Donald Trump and Fox News have proved once more they simply can’t stay away from each other.
The Republican presidential front-runner appeared on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” Tuesday evening, less than a week after pledging to boycott the network “for the foreseeable future” and being told in return he misunderstands “how the media works in this country.”
Trump, who maintained his No. 1 spot in this week’s Washington Examiner presidential power rankings, also took turns blasting Fox News personalities Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly shortly before announcing his short-lived boycott.
“So you’re back — how does it feel?” O’Reilly asked the real estate mogul Tuesday night.
“It feels good, you’ve always been fair to me and I’ve always appreciated that,” Trump responded.
Early in the segment, O’Reilly noted that he planned to press Trump more on his policies during the billionaire’s appearances on his program.
“What do you think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is doing in the Middle East?” O’Reilly asked Trump, launching into his questioning of the candidate.
“Well we spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, and Putin is now taking over what we started and he’s moving into Syria and he wants to fight ISIS,” Trump said.
He added, “I think that’s a wonderful thing.”
Eventually, O’Reilly confronted Trump about his “Fairness Doctrine,” or his repeated, and public, complaints that Fox News has treated him unfairly.
“Am I fair to say that in order for you to win the Republican nomination you’re going to have to change your style to being kinder and more mature?” O’Reilly asked.
“Well I think that’s fair. I think usage of the word mature is a bit inappropriate,” Trump responded. “But it’s not a question of nice, it’s going to be a question of competence.”
Following the first Republican debate in August, Trump tweeted that Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes had assured him he would be covered “fairly” on the network from that point on.
Nevertheless, a second meeting between Trump, Ailes and several editorial executives is expected to occur later this week.
