By now, presidential candidate Donald Trump’s principal success has been in branding his behavior as relentlessly rude, crude and uncurbed, believing he can bully and badger his way to the White House. And when it comes to the facts, he doesn’t just play fast and loose, he just plain ignores them.

Trump likes to use the word “fabulous” in describing how he’s going to “Make American Great, Again.” However, His Fabulosity continues to delude himself into believing that, through sheer force of will, he can become emperor of America. I say emperor because the policies Trump talks about implementing during his “reign” can only be accomplished if he has total veto power over the Supreme Court, Congress and the Constitution.

Thus far, Trump’s singular talent, (aside from his real estate empire), lies in the put down.

On Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”

However, his treatment of the media, particularly veterans with years of experience interviewing politicians, has become breathtaking, beginning with FOX News’ Megyn Kelly.

At the first presidential debate, Kelly made the mistake of challenging His Fabulosity: “You call women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals’…”

The next day, the Fabulous One stung back: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.”

At a press conference last month, Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos challenged Trump regarding his illegal immigration policy which would “round up” and deport approximately 11 million undocumented individuals.

On cue, His Fabulosity stung back again when the reporter was escorted from the room by security personnel, returning only after two reporters in the room intervened. Back inside, Ramos again, continued to ask important questions which Trump continued to avoid.

Next day, the Fabulous One said, “…he was totally out of line last night….He stood up and started ranting and raving like a madman.”

“Raving”? No, Donald, the Spanish anchor was pressing for a coherent answer from you about your plan to deport 11 million undocumented individuals.

Recently, His Fabulosity criticized CNN’s Randi Kaye when she reported that “the room was half empty” at a recent Trump event.

“Your reporter in South Carolina… absolutely terrible. I made a speech… And the room was full, every seat was full. When I went to the stage… They all rushed to the front of the room. And when they did that, you had half of the seats in the back were empty, because everyone was standing in the front.”

Everyone and their brother with access to Google was able to fact-check this one by simply looking at the photos and video of the event, substantiating Kaye’s reporting.

Notwithstanding Trump’s distorted version of the truth, what does surprise me is the fact that many in the media seem shocked by Trump’s stinging behavior. They all seem to be practicing their own brand of wishful thinking, believing that His Fabulosity is somehow going to treat them any differently than his rivals.

Remind you of anything?

A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. Fearful of being stung, the frog hesitates.

“Why would I do that?” argues the scorpion. “If I sting you, we’d both drown!”

Considering this, the frog agrees, and wades into the river with the scorpion on its back. Midway across the river, however, the scorpion stings the frog, dooming them both.

Just before they both sink into the water, the frog asks, “Why?”

The scorpion replies, “It is my nature.”

Moral for Trump supporters: Do you really want a president whose nature is defensive, defiant and loutish?

As Lincoln observed, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

I’m still waiting for that last part to kick in.