Donald Trump on Monday showed no signs of slowing down or shutting up, saying he thinks Megyn Kelly should offer him an apology for asking a “stupid” and “unfair” question.

“She should really be apologizing to me, you want to know the truth. And other candidates have said that,” Trump said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”


Days after a campaign shakeup and what he called a press-fueled controversy over his attacks on Kelly, the Fox News host who pointedly questioned him during last week’s debate about his “war on women,” Trump appears to still be holding a commanding lead in the polls and is now taking steps to supercharge his presidential campaign.

According to Monday’s POLITICO Playbook, Trump’s campaign will travel to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Michigan and other states this week to hire field organizers and other staffers. Also this week, his campaign will put out his first policy position papers, on immigration, veterans, health care, the Second Amendment and the economy.

Trump on Monday morning blamed the media for stoking the controversy behind his statement on Friday evening that Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever.”

The network released a statement from Ailes on Monday evening that said “the air has been cleared” with Trump.

“We discussed our concerns, and I again expressed my confidence in Megyn Kelly. She is a brilliant journalist and I support her 100 percent,” Ailes said. “I assured him that we will continue to cover this campaign with fairness & balance. We had a blunt but cordial conversation and the air has been cleared.”

Trump will appear on Tuesday morning on “Fox and Friends” and Tuesday night on “Hannity.” A source with knowledge of the bookings initially told POLITICO that Trump would also appear on Fox News on Monday night in a phone interview with Greta Van Susteren, but then said Van Susteren was forced to reschedule with Trump in deference to the “Fox and Friends” interview.

Roger Ailes just called. He is a great guy & assures me that “Trump” will be treated fairly on @FoxNews. His word is always good! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2015

Trump on Monday again said his comments about Kelly were being twisted.

“Who would say such a thing? I really said nothing, because I wanted to get on to jobs and whatever the next subject was,” Trump said Monday during an earlier telephone interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie on “Today.”

“This wasn’t meant to be much of an insult. She asked me a question. It was an inappropriate question. It was a ridiculous question. Even the other candidates came up to me and said that that was absolutely out of line,” Trump added. “She asked me a question that was nasty, and I gave her a pretty tough answer.”

He also went after another Fox moderator on Monday. On MSNBC, Trump said the first question of the Fox News debate — in which Bret Baier asked all candidates to raise their hands if they would not make a pledge to back the eventual GOP nominee or run as a third-party candidate — was “totally inappropriate” and “aimed at me.”

The Republican Party has been concerned that Trump could mount a third-party run that would split the electorate and hand a victory to Democrats. Trump, in response to Baier’s question, would not rule out the option.

“Then Megyn gets up and starts talking gibberish and a stupid question,” he said, referring to Kelly’s question of whether someone who calls women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals” has the temperament to be elected president.

Trump said that “there will be nobody better than Donald Trump” on women’s health issues. Pressed on how he would make equal pay and access to capital for women a reality, Trump declined to provide specifics, adding that he wants “to discuss those questions at a debate” and that he “will be coming out with some policy on that.”

The interview spree on Monday followed a tumultuous weekend for Trump that kicked into high gear on Friday night after he told CNN’s Don Lemon that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

The real estate mogul tried to clarify the comment, which quickly sparked a social media backlash, tweeting on Saturday morning, “Re Megyn Kelly quote: ‘you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever’ (NOSE). Just got on w/thought.”

He also went on the offensive after he was disinvited to the RedState Gathering in Atlanta over the weekend. Trump blasted RedState Editor-in-Chief Erick Erickson as a “total lightweight” and a “disgrace,” and said people were so upset, “they had virtual riots” because he was not in attendance.

Adding further to the chaos, on Saturday, Trump announced that he had fired Roger Stone, but earlier in the day, Stone’s friends told a POLITICO reporter that it was Stone’s decision to leave the campaign.

While it’s unclear how much damage Trump’s campaign suffered over the weekend, the latest turmoil left the rest of the GOP field struggling to break through the noise.

Trump is drowning out “just about everyone else out there,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in an interview with Fox News on Monday morning, expressing a desire to talk about substantive issues.

“For a lot of us, it’s like watching a car accident instead of watching the direction we should be headed. It’s a sideshow out there. I think most of us candidates — at least I do — want to be talking about how we make this country great again,” Walker remarked.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose candidacy has languished in the polls, joked Tuesday that he will randomly put Trump’s name into his remarks, “thereby ensuring that the news media will cover what I have to say,” according to media accounts of his prepared remarks.

Sen. Rand Paul, who criticized Trump in the first moments of last week’s debate, released a lengthy op-ed on Monday questioning the real estate mogul’s conservatism. In a press call to promote the column, he said it was a valid question to ask.

If no one points out the emperor has no clothes he’ll “continue to strut about,” he said.

On the Sunday talk shows, some Republican rivals, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich tried to deflect questions about Trump, while former Hewlett-Packard CEO and GOP candidate Carly Fiorina went on the attack.

“I think women of all kinds are really sort of horrified by this,” Fiorina told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

And Monday delivered Trump doubling down, once again. Asked on the “Today” show about his Twitter account retweeting a comment in which someone called Kelly a “bimbo,” Trump responded: “I thought the kind of questions she was asking me were inappropriate and they were the questions that somebody, you could make the case,” he said, trailing off.

The first GOP debate for 2016 drew 24 million viewers on Fox News, something Trump attributed to his presence.

“The other candidates are very lucky because at least people are watching what they’re saying as opposed to nobody caring,” he added.

An NBC News/SurveyMonkey online poll released Sunday showed Trump 10 percentage points ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz after Thursday’s debate, with 23 percent compared with Cruz’s 13 percent.

Kelly defended her line of questioning during the debate in an interview with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz on Sunday’s episode of “MediaBuzz.”

“If you can’t get past me, how are you gonna handle Vladimir Putin?” she asked.

Ben Schreckinger and Eliza Collins contributed reporting.