Trump declared he wouldn’t participate in debates hosted by “Fake News Networks” during the 2020 campaign season, in retaliation for Democrats’ announcement they would refuse to allow Fox News to moderate any of their party’s debates.

The Democratic National Committee declared Fox News would not “serve as a media partner” for any of its candidates’ debates in 2020 following a New Yorker report detailing an “inappropriate relationship” between the Trump administration and Fox.

“The network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates,” DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a statement released to media on Wednesday.

While this show of defiance is not new – the DNC made the same choice in 2016, claiming Fox’s conservative bias would prevent them from getting a fair shake – the New Yorker report goes one step further, claiming Fox is “the closest we’ve come to having state TV,” quoting an “expert on presidential studies”…whatever that is.

According to the New Yorker, the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes had tipped Trump off to debate questions; the president’s frequent Fox News appearances and his hiring of multiple former Fox News personalities (including Heather Nauert as State Department spokesperson and Bill Shine as White House communications director) are held up as proof of – you guessed it – still more collusion.

Even his detractors know Trump is ratings gold, and if he actually follows through on his tweet and refuses to appear in debates moderated by non-Fox networks, the executives will most likely be howling with outrage, even (especially) those who hate him.

Then again, Trump needs attention at least as badly as CNN needs ratings, some pointed out.

Trump’s supporters reliably cheered the move,