Business mogul Donald Trump responded Friday to The Huffington Post’s announcement that coverage of his presidential “campaign” will be part of our Entertainment section by saying he’s “never been a fan” of the site.
In a statement Friday, Trump said he is “number one in the unimportant Huffington Post poll,” referencing HuffPost Pollster, which averages over 100 public polls on the presidential race and compiles the results in one place:
With the first primaries still months away, polls have limited value in predicting how much of the vote any one candidate will ultimately win. At this point during the 2012 election, we hadn’t even reached the brief surges seen by Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich — all of whom did better at one point than Trump is faring now. This year, the GOP field is even more divided, and with so few voters paying attention, Trump’s current strength speaks mostly to the chaos of the primary and the tidal wave of coverage his candidacy has received.
Polls this early in the presidential race should also be taken with a dose of skepticism because many candidates — including Trump — experience a post-announcement bump in the polls.
Trump, whose shit-talking game is so bad it’s good, criticized “the money-losing Huffington Post,” calling it a “glorified blog” despite having shared our content in the past:
“The only clown show in this scenario is the Huffington Post pretending to be a legitimate news source,” Trump’s statement said. “Mr. Trump is not focused on being covered by a glorified blog. He is focused on Making America Great Again.”
HuffPost announced Friday that coverage of Trump would no longer treat him as a legitimate presidential candidate.
“After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won’t report on Trump’s campaign as part of The Huffington Post’s political coverage,” HuffPost Editorial Director Danny Shea and Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim wrote. “Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you’ll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette.”