What did Donald Trump do today?
He had some morning mood swings.
Trump began the day by tweeting out thanks to someone or something invisible to the rest of his audience.
Trump himself is the original source of the quote, for which he was widely mocked at the time. It's not clear if a Twitter follower (presumably sarcastically) called him that, or whether he remembered that he was the one who coined the phrase.
But just twenty minutes later, Trump's mood had soured. He lashed out at MSNBC's Joy Reid, whose Saturday morning show had yet to begin:
The tweet itself makes clear that Trump knows perfectly well who Reid is, and who besides him watches her, which isn't surprising: Trump's habit of hate-watching his own negative TV coverage is well known. It's also a known Trump tic to throw highly specific tantrums about television programs he supposedly hasn't watched. In fact, his television habits are so voracious and so predictable that he's been targeted personally by lobbyists and critics who have taken out advertisements on shows they know he'll be watching.
Trump is an early riser and uses a DVR to catch up on TV he missed from the night before, so he may only just now have been seeing Reid as the guest host on Friday evening's All In with Chris Hayes. On that show, Reid noted Trump's apparent difficulty remembering and pronouncing the name of his vice-president (which he rendered "Mike Pounds"). She also made fun of Trump's "smoking-hot beauty tips" to Republican fund-raisers, in which he riffed on how energy-efficient LED light bulbs are the reason for his orange-looking skin.
In reality, as his personal makeup artist at the Republican National Convention has said, Trump looks orange because he usually does his own makeup and overapplies bronzer.
Why does this matter?
- It shouldn't be this easy to emotionally manipulate the President of the United States.
- Trump's mental health is no joking matter.