Trump's interview on CNN this morning did not get off to a good start:

[kpete]

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/729642140960051200

[BeyondGeography]

1. Whiny

little...what Bill Maher said.

[CurtEastPoint]

8. EXACTLY!

[Glimmer of Hope]

2. So childish. Unbelievable.

[hatrack]

3. What a DICK!

Unbelievable - like a whiny third-grader who doesn't want to go upstairs and go to bed.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. I know everybody who has predicted Trump's demise has seen their own demise.

But the general electorate is not the Republican electorate.

[Protalker]

5. Carl Bernstein said press not doing its job

Trump has mastered being jello and evades getting nailed to the wall.

[pandr32]

14. Good analogy!

[cali]

6. The problem is that trump, from this transcript at least, controlled the interview

[woolldog]

9. Yes he has Cuomo apologizing.

These media men have no spine.

[vanlassie]

15. If he's got nothing else he tells them they have bad breath.

I saw him do that on a Larry King interview. Larry was nonplussed - clearly understood the trump MO.

[Saviolo]

19. It's a tough line to walk for them.

He obviously doesn't want to kowtow to Trump in that way. Trump is certainly belittling him publicly for not being sufficiently subservient to him, and he doesn't want to enable him. You can see in this short exchange he tries to set up a token resistance to the derailing of the very first question.

But by the same token, he has to give in to Trump a little, in order to get anything out of him at all. It's the battle the mainstream media has had for years, now. They want to act tough, but they don't want to lose access, so they buckle like a belt.

Trump reminds me of that terrible interview that Jian Ghomeshi had with Billy Bob Thornton on Q on the CBC. Of course this was back when Ghomeshi was still a widely respected radio host and personality and not seen as a serial sexual harasser and abuser.

Ghomeshi handled Thornton very well while he was having his little tantrum, but Trump turns all of that up to 11, which puts any interviewer into a nigh impossible position.

[AngryOldDem]

13. That's how he rolls.

The man is a true master manipulator, which is one of the things that makes him so dangerous.

[bemildred]

17. And he gets to go on about how unfair CNN has been to him too.

And nobody bats an eye. But I suppose that is really a threat to walk out.

[spanone]

7. he has no policies to speak of. he's a fraud.

bullies will bully.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. He's going to be presidential. He's going to be so presidential.

You're going to be begging him, "Mr. Trump, please, stop being so presidential! We can't stand it anymore!"

[bullwinkle428]

11. "YOURE NOT KISSING MY ASS PROPERLY!!!"

This is the very essence of his personality, if you look back over his entire history as a public figure.

[AngryOldDem]

12. I stumbled upon it and had to change the channel ASAP.

Having my blood pressure shoot into the ionosphere at 7 a.m. is just not healthy.

The guy has been getting free, generally fawning publicity for almost a year now and he still whines about being treated "unfairly".

Petulant, juvenile megalomaniac. Nowhere near fit to be sanitation commissioner, let alone POTUS.

[femmocrat]

16. Did he ever answer the question?

He gets away with this over and over.

[EdwardBernays]

18. ????

This is a normal Trump interview. The been doing this for months.

You'll note he changed the conversation and managed to shame the media and came across like the outsider.

Yes some panel CNN had doesn't like something Trump said; quelle surprise!

The takeaway here is that a) Trump won the nomination with this sort of behavior, and b) this sort of behavior is only seen as negative by dome voters; lots of voters hate the "gotcha" media and think this is Trump still king up for himself.

[Oneironaut]

31. A lot of Americans see themselves in Trump.

A whiny, narcissist baby who gets his fee-fees hurt in the outside world and then crawls back into his bubble.

I'm sure his Freeper butt kissers will spin this as Trump "being in charge" and "sticking it to the media." Um... Where's the leadership in whining like a little baby? Is this really who you want? Do you want someone who works with world leaders in a tough situation, or someone who would have every American city obliterated so long as he got the last word?

This is the worst of America. The rot has reached the surface.

[mwb970]

20. What a child. This is hard to even believe. /nt

[libodem]

21. Ridiculous

What a scum trumpet.

[Grammy23]

22. People continue to say that Trump controls the interview.

But what about CNN? Or MSNBC? I am seriously hoping that one day when Trump pulls that stunt of acting like a two year old throwing a tantrum the interviewer looks him dead in the eye and tells him it is obvious he does not intend to have an honest interview. Then pull his microphone and tell the audience you will be going away now. Fade to black. Shut him down. But I won't hold my breath.

[avebury]

23. I would love to see Trump come up against

someone not willing to kiss his butt and kow tow to him.

As soon as Trump started whining, Cuomo should have responded along the lines of: So Mr. Trump doesn't want to answer my first question. And then ask his next question. If Trump continued to whine - So Mr. Trump doesn't want to answer my second question.

All the interviewer needs to do is stay calm and reflect back on Trump, Trump's bull shit. He will look like an idiot if an interview refuses to take the bait.

[3catwoman3]

24. He is worse than a toddler.

If he thinks he is not fairly treated as the presumptive nominee, imagine his endless meltdowns if he had to put up with all the crap hurled at President Obama 24/7. He would be a basket case in a week.

He cannot handle even the mildest criticism. Constant adulation is his raison d'etre. (apologies if I did not spell the French correctly.)

[Equinox Moon]

25. Controlling behavior, that is what fascists do

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't even play one on TV.

But if Trump isn't a textbook case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder I don't know who is. Look it up in DSM-IV and there'll be a picture of him.

[womanofthehills]

32. Speaking of himself in the third person

a definite sign of the personality disordered.

[mulsh]

27. The only follow up should be a very aggressive "Answer the f-ing question."

repeated ad infinitem until the vulgar short fingered vulgarian dissolves in a puddle of anger and orange dye. I bet it wouldn't take much to set him off on camera for the electorate to see.


Treating this person with any respect or standard decency hasn't worked out very well. It's time to change gears. I hope the Democratic candidate and her operatives are preparing to strike hard and often.

[Blue Owl]

28. Temper Tantrump

[Oneironaut]

29. Narcissist blowhard Hitler-wannabe

This is not a real leader. This is a child. This is a little boy who is pretending to be the President.

Imagine how this baby will be with Putin, or Assad. They'll eat him alive. You can't sulk as President. Grow up or go back to scripted reality TV, little boy.

[zappaman]

30. What a fucking baby.