Donald Trump has always prided himself on being the most popular, powerful man in any room. He’s also always enjoyed the impractical attention of many political journalists, including Bloomberg Politics’ Mark Halperin and Breitbart News‘ Matthew Boyle.
When he doesn’t like a reporter, however, he does what he feels he must.
Revenge happens by U.S. mail in which the journalist gets a copy of the story marked up with Trump’s black pen. In a Vanity Fair sampling, he circles BuzzFeed Ben Smith‘s name, draws a line to the margin and writes, “And who is Ben Smith?” Or, it’s a scathing hit piece placed in an opposing publication. Like the one he dictated to Boyle on BuzzFeed‘s McKay Coppins.
But now Trump’s got a new detractor in the Fourth Estate.
The Weekly Standard‘s Stephen Hayes set him off by calling him a “conservative of convenience” and a “clown” at the recent GOP “First in the Nation” leadership summit in New Hampshire.
Not being taken seriously makes Trump bristle. He asked a question in response, but forgot proper punctuation.
Typically a wrathful comment like this would garner some support.
Hayes retweeted Trump’s question and directed him to use his actual handle: @stephenfhayes. He also remarked, “Fair question.”
But as Twitchy laid out the whole thing, all of the reaction was anti-Trump. The real estate mogul who has repeatedly voiced presidential aspirations without ever running, has said he will announce — or not — in May or June.
So far he’s been something of a tease.
TWT‘s Joe Curl, previously with Drudge Report, asked a question in return: “How does a ‘mogul’ who keeps going bankrupt think he can handle the presidency? Disappear, little man.”
And Kevin Glass, a policy director at the Franklin Center, cracked, “You’re not a candidate.”
RedState‘s Jake Harrison also dinged Trump. “MUCH better,” he wrote. “If you’re gonna talk sh*t, you better make sure your sh*t is in order. BTW, @stephenhayes = ACE.”
Someone calling himself (or herself) “NannyHateState” remarked, “Not defending Stephen, but Donald, you’re an idiot, shut the fuck up.”
Trump recently faced down accusations of sexism when one of his Twitter writers retweeted a comment by one of his followers: “If Hillary can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
When Trump learned of it, he deleted it. His staff reasoned that it wasn’t Trump who retweeted this, but one of his employees who handles his social media. (So yes, in fact, retweets typically mean endorsements and they sometimes matter.)
Trump doesn’t discriminate between right and left wing media.
When NBC “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd spoke out against the follicly challenged non-candidate in late January, he got an equally stinging tongue lashing.
“Nobody’s going to mistake Donald Trump for a presidential candidate, I don’t think, other than Donald Trump,” said Todd.
Trump replied as follows.
