Tantrums are for two year olds and Donald Trump. At least with the two year olds you have a reasonable hope that they will grow out of it and become able to deal with the stresses of life in time. There is no such hope for the almost 77-year-old infant, who has been an out of control baby all his life and will die one. Vanity Fair is running a story about an altercation on Trump Force One which took place the day Trump flew back to Florida from Waco, Texas with a gaggle of reporters. He totally lost his cool with one of them. He abused the man and threw things.
He started off in good spirits. But then a line of questioning from NBC News reporter Vaughn Hillyard, who suggested that Trump had in recent days seemed “frustrated” by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s investigation, began irritating the former president. “Don’t ask me any more questions,” Trump said. About 10 minutes later, as Hillyard continued to ask about the investigation, Trump snapped, grabbing the reporter’s two phones and chucking them to the side, according to a source familiar with the matter. “Get him out of here,” Trump told his aides, according to a recording obtained by Vanity Fair.
The incident occurred a few days before Trump would be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury for his role in hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels. Some of Trump’s comments on the plane have been previously reported, such as when he responded to reporters’ questions about Bragg’s probe by attacking it as a “fake case” that “they’ve already dropped.” The Guardian noted how Trump lashed out at Hillyard when the NBC News reporter asked whether he was frustrated by the investigation. Trump denied the notion, insisting, “We did nothing wrong,” and saying, “This is fake news, and NBC is one of the worst. Don’t ask me any more questions.” Hillyard himself said Trump avoided specifics and called the press “fake news.” But the full scope of Trump’s tirade, including his throwing the reporter’s phones, has not been previously reported. Hillyard declined to comment.
Hillyard’s questions revolved around Trump’s posts on Truth Social at the time; the former president had warned that there could be “potential death and destruction” if he was indicted. When Hillyard again tried to clarify Trump’s “version of events” around the DA’s investigation, the ex-president said, “I don’t want to talk to you.” Hillyard tried to ask another question. “Do you hear me? You’re not a nice guy,” Trump said, turning to take a question from another reporter. When Hillyard tried a third time to get a response, Trump lost it. “Alright, let’s go, get him out of here,” Trump said. “Outta here. Outta here,” Trump said, as Hillyard kept trying: “The special counsel, sir.” A deeper voice, apparently belonging to a Trump campaign aide, can be heard saying, “Vaughn, we’re done.”
Get him “outta here?” At 30,000 feet? And what is shocking is that there’s no doubt in my mind but that Trump would love to be the mob boss slash monarch who would actually be able to throw a human being out of an airplane if it suited him. That is totally who he is. Viktor Orban has had people beat the crap out of reporters who annoyed him and make no mistake, Trump would love nothing more.
Trump then picked up one of the phones recording the gaggle and asked, “Whose is this?” Hillyard replied that it was his. Trump picked up another phone and asked the same question. “That one’s mine too,” Hillyard said. The former president tossed both phones out of his sight, onto the seat next to him; the thud of one of the phones hitting a surface can be heard in the recording. Someone then asked to talk about congressional support, but an aide said that the gaggle was over. Other members of the gaggle included Axios’s Sophia Cai, the Daily Mail’s Rob Crilly, RSBN’s Brian Glenn, and Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci. (At one point in the recording, Trump praised Vucci as “handsome,” telling the plane, “look at the arms on him.”) The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell had been expected to travel with the president for the Waco trip, but was bumped off the trip a day before due to a story he’d written about Truth Social being under a money-laundering investigation.
Can’t have that guy around. Can’t have anybody around who knows the actual facts and might ask a real question. Since that day in March, Trump has seen fit to only allow his a$$-kissing right-wing outlets send their people to cover him, no more mainstream people. “Reporters” from the Daily Caller and OANN accompanied him to New Hampshire. Let’s see who Trump takes to Iowa.
This might be one of the reasons Trump doesn’t want to debate anybody for the GOP primary. He’s totally up against the wall with all the lawsuits he’s got going concurrently and imminent hellfire raining down on his head. He can’t answer questions about any of it. Ergo, look for an occasional right-wing missive from Bubble World, the adamantine echo chamber in which Trump must seal himself in order to preserve the few remaining shreds of his sanity.
And a man in this condition, legally, psychologically, about to lose his shirt financially, is somebody that wants to govern a nation of 330 million people? There are no words. We don’t know exactly what Election 2024 will look like, but I feel very safe in saying at this point that the word “pathetic” will be used a lot. Perhaps it will become the new “unprecedented.”
At least the reporter wasn’t required to change baby’s diaper.
I could make a better man out of a banana. Kilgore Trout, a creation of Kurt Vonhegut R.I.P.
When the history of our era is written, I certainly hope the historian gets Donnie’s full name right: Donald cries like a bitch Trump.
I’ve wondered why the Traitor Tot doesn’t want to debate. What Ursula says–that he’d be ill-advised to and doesn’t want to talk about his current and pending legal woes, and would surely be grilled about them on a debate stage–makes a lot of sense.