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Will Trump Finally Address "Drumpf" Tonight?

by Joseph D. Lyons

This 2016 election season seem like an ongoing case of déjà vu. Trump wins big; no one seems to know what to do. Fox News hosts a debate; Megyn Kelly goes up against Trump. Trump attacks Kelly. So on and so forth. At least until this week when John Oliver created Trump's smart new nickname, "Drumpf." So — will these worlds collide? Maybe! If there's one thing we know about Megyn Kelly, she doesn't hold back when questioning Trump, or anybody else. Kelly could definitely bring up "Drumpf" at the debate, and it would certainly liven things up.

Trump's traditional way to take this on would be via insulting Kelly, John Oliver, or both. He might say he John Oliver — or maybe pretend he doesn't know who he is — and then go on to call him names in an aside. That's his M.O., and everyone should recognize that by now. That's what he did back in November, basically, when he said he had been asked to be on John Oliver's so-called boring and low-rated show. "I checked with my people. He asked me to be on the show four or five times," Trump told Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports' The Herd. "I don't even hardly know who he was. I wouldn't know what he looks like." (Oliver has adamantly denied that any of his staff ever asked Trump to appear on his highly-rated show.)

So far, Trump hasn't responded at all; no Tweets referring to "Drumpf" have cropped up. Perhaps he's hoping the whole thing will just blow over if he doesn't give it play? His feud with Kelly lasted for months (if we can even regard it as over), thanks to his pettiness both on Twitter and in interviews. Ultimately, however, it backfired. His decision to skip the Fox News debate before Iowa may have hurt him, so perhaps he's trying a different tactic this time around: Let the news cycle end the story itself.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

That said, this is a very different situation. Given that John Oliver appearances are unlikely to stop him win a GOP primary, why should Trump care? Going against the liberal or heck, foreign, European, etc. — media, as he would put it — might even win him some conservative votes. Maybe he's just waiting for the biggest audience he'll see this week— at the debate — to get back at Oliver.

In the end, possibly Kelly can even ask the question without Trump attacking her. In fact, this might be the perfect way for them to move past the last debate. She gets to ask him the question liberal America wants to hear, and he can blame a different part of the media for it, letting Kelly continue on with the debate.

There's really no way to know how this will go down, but Kelly won't hold back. If it's not "Drumpf" she asks about, it will be something even better. Tune in tonight on Fox News or FoxNews.com at 9 p.m. ET.