Trump fools the press with 'Saturday Night Live' joke

By Eddie Scarry, Eddie Scarry

Published December 20, 2015

Much of the news media decided to take seriously a scripted joke that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made in a teaser for his "Saturday Night Live" appearance this week.

The joke happened in an online video promoting Trump's upcoming appearance on "Saturday Night." The video is cut into several segments teasing Trump's appearance, and in one of them, he calls his GOP rival Ben Carson "a complete loser."

Though the video was posted online Wednesday, it has since been taken down by NBC.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner media desk that the joke about Carson was scripted and meant to be a caricature of the way Trump speaks. Even so, several news outlets treated Trump's remark as a direct shot made in earnest at Carson.