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Megan Basham @megbasham - So I actually gave this question from Rod (who I consider a friend tbc!) some thought. Why did Trump react so strongly to O'Donnell. And I think I can shed some light.
Trump is clearly a tough type. He doesn't use assassination attempts to milk sympathy as you might expect from political figures who are not as tough and do this routinely. He instinctively (and I think rightly) feels that cashing in on such sympathy to score political points would be effeminate.
That toughness though makes it easy to forget that the guy is human. He survived one VERY close call with a bullet. And has now survived two others that weren't quite as close. But it's going to shake anyone, no matter how to tough they are to recognize that there is a very large political movement that wants you dead. And those people, as we just saw, are never going to stop trying.
And even in this moment, @NorahODonnell couldn't show a bit of human decency toward him. She took the leftist talking points the killer spewed in his manifesto, which are absolutely false, and asked him to defend himself against them. That's as vile as it gets.
These people really do not see Trump as a person deserving of any fellow feeling.
Does the expectation from him that he play nicely with the people who tried to take everything from him with political prosecutions sometimes bit him in the polls? Yes. He seems constitutionally incapable of faking it in the way we usually see from the Beltway class. But I think in some ways this is admirable. He won't respond with social niceties he doesn't feel to earn respectability points. Even though I often wish he would.
Anyway, that's my take. The guy is a real person and the left is constantly calling for his death and trying to kill him.
And when you're a tough guy and aren't going to feel sorry for yourself or try to make others feel sorry for you, you respond with just anger.
O'Donnell could have chosen to be a decent person and ask the President how he feels knowing that he's once again survived being the target of a crazed would-be murderer. Instead, she asked him to defend himself against his would-be murderer's lies.
Quote:
Rod Dreher @roddreher
I don't know why Trump blamed the journalist for asking about the allegations in the would-be assassin's manifesto. They were disgusting allegations, yes, but any reporter would ask for POTUS's response. He was unfair to Norah O'Donnell.
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/26/trump-60-minutes-white-house-correspondents-dinner-suspect
https://x.com/megbasham/status/2048915874904457555

Megan Basham @megbasham - Oh my gosh dude if you can’t be bothered to do a keyword search 🙄