He’s biting the brand that feeds him
There’s hardly a day that passes when “The Donald” doesn’t get into a spat with somebody.
Last Tuesday, for instance, he managed to try to pick verbal fights with more than a half dozen people.
He tweets a lot.
He tweets insults a lot.
He managed to “accuse” his Republican presidential rival, Jeb Bush, of speaking “Mexican,” which, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t a language.
“Jeb Bush is crazy, who cares that he speaks Mexican, this is America, English,” Trump tweeted.
Then there was that nasty bit of business involving Jorge Ramos, the well-respected Univision anchorman, who asked Trump pointed questions at a news conference in Dubuque, Iowa.
He had Ramos removed from the room, but not before he told him to “Sit down, you weren’t called,” and that he should, “Go back to Univision.”
Ramos was permitted to return to the news conference. He was even allowed to ask Trump a couple of questions.
Questions about Trump’s stand on immigration, that didn’t result in specific answers, but to Trump’s reminder that Hispanics “love me.”
Of course national polling indicates he’s far from loved by Hispanics.
According to a recent Gallup Daily poll involving GOP presidential contenders, a whopping 51 percent of Hispanic adults view Trump negatively.
The next lowest candidate on that list is Ted Cruz, with only a seven percent negative rating among Hispanics.
Trump isn’t the only politician to get feisty during a news conference.
But his over-sensitivity to tough questions, and the people who ask them, has become an ugly trademark.
“You call women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals,” Fox News’ Megyn Kelly told Trump at the first Republican debate in Cleveland on Aug. 6
In a weak attempt at humor, Trump shot back, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
Kelly didn’t relent. “For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell.”
Trump launched into one of his famous tirades about how people are too “politically correct.”
That set-off a well-publicized feud between Fox News and Trump.
Keep in mind, Trump never denied that he called women lots of bad things.
Instead, he attacked the woman who asked him about calling women bad things.
“”When you meet her you realize she is not very tough or very sharp. She is zippo,” Trump told CNN’s Don Lemon.
For a guy who fashions himself as a human billboard for business success (and now in politics), he doesn’t seem to understand that picking a fight with Fox News is really biting the brand that feeds him.
Fox News, with its obvious attachments to conservatives and the Republican Party, is a must have for any Republican seeking the presidency.
Trump doesn’t seem to care.
Yet, there was an uneasy truce struck between Fox News and Trump, thanks to a telephone call between him and Fox News’ President and CEO, Roger Ailes.
On Aug. 10, Ailes indicated his full-throated support for Megyn Kelly while offering assurances to Trump that his network would continue covering him with objectivity.
“I assured him that we will continue to cover this campaign with fairness and balance,” Ailes said.
Kelly went on vacation, and it was thought that the whole, sordid, Trump vs. Kelly mess would have been buried.
It was not.
Last Monday night, Kelly returned from her vacation, and Trump, showing all of the maturity of a jilted teenager, couldn’t resist fanning the flames of his feud with her.
“Megyn needs to go back on vacation. What a waste of an hour on Fox,” Trump tweeted.
He then re-tweeted a message from one of his followers that said: “The bimbo is back in town. I hope not for long.”
This time, Ailes not only defended Kelly. He attacked Trump.
“Donald Trump’s surprise and unprovoked attack on Megyn Kelly during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is disturbing,” Aisles wrote in a terse, 177 word statement.
Trump’s response?
“I totally disagree with the Fox statement. I think her questioning of me…was very unfair.”
For Trump, it was just another day of being Donald Trump.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net