Donald Trump: Eagle Didn’t Scare Him, TIME Shouldn’t Have Picked Angela Merkel

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump opened his telephone interview on Thursday morning’s Fox & Friends with a response to TIME magazine’s release of his behind-the-scenes encounter with a bald eagle.

Co-host Steve Doocy opened the segment with the most pressing question: “Were you a little frightened by that bird?”

Trump, as always, was quick, dismissive and tangential with his answer.

“No, not really, but I did like what Bill O’Reilly said last night in his editorial. I thought that was great.”

Wait, did O’Reilly use his editorial to talk about the New York real estate mogul’s hair’s run-in with the symbol of American freedom?

No, not really. O’Reilly actually used his editorial to address Trump’s not being picked for TIME‘s “Person of the Year” cover distinction. Trump was in the running, but the honor went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel instead.

“I said I’ll never be chosen because I’m not a part of the TIME establishment,” he said. “I think they absolutely picked the wrong person. I think they picked the person that’s really done tremendous damage to Germany.”

Trump spends the rest of the clip lamenting Merkel’s pick, criticizing her handling of Germany in general and the Syrian refugee crisis in particular.

After that, he moved on to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

Check out the clip above, via Fox News.

[h/t TIME]
[Image via screengrab]

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