Trump’s interview blows the Republican debate away

One of the reasons that Donald Trump is so despised by the beautiful people of America – the people that the New York Times columnist David Brooks memorably evoked when he began a tweet ‘We in the educated class…’ – is that he consorts with so many unbeautiful people: not just working stiffs but B-list entertainers, Nascar enthusiasts and prize fighters.  

It is from the world of the last-named agonistic endeavor that I learned a word that perfectly describes last night’s festivities. The word is ‘undercard’. It means that list of ‘minor or supporting contests printed on the same bill as the main event (primarily fighting or racing).’ Fox News, together with the Republic National Committee, hosted what it billed as the first GOP debate of the 2024 season in Milwaukee. At the same time – or, to be more strictly accurate, about five minutes earlier – an interview that Tucker Carlson recently taped with Donald Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, began streaming from Tucker’s channel on X, the app formerly known as Twitter.