Tom Slater Tom Slater

Donald Trump’s media fanboys are as bad as his haters

Vicious, arrogant, obnoxious and possibly evil. These were the words Donald Trump used to describe Piers Morgan, when he won the first series of Celebrity Apprentice. That’s right: even the man they say is Hitler’s second coming is wary of Britain’s most insipid TV export.

The combination made last night’s exclusive ITV interview, between Morgan and The Donald himself, a recipe for outrage. Twitterers compared it to Alien vs Predator. Or Jeremy Kyle meets Frost/Nixon. Alan Sugar told Morgan to climb out of Trump’s arse. And 140-character bilge did fly.

But the chummy, half-hour chat, filmed in Trump Tower, wasn’t anything to write home about. Touching on Princess Diana, terrorism and his beef with Sadiq Khan (he suggested the mayor get an IQ test), Trump kept up a tough front while reining in some of his previous pronouncements – in order to appease the Republican establishment. (That banning Muslims business, he said, was ‘just a suggestion’. ‘It got people thinking.’)

Piers Morgan, however, was more stomach-turning than usual. His two-factory-setting approach – sycophant and moralist – is what meant his CNN show was so mercifully short-lived. But this took the biscuit. He was nodding and giggling – lobbing soft-ball questions. He might as well have been hanging off Trump’s jowls.

Since Trump’s candidacy began to take off, Morgan has caught flak for sticking up for the billionaire underdog. He’s said Trump is ‘single-handedly destroying the modern cult of political correctness’. He’s said Trump is the only person with the balls to talk tough on Islamist extremism. He’s even likened Trump to Leicester City.

And Morgan’s not alone. Trump now has a brimming media fan club full of professional provocateurs. Right-wing troublemaker Ann Coulter called a recent Trump performance the ‘GREATEST FOREIGN POLICY SPEECH SINCE WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESS’ (her caps).

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in