On Friday, reporters eagerly gathered at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC to hear GOP nominee Donald Trump address the Obama birth certificate controversy.

But instead of a lengthy discussion on the topic, Trump dedicated a mere 27 seconds to the issue – instead using the other 29 minutes to pay respects to Medal of Honor recipients.

Ashleigh Banfield on CNN is completely fed up with Trump's "birther crap" 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/4AvcEckaAb — John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) September 16, 2016

As if they were unfamiliar with the hotel mogul’s methods, corporate media reporters were irked the businessman had yet again baited them into giving Trump free positive press.

“It’s hard to imagine this as anything but a political ‘Rick-roll,'” CNN’s Jake Tapper said on air, realizing the network had been “trumped.”

"We got played!" CNN reacts to @realDonaldTrump epic press conference troll pic.twitter.com/C1o0WMPZdV — Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) September 16, 2016

Here’s the moment multiple establishment media reporters on Twitter realized they just helped Trump:

Trump's campaign hyped up change on birther issue. And now that TV networks carrying it live, we've had 20 mins of veterans endorsing Trump — Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) September 16, 2016

“We got played, again, by the Trump campaign.” — John King just now on CNN. — Matt Viser (@mviser) September 16, 2016

"we just got played, we just got played" — CNN's John King on Trump's birther event…. — igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) September 16, 2016

When was the last time CNN covered a full Clinton event with multiple surrogate speakers? This is unreal. — Guy Cecil (@guycecil) September 16, 2016

18 months into this cable networks are still letting Trump hijack them for free airtime — ad time — by promising a "major announcement' — Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 16, 2016

Once again, the American news media gets totally played by Trump. Wall-to-wall coverage. We’re all guilty. — Jim Roberts (@nycjim) September 16, 2016

“It’s such an honor to have our first event for Medal of Honor winners,” Trump said introducing several veterans who spoke at the rally. “I mean, they are the finest and we get so many endorsements from the Medal of Honor winners it’s incredible.”

The Trump campaign will hold another rally Friday in Miami.

H/T: Daily Caller

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