Donald Trump loses it, calls Fox News interviewer “fake news”

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Based on his own words over the past couple years, Donald Trump has always seemed to think every news outlet is “fake news” – except for Fox News and a small handful of other outlets that are sycophantic to him. So what happens when even large chunks of Fox News decide to begin distancing themselves from Trump’s worsening scandals and increasingly offensive rhetoric?

Donald Trump sat down for an interview on Friday with Maria Bartiromo from Fox Business Network, a spinoff of Fox News. Bartiromo has been generally pro-Trump in her coverage, so Trump was probably expecting a softball interview. But Bartiromo apparently felt she needed to cover her bases when it came to Trump’s recent escalating personal attacks on the late Republican Senator John McCain. Things quickly went off the rails.

Maria Bartiromo asked Donald Trump, “John McCain is dead, why are you doing this?” This sent Trump into yet another tirade about McCain. Then he blamed the media for his own attacks on McCain, insisting that he’s merely been answering the media’s questions about McCain (in most instances this isn’t true). Then Trump unleashed this tirade at Bartiromo: “I could say I have no comment but that’s not me. But you shouldn’t have brought it up. Actually, I thought you weren’t supposed to bring it up but that’s OK. Fake news, every once and a while.” Wait, what?

For starters, Donald Trump is now accusing one of his own Fox allies of being “fake news,” and he’s doing it to her face, no less. As his scandals grow worse for him, Trump is increasingly taking out his frustrations on his personal allies, and on members of his own party. Also, Trump seemed to be under the impression that Bartiromo had agreed not to ask him about McCain, but she says that’s not the case. Did Trump’s own handlers mislead him in order to get him to do this interview, or is he merely hallucinating?