Kayleigh McEnany came under attack by her former boss on Truth Social last night. His very thin skin was pierced by the former White House press secretary, now a Fox News host and contributor. Kayleigh quoted a poll number Trump disagreed with and he went full force against her on his social media platform.

At first I looked at the ‘truth’ as it made the rounds on social media last night and thought, well, that’s Trump. But, the more I think about it, the more it bothers me that he took off on her as he did. He hired her as his press secretary in the White House. She was one of the best hires he made. For a man who liked to brag about only hiring the best people, he sure brought some real stinkaroos into the White House with him. Kayleigh was a jewel.

Dave Rubin put it well in a tweet. There is no excuse for his little temper tantrum against Kayleigh.

The sickest part of Trump’s latest unhinged meltdown is that @kayleighmcenany was not only Trump’s biggest defender but also an absolute star of the administration. Going up against hostile press every day with nothing but class.

Even the diehards can’t defend this… pic.twitter.com/vGL4wDhqCZ

— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) May 31, 2023

I assume he meant “milquetoast”, which means a feeble or meek person. Kayleigh is neither. Anyone who tuned into even one daily briefing during her time as the White House press secretary saw a strong and well-prepared woman defending the president up against an extremely hostile White House press corps. Every day. She had a briefing book at the ready and rarely cracked it open. She used it when she wanted to use a quote accurately. Then she would read from the book. Contrast that to today’s incredibly inept and incompetent press secretary for the Biden administration, Karine Jean-Pierre. She is incapable of answering a question without reading White House talking points from her very large briefing book and even then she gets information wrong. She is a poor communicator.

Kayleigh was hired by Trump to replace Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I really liked Sarah in the job, too. Both women had the ability to stand firm against the daily attacks by the press corps and defend Trump. They didn’t back down when the dialogue heated up, which it frequently did. Kayleigh was poised and very matter-of-fact in her answers, as a Harvard law school graduate, her training showed. She was a regular on CNN, the epicenter of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and would defend Trump as she sat for panel discussions. The panel was always Democrat-heavy because it was CNN, after all. She was a champ.

So, Kayleigh landed at Fox after her time at the White House came to an end. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump would have kept her as his press secretary if he served a second term. He praised her and her tenacity in defending her. Now that she sometimes speaks favorably of Ron DeSantis – she is a Florida resident and he is her governor – she is on Trump’s disloyal list. Loyalty goes only one way for Trump.

Kayleigh was a guest on Jesse Watter’s show Tuesday night. She talked about DeSantis and his polling in Iowa. DeSantis was campaigning in Iowa Tuesday. Trump thought her poll numbers were off and could not find the self-control to remain quiet. How dare she imply that DeSantis is making headway in the polls now that he is an official candidate and working to win support from voters in the early states.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, McEnany appeared on the Fox News show Jesse Watters Primetime, where she talked about DeSantis’ poll numbers in Iowa, which will host the first round of the GOP’s presidential primaries. “If you look at the polling now, it was Trump [with a] 34 [point lead] in Iowa, it’s now Trump 25,” the former White House press secretary said. McEnany noted that DeSantis’ team should see this as a positive and say they “closed the gap by 9 points” since the Florida Gov. announced his plans to run. “Still, Trump’s hugely ahead, but they say they’re closing the gap. That’s their argument,” she added.

That certainly was not an attack on Trump or an endorsement of DeSantis. Yet, Trump went nuts. Imagine throwing Kayleigh under the bus as he did over her remarks. She specifically said that Trump is “hugely ahead.”

Trump conflates name-calling and other bullying behavior with strength. He thinks it is manly behavior. It makes him look weak. It turns off women voters and independent voters. No one should pooh-pooh that statement as something that can be dismissed. Trump can’t win without women and independent voters. No candidate can win without those two groups of voters. That is reality. He lost both groups in a big way in 2020 and they are not showing any inclination of coming back to him in 2024. His continued rants and ugly ‘truths’ filled with name-calling and slurs against other Republicans (remember the slur against Youngkin when he implied Youngkin’s name was an Asian name?) shows ignorance. He feels entitled to the Republican nomination and anyone who challenges him is disloyal and must be destroyed. So far he has aimed all his fire against DeSantis, since DeSantis is his only real competition at this point. Trump is very wrong. He is not entitled to a coronation. He has to earn votes like every other candidate.

No one worked harder for Trump than Kayleigh. Trump’s reaction to her appearance on the Watters show is indefensible. He is an old and bitter man, obsessed with avenging his election loss in 2020. He acts as though he will remain 30 or more points ahead in the polls. That isn’t realistic. According to Real Clear Politics, Trump is ahead of DeSantis and the rest of the GOP field by between 20-42 points. He should enjoy such broad leads while he can. We’ll see if DeSantis can overcome the gap and make it a more competitive race in the primary. My guess is that he will. Voters want alternatives to both Trump and Biden. They want younger options and fresh faces to emerge.