Rush Limbaugh says that Donald Trump is “controlling the media” by refusing to play by their rules, exemplified by saying he will not show up at Thursday night’s Fox News debate.

Wednesday on The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh said that Trump is thinking, “screw the rules, screw what’s expected, screw ‘This is just the way you do it.’ I’m not gonna put myself in a position go where I’m gonna be treated unfairly. I don’t have to. I’m Donald Trump.” (RELATED: Trump Backs Out Of Fox News Debate [VIDEO])

Limbaugh began his monologue by using the illustration of “the game.” “Every business has aspects of it that are considered the game, and that’s the routine. And the game is characterized by everybody knowing the rules of the game. People involved in it play by the rules. Some venture outside now and then, but the rules pretty much of the game are adhered to because it’s a matter of respect for the game in which everybody is in.” (RELATED: Campaign Manager: Megyn Kelly ‘Completely Obsessed’ With Trump [VIDEO])

In the business of politics, Limbaugh said, “[W]hen the media calls, you answer, and when the media wants you, you go, and when the media is going to host a debate and it’s part of a Republican presidential campaign, you go. You just do it, no matter what the media’s done to you in the past, no matter what you think of it, whether you want to go or not, you go. That’s the game.”

However with Trump, “Trump is so far outside this game, he’s so far outside the rules, he’s never been a player in this game. He’s always been an outsider.”

Trump is “controlling the media, and it’s his objective. He is controlling the media. He controls the media when he’s not on it. He controls the media when he is on it. He controls the media when he’s asleep,” Limbaugh argued. ” Nobody else has been able to do anything like this short of the Kennedys, and they’re pikers compared to the way Trump is doing this.”

Citing “The Art of the Deal,” Limbaugh said, “[I]f you know Donald Trump at all, it’s very simple: He had an unpleasant experience in the first debate, and in his mind, the question that he was asked was rigged.”

“Don’t forget, before that first debate, remember all of the news stories that were floating around saying that that debate, somebody at Fox had been given orders by the Republican establishment to take Trump out. Remember that? There were any number of so-called sources for this,” Limbaugh said. “Some said it was the donors demanding it. Some said that it was Fox News executives demanding it. Some said it was the RNC demanding it.”

“Well, Trump’s not immune. He hears it. And even if he hadn’t heard it he would have to know that they want to take him out; he’s outside the game; he’s breaking all the rules,” Limbaugh argued. Trump is “exposing so much as fraud that has gone on inside the American political process for so long they [the establishment] can’t allow somebody like this to win and succeed. It’s quite natural they would want to take him out as well. It’s Bengals-Steelers time here, folks. It’s quite natural they’d want to take him out. Well, he heard it.”

Limbaugh said that when Trump heard Megyn Kelly’s first question, he noted that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and other Democrats don’t get questions like that so Trump said “screw this. I’m not putting myself in that position again. Why should I? I don’t have to.”

Circling back to the metaphor of the game of politics, Limbaugh said that while the game prescribes showing up to the debate, Trump has said, “‘Screw the rules.’…Why should I willingly give them another shot at me in a circumstance they control, why should I do it? What’s the sense in it for me? I’m leading; I’m running the pack here; why in the world should I put myself in that circumstance? I’ve already seen what’s gonna happen.'”

“[F]rom the standpoint of knowing Trump, reading his book, and seeing how he operates elsewhere, in his mind, screw the rules, screw what’s expected, screw ‘This is just the way you do it.’ I’m not gonna put myself in a position go where I’m gonna be treated unfairly. I don’t have to. I’m Donald Trump. Anybody can do this,” Limbaugh suggested. “Ted Cruz could choose to do it if he wants to. They just don’t. Cruz and the rest of the pack are playing the rules of the game. Trump is saying I don’t have to do it. I don’t want to do it. I don’t have any respect for these people. What the hell.” (RELATED: Cruz Challenges Trump To One-On-One Debate [AUDIO])

“In addition to that, Donald Trump knows that by not showing up, he’s owning the entire event,” Limbaugh insisted. “Some guy not even present will end up owning the entire event, and the proof of that is Fox News last night.” (RELATED: Michael Moore Mocks Trump For Being Afraid Of Megyn Kelly [VIDEO])

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