What Donald Trump did when supporter complained rally "is boring"
WINDHAM, New Hampshire Donald Trump can be sensitive to criticism, even when it's constructive, and perhaps especially when it undercuts a central characteristic of the billionaire frontrunner's campaign: his ability to put on a show. So, when a supporter interrupted one of Trump's meandering riffs on the Middle East to complain to the Republican candidate that "this is boring," Trump's grimace and narrowed eyes were not unexpected.
"Get him out of here," Trump repeatedly ordered. "He wants jokes, but there's nothing funny about this. This is so serious -- out, out, out, out, out, get out of here."
"There is time for humor -- this is not humor," Trump continued. "Our country's got so many problems, and we've got to get them solved."
"I love Donald, but it's getting a little boring," the man pleaded with security and staff as he was escorted across the Windham banquet hall sporting a red tie and red "Make America Great Again" hat.
Trump quickly recovered from the episode, although the rest of the rally (crowd size: about 550) was subdued, even as he hit at a favorite topic, the issue of whether Sen. Ted Cruz is a natural-born citizen.
Citing Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, Trump argued that "it's wrong to say it is a settled matter."
"You have to be born on this land," Trump told the crowd. "Laurence Tribe represented John McCain. He was born outside of the United States, but he was born on a military base to two people that were in the military. That's different. I would never have questioned that."
"I'm sure Ted is thrilled that I'm helping him out, but I am," Trump insisted, as the crowd laughed along.
Trump also spent a sizable amount of time today sharpening his attacks on Joe McQuaid, the publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader. He was celebrating, taking credit on Sunday for ABC News' decision to cut the influential local New Hampshire newspaper out of their partnership on the GOP debate this week.
"This guy drove me wild," Trump said of McQuaid before characterizing his interactions with the publisher for the crowd. He told the crowd that McQuaid had asked him to tweet in support of Chris Christie after the New Jersey governor failed to qualify for the main stage for the Fox Business debate in November.
"Imagine a guy calling me up, knowing he is going to endorse the guy, to ask me to use my Twitter for the guy to get him in," Trump asked, incredulously.
His supporters appeared not make much of the dust up.
"It's more against the entire media and the way they take only snippets of what he says," Daniel Enxing of Windham, New Hampshire, explained of Trump's attacks on the Union Leader. "I like the Union Leader," he added.
"I like the Union Leader," Janet Nelson, a Salem supporter admitted, "but that again is just Trump, He is off the cuff all the time. I don't take it seriously, no."
After the rally, Trump made the first retail stop of his presidential campaign in New Hampshire, dropping by the famed Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, where he ordered a burger.