It's this kind of stuff - today's edition

Look, I'm no Pete Buttigieg fan. He'd be up for removing Thomas Jefferson's name from public institutions. He's cool with late-term abortions. He's one of those mayors who doll up their downtowns while chronically blighted neighborhoods remain so and calls it economic revitalization. And he wears his unusual sex life like a badge.

But by appearing on Fox News, he brought out the Very Stable Genius's petty streak in a most cringe-worthy way:

President Trump on Sunday criticized Fox News, accusing the network of "wasting airtime" over its coverage of South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and other Democratic 2020 contenders.

"Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him," he wrote, referring to Buttigieg and the Fox News host.

Fox News is scheduled to host a town hall with Buttigieg on Sunday night. 

"They forgot the people who got them there. Chris Wallace said, 'I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance...fascinating biography.' Gee, he never speaks well of me - I like Mike Wallace better...and Alfred E. Newman will never be President!" Trump added, doubling down on his comparison of the mayor to the character Alfred E. Neuman who appears on the cover of Mad Magazine.  

If he's going to  that level this early, it's going to be one long election cycle.

It was heartening to see someone of Brit Hume's stature and depth provide the requisite response:

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume had a few choice words for Donald Trump after the president called out the network on Sunday for hosting a town hall with Democratic presidential hopeful and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

“Say this for Buttigieg. He’s willing to be questioned by Chris Wallace, something you’ve barely done since you’ve been president,” Hume tweeted. “Oh, and covering candidates of both parties is part of the job of a news channel.”

My question remains what it has been since the summer 2015 descent of the golden elevator at Trump Tower: What would it take to embarrass the VSG's followers. Not just the ridiculous ones, like Wayne Allen Root, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Charlie Kirk and Chris Buskirk, but the ones who ostensible have an erudite bearing, some credentials as people of substance and depth, like Victor Davis Hanson and Conrad Black.

"Hey, he'll hit back if you come at him!"

Is this really the way to depict this kind of behavior?

I think not. It's showing his thin skin and snottiness to the entire world.

It lends credence to all the stories we've heard from former ghostwriters, former administration officials and anonymous sources in his circle. He''s winging it. He has no core set of values, principles or ideas. He can't stand anything less than being fawned over. The only reading material he's ever interested in is media coverage of him.

This is why the movement within conservatism that continues to find him objectionable has not gone away. We will not make excuses for this kind of thing.

If we have to live with him for the time being in order to stave off the leftist murder of Western civilization, so be it. But give him full-throated support? Not gonna happen.