Donald Trump Steals the Spotlight Yet Again

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Donald Trump has figured out yet again how to dominate the news cycle: he’s announced that he won’t participate in Thursday’s debate on Fox because host Megyn Kelly isn’t fair to him. It’s childish, but it’s probably a smart move. The debate likely wouldn’t help him much, but with everyone gunning for him there’s at least a chance it could hurt him. And since Trump’s appeal is mostly rooted in grievance culture, picking a fight like this probably goes over well with his base. Besides, as you can see, his announcement got him a ton of press. Everyone even used the same picture for some reason.

Alternatively, Trump might decide at the last minute to show up after all. This would get him even more attention.

But there’s at least one news organization that didn’t get the news. Fox News still thinks Trump is going to be center stage. Are they behind the curve, or do they know something we don’t?

UPDATE: They’re just behind the curve. Fox now has a “Breaking News” banner at the top of their page announcing that Trump won’t be participating.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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