The good news, from President Donald Trump’s perspective, is that the media is no longer obsessing about Russia or the healthcare mess in the Senate. The bad news (though there is some argument about that) is that the media is now ablaze with outrage about what Trump tweeted about Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC’s famous power couple.

What did the president do now?

Trump offered a tweet in two parts. “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..” and then followed by “...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me.

She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”

The wording brought to mind what Trump said about Megyn Kelley, then a Fox News TV host, for the rough handling she gave him during a presidential debate when he was a candidate. The tweets have sent the media collectively to the fainting couches, with all of the familiar accusations referring to Trump's sexism and vulgarity. Clearly, the president doesn’t quite get how to be presidential.

Why would Trump do such a thing?

The best guess from various media outlets is that Trump has reverted to type, putting out cheap, horrible tweets, especially about a woman reporter. Scarborough and Brzezinski have attacked Trump with uncommon viciousness, at one point calling into question his sanity.

Trump has tweeted worse things when provoked by far less.

The other theory is that Trump is engaging in stratagem by deliberately trolling the press. He is a master of the media and knows that “bleeding” is a trigger word from the reaction to the Megyn Kelley incident. While he knows that the press and most of the political establishment will be united in outrage, his base of supporters will love watching the dust up.

Americans have come to loathe the media and will not likely feel any sympathy whatsoever for anyone who is from the community.

Why not word the response a little more decorously?

General George S, Patton, a man for whom Trump has expressed some admiration, used to say that he gave his orders loud and dirty so that the troops would remember them.

Trump has not gone so far as to use any of George Carlin’s seven forbidden words in a Tweet, but he has made sure that everyone will remember what he tweeted by being insulting and mean. Thus, at least in his mind, he has served his purpose.
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