Let's leave aside the fact that The Donald is a misogynistic dick for a moment and examine the issue of provocation. The first time Trump went off on the Kelly File host, it was after the first GOP presidential debate in Cleveland where Kelly treated him like any other candidate, asking him tough but fair questions about issues and about his "colorful" background, including his long history of being the "before" picture in chivalry advertisements. Were her questions to Trump provocative? Yes, they were. Were the unfairly so? No, they weren't. One of the purposes of these debates is to prepare the eventual nominee for the media rigors of a campaign in which Republicans always get treated like garbage and have to be able to roll with those punches and overcome them. It's like NFL training camp: at some point the players put on their pads and start hitting each other. As I wrote at the time, questions about his past treatment of women are going to come up in the campaign, and repeatedly the more he reacts like he did after Kelly brought them up (thus proving their legitimacy). She was doing her job as a journalist and debate moderator, and he had no grounds for inciting and leading the social media hatestorm that he did.
But, however fair Megyn Kelly's debate questions were, you can reasonably describe them as a provocation.
So explain to me, Tea Party Trumpsters, how the following graphic fits within that definition:
Take a look at @realDonaldTrump’s immigration proposals:
Megyn Kelly returned yesterday from a long-previously-scheduled week's vacation. On her program last night, she showed the above graphic. What in that graphic is the slightest bit inaccurate? Are not Mexico paying for a border wall, deportation of all illegal aliens, and an end to "birthright citizenship" not the three pillars of the Trump immigration plan? Has he not been pounding these three pillars like an anvil chorus for the past two months? Is it not the core, the very heart, of his campaign? Should he not be immensely proud of that graphic, no matter how little he actually believes a word of it, because even Megyn Kelly is disseminating his BS?
Where, in short, is the provocation in Kelly's tweet?
And yet it triggered this fresh avalanche of vitriol:
.@megynkelly must have had a terrible vacation, she is really off her game. Was afraid to confront Dr. Cornel West. No clue on immigration!
I liked The Kelly File much better without @megynkelly. Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!
No mention of her menses or speculation about any recent bouts of PMS. But DJT did retweet this:
All this from Kelly simply accurately summarizing Trump's immigration plan in an on-screen graphic. I don't get it.
Which is to say, it's not rational. If, however, you figure in that Donald Trump is generally misogynistic and has certain....expectations about women and how they're supposed to behave and conduct themselves, especially around him, then it all starts making sense. Narcissists don't brook being challenged as a matter of general course. Misogynistic narcissists especially don't brook women challenging them.
It's like this exchange from the original Total Recall:
Vilos Cohaagen: [Cohaagen has Quaid strapped into a memory machine and is about to turn him back into Hauser] Relax, Quaid. You'll like being Hauser.
Douglas Quaid: The guy's a [BLEEP]ing asshole!
Vilos Cohaagen: Not true! He's one of my best friends. Besides, he's got a big house and a Mercedes and... you like Melina, right? Well, you get to [screw] her every night. That's right, she's going to be Hauser's babe.
Melina: [also strapped into a memory machine] I'll bust his balls!
Vilos Cohaagen: Uh-uh, Princess. We're having you fixed. You're gonna be respectful, compliant, and appreciative... the way a woman should be.
Megyn Kelly - in Donald Trump's eyes - should have been respectful, compliant, and appreciative three weeks ago in Cleveland, and owes him an apology (and a "creative" way of "making it up to him"). Instead, she busted his balls like the Obamedia is going to start doing incessantly the moment he clinches the GOP nomination (assuming he ever did).
No, I take that back - she busted his balls fairly. The Obamedia would geld him entirely, he would self-combust, and the path to a fifty-State Democrat blowout for Hillary Clinton (or whomever) would be wide open.
You want me to make a gesture of taking your hero seriously, TPTers? He can start by letting go of this puerile grudge. But I guess that's just something that Donald J. Trump doesn't do.
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