Media fascination with Donald Trump was on display again early Thursday during a 15-minute Trump call-in to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Trump was generally treated with kid gloves, with co-host Joe Scarborough continually referring to him as “Donald” (it was the same once with colleague Willie Geist) as Trump broke now new ground amid his usual array of bombastic policy generalizations.
But he did claim that resounding criticism aside, the media is somehow turning his way.
When asked about rebukes from conservative columnists George Will and Charles Krauthammer, Trump responded in somewhat garbled fashion and said, “Instead of attacking people like Krauthammer and George Will, there is a movement out there, the pundits have come a long way on me.”
He offered no examples of anybody of any particular stature changing their views even as he said, “A lot of pundits have come over.”
He even cited an appearance in South Carolina the day before and how an unidentified CNN reporter “in a beautiful red dress” claimed his speech was the best political speech she’d ever heard. When asked to name her, he couldn’t.
Much of his appearance was rehashed Trump, including bashing President Obama by saying that various foreign leaders, including the prime minister of Japan, “are much smarter than our leaders.”