did Trumpy get a boo-boo? Can we bring Trumpy a blanky?
This is Trump the victim, which we've seen a lot. Of course, Ms. Kelly was not unfair in the least. But Trump's primitive little brain is not able to perceive even the slightly deeper complexity that Ms. Kelly's questioning of him was fair and appropriate journalism, and that all the other candidates receive tough questions as well, not just Trump. Instead, Trump immediately perceived a threat, he felt he was being singled out and attacked as an innocent victim, and he instantly categorized Ms. Kelly as an enemy combatant in his mind.
Clearly, Trump is unable to accurately perceive and assess even the simplest reality. This is not exactly the kind of person we would wish to be in charge of the military, much less the nation.
Then Trump shifts into the spoiled little billionaire brat. He wants everything his way. And if he doesn't get it, then he throws a temper tantrum. When Fox News refused to remove Ms. Kelly as a moderator, Trump responded by dropping out of the entire debate. If others won't play by his rules, then he'll take his toys and go home.
Then we got Trump the bully, which we have also seen a lot. First he attacked Ms. Kelly. He insulted her as a "lightweight" and a "third-rate reporter," and he said he didn't like her. As we all know by now, when Trump doesn't like someone, it is typically not a reliable assessment of who they are, but rather, it just means that they criticized Trump. His skills at evaluating people are as shallow as a kiddie pool - every person is reduced to being either for Trump or against Trump. One or the other. That's the extent of his worldview.
And then Trump attacked Fox News. Trump claimed that his superstar status was responsible for all of the television ratings for the debates, and so he would now intentionally seek to punish Fox News by dropping out of the upcoming debate and thereby sink the ratings for Fox News.
And to attempt to worsen the punishment on Fox News, Trump announced that he would hold his own separate fundraising event benefitting wounded veterans at the same time as the debate. Supposedly, his campaign is busy seeking another television network to carry Trump's alternative event in order to further sap ratings away from Fox News.
Now, this is highly cynical. Trump is obviously not holding this event out of a genuine desire to benefit wounded veterans, but rather, out of a bitter spitefulness to try to punish Fox News.
Wow. Now this is one petty and vindictive little boy.
And all because Megyn Kelly asked him a question he didn't like. My goodness. Talk about a severe overreaction!
The response by Fox News was not much better.
Now, it should be noted that Fox News was clearly correct to stand behind Ms. Kelly. Fox News stated that capitulating to Trump's ultimatums of dropping a moderator "violates all journalistic standards." One unexpected revelation from this was to learn that Fox News is actually aware of the existence of journalistic standards. So (swallow) kudos to Fox News on doing the right thing.
But Fox News immediately jumped right down into the trenches and began throwing food back at Trump.
Fox News taunted Trump by saying it was surprised that Trump was showing so much fear of Ms. Kelly. And Fox News went further and made a highly sarcastic comment about how various antagonistic world leaders such as the ayatollah and Vladimir Putin might also just so happen to treat Trump unfairly, thus implying, legitimately, that if Trump cannot even handle a question from Ms. Kelly, then Trump is surely unfit to handle world affairs.
This highly unprofessional response from Fox News could have come from Trump himself! We see very clearly that they are cut from the same cloth. Two peas in a pod. And thus the full-blown food-fight as they duke it out back and forth. A race to the bottom.
In many ways this fiasco is comical and highly entertaining, much like you might expect from a celebrity or executive from a reality television show or network obsessed with himself, money, ratings, and ego.
But in a larger sense, this is very sad.
In fact, this is not a reality television show or network, but this is real life. And at stake here is nothing less than the election of the president of our nation. Our leaders are supposed to reflect who we are as a people. But this behavior does not reflect even a hint of leadership in any respect. This behavior is shockingly infantile and utterly embarrassing. This is not who we are as a nation.
Maybe we deserve better than this.
Maybe we should stop supporting Trump. Maybe we should stop watching Fox News.