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.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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