Trump praises Pompeo's swear-filled rant to an NPR reporter: 'I think you did a good job on her'

Donald Trump really, really likes dictators, says everyone including John Bolton, but Trump is always ready to attack this nation's free press. He took a moment today to revel in Secretary of State (and ex-House tea partier) Mike Pompeo's blow-up at an NPR reporter who dared ask him a question about Ukraine.

“I think you did a good job on her, actually,” Trump sneered, referring to the tantrum that ended with Mike Pompeo daring NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly to find Ukraine on an “unmarked map” he for some reason keeps ready in his office, then releasing an official State Department statement lying about all of it.

Okay, so Trump remains creepy as hell, contemptuous of the free press (he previously weighed in with a maybe-threat to end NPR funding over Pompeo’s wounded feelings), and revels in the sort of petty thuggery that he praises foreign autocrats for and whines we don’t have enough of during his own rallies.

Pompeo, however, appears to be visibly cracking under the pressure of trying to hide his Ukraine dealings. He further retaliated against NPR (no, really) yesterday by banning a different NPR reporter from accompanying him on his upcoming trip to Ukraine and other nations—a trip he apparently believes reporters are not allowed to ask about. The State Department is refusing to even pretend at justifying that move, possibly because his entire staff has been humiliated to death.

This does appear to be what Trump’s crowd thinks of as “toughness.” Take that, National Public Radio reporter asking a question during an agreed-to interview! When it comes to Turkish military invasions of our allies, or dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist by a foreign dictator, or so much as acknowledging Russia’s attempts to sabotage our elections, or North Korea’s renewed nuclear programs, though, Pompeo and Trump shrivel up into cowering nothingness. Pathetic.