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Politics

Donald Trump Was Remarkably Chill in Last Night's Debate. And Then…

Trump took to Twitter afterward to bash Megyn Kelly, Frank Luntz, and anyone who doesn't recognize his greatness.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 8.7.2015 8:30 AM

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Large image on homepages | Ivanka Trump/Instagram
(Ivanka Trump/Instagram)

It might seem strange to call Donald Trump's performance in last night's GOP debate subdued, but he managed to mostly stick to time limits, wait his turn to talk, and even refrain from hurling insults at moderator Megyn Kelly when she questioned him about some of the horrible names he's been known to call women. It could have been much worse (or better, depending on how you look at it). But that sort of bare-minimum effort at decorum couldn't last long, obviously. After the Republican candidates left the stage and made the pundit circuit, Trump took to Twitter to vent his frustration with Kelly, Fox News, and anyone who doesn't recognize his greatness.

A sample: 

I'm not sure what Twitter Trump was looking at, but the general consensus I saw on there and on other social media, heard from the people I talked, and have seen so far in the press is that Kelly and all the Fox moderators did a remarkably good job at actually asking legit, non-softball questions. Pretty much every candidate, from Jim Gilmore to Donald Trump, was asked to explain some of their most obvious liabilities or failures, which actually seemed to shake them from their talking points from time to time. But Kelly insulted Trump—even asking at one point, "When did you actually become a Republican?"—so of course the whole thing was a bust. 

Trump also reserved some ire for pollster Frank Luntz, who hosted a post-debate public-opinion segment in which Trump was getting very little love. 

Clearly the tweets of someone who DOES NOT CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF HIM. 

We've all known someone like this: no matter what happens, it is somebody else's fault—somebody jealous, probably, or a "hater." Any positive to come from their actions is totally deserved and understandable; any negative a conspiracy, a coordinated attempt to bring them down, or at least merely the sour grapes of the vastly inferior. If someone calls them out for being a jerk, it's because those people can't handle people who "speak the truth" or "tell it like it is." There is a term for these people. 

In the age of selfies and social media, the chattering classes and people who parrot them love to throw around the word "narcissist" with abandon. If nothing else, at least Trump provides a good reminder what true narcissism actually looks like.

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NEXT: State Legislators Ask Congress to Repeal National Pot Prohibition

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

PoliticsDonald TrumpElection 2016DebatesTwitter
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