Donald Trump wasn’t on the debate stage Tuesday night, but that didn’t stop him from making a play at the spotlight.
The Republican frontrunner live-tweeted his reactions to the first Democratic debate, re-tweeting supporters and adding his own commentary. But while many expected him to be active on social media, The Donald was tame by his usual standards, responding more to supporters' hopes that he “make America great again” than offering quips or contrasts to his Democratic counterparts.
Trump kicked things off with an optimistic prediction: “We will all have fun and hopefully learn something tonight.” But that positivity didn’t last long.
Within the first twenty minutes, Trump wrote off former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. The real estate mogul tweeted there was “no way” he could envision Chafee as president and that O’Malley has “no chance.” Later, Trump set his sights on Sen. Jim Webb, responding to a tweet that Webb “is not doing well!”
Trump attacked Hillary for her recent opposition to the TPP – “the trade deal is a disaster – she was always for it!” On the campaign trail, Trump has echoed this sentiment, telling supporters that the reason she came out against it is because “she thinks that someday she’s gonna be debating me about this trade deal.” Trump has long been against TPP.
Trump’s compliments for the Democrats were few and far between – save for one moment where he tweeted “good move by Bernie S.”
If you believe Trump’s supporters on Twitter – if their candidate wasn’t on stage, it wasn’t worth watching. For those, conservative network One America News played Trump speeches for the duration of the Democratic debate. “Much more exciting than debate,” Trump tweeted.
