Reality TV star turned GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump, who knows how to milk a TV moment, got loads of air time this morning calling last night’s Emmy Awards ceremony “a badge of courage” for him and wondering why President Obama hadn’t lept to his defense.

“It’s sort of amazing when you think of it — you’re watching television, you’re watching the Emmys, and your name is mentioned,” he simpered to the Fox & Friends gang.

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“Is the president going to defend me because last night during the Emmy awards people said things about me?” he asked, rhetorically, moving to NBC’s Today Show. “Is the president going to hold a news conference and defend me? I don’t think so.”

This, of course, is intended to draw a parallel to the dinging he’s been getting in the press for failing to correct a supporter who said President Obama is Muslim and “not an American” while posing a question to Trump at a New Hampshire campaign stop. In covering that incident, media has been throwing our minds back to Trump’s leading role in the “birther” movement that wondered if Obama was even eligible when he first ran for the White House.

About the man at his New Hampshire campaign event last week who also took issue with a national problem “called Muslims,” Trump said he assumed the man “was talking about radical Islam” and reiterated his position that it’s not his job to defend Obama.

“I have no obligation, moral or otherwise, to defend the president. I mean, I’m not supposed to speak up,” Mr. Trump said on Fox and Friends. “Last night, they took some pretty vicious shots at me during the Emmy Awards. I don’t think I’m going to see President Obama come to my defense.”

Among those “vicious shots”:

Host Adam Samberg opened his monologue, saying “Donald Trump is running for president, to the delight of uncles everywhere. I’ve got to say, sure, Donald Trump seems racist. (Pause) Let’s see, what else?”

Veep’s pretend VPOTUS, Julia Louis-Dreyfus brought up the reality-TV star running for the White House when she accepted her best comedy actress win, quoting her character as having said, “What a great honor it must be for you to honor me tonight,” then correcting herself with, “Oh, sorry, Donald Trump said that.” She added, “It’s getting trickier and trickier to satirize this stuff.”

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And the Inside Amy Schumer writing team had their heads badly shopped into Trump photo ops while an equally cheesy fake Trump voice ticked off their names in the best variety-series writing race.

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