This is at least the third time Trump’s called Acosta “fake news” to his face. There’s today, his first presidential press conference in February, and a pre-inauguration presser when Acosta went all-out for the cameras and Trump shut him down. For a grandstander like Jim, this must be as close as he gets to total job satisfaction. I’ll bet there’s a notch in his mic for every time that it’s happened.

The dude is on Twitter as I write this flagging a CNN story about the exchange by noting his own “sick burn” at the end of it.

Yes and I responded: "haven't you spread a lot of fake news yourself, sir?" https://t.co/Cz1Aks3cIj

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 14, 2017

Trump typically only has two emotional affects, manic riffing like you see at his rallies and the soft-spoken dourness familiar from his interviews. He’s never really angry or visibly perturbed, even when he’s talking about someone he dislikes. In this case, he’s perturbed. If looks could kill, CNN would already have a black-bunting chyron up mourning Acosta. As it is, the guy’s eventually going to end up with his own show on the network, possibly in primetime, to leverage the rabid anti-Trump sentiment that’s driving MSNBC’s ratings surge. It’s open warfare between the White House and CNN; Jeff Zucker might as well promote his most gung-ho sergeant.

President Trump to @Acosta: 'I like real news. Not fake news. You're fake news." https://t.co/TssGvNyUct pic.twitter.com/sQ3IR8IRdX

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 14, 2017