It’s a phenomenon like we’ve never seen before. Jeb Bush was the de facto leading candidate in the GOP primary, with the establishment money backing him and the glut of conservatives in the race lagging behind due to their splitting up the conservative vote. Suddenly, Donald Trump entered the race and shattered Bush’s lead, outpacing him by double digits in the polls.

In some instances his rhetoric seems to go too far, but so far he’s untouchable; the more outrageous the statements, the higher his ratings.  He is attracting the average Republican who doesn’t pay much attention to politics but knows him from his TV show The Apprentice and his celebrity businessman status. He brings star power into the race that the other candidates cannot match.

Many expected a cake walk for Trump in this debate, but then the Fox News hosts decided to go after him. Some say this is because former Fox News chief Rupert Murdoch dislikes Trump. Whatever the reason, Fox News host Brett Baier started out the debate asking if any of the candidates would be unwilling to pledge their support to the eventual Republican nominee for president. This was surely a trap set for Trump.

Why? Trump had said recently that if he doesn’t get the nomination, he won’t rule out running a third-party candidacy — which many fear would tip the election to the Democratic candidate, as Ross Perot was thought to have done in 1992 when he ran as a third-party candidate the year Bill Clinton was elected president with less than 50% of the vote. It was also disclosed recently that before entering the race, Trump had a private meeting with Bill Clinton, who urged him to run, presumably because he thought Trump’s candidacy would help Hillary Clinton. The Clintons also attended one of Trump’s previous weddings and have been rather chummy with him in the past.

So, Baier sets the trap. Trump walks into trap. Trump raised his hand — the only candidate to do so — indicating he would not make the pledge to support the GOP candidate unless he himself was that candidate. He was roundly booed, and Rand Paul interjected, “This is what’s wrong! He’s already hedging his bet on the Clintons, OK? So if he doesn’t run as a Republican, maybe he supports Clinton, or maybe he runs as an independent … but I’d say that he’s already hedging his bets because he’s used to buying politicians.”

The next tough question for Trump came from Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly: “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.'” Trump interjected to say that was only in regards to Rosie O’Donnell, but Kelly insisted it was broader than that and then continued:

Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?

Trump responded:

I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China. We lose to Mexico both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody.

And frankly, what I say, and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding. We have a good time. What I say is what I say. And honestly Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn’t do that.

But then after the debate, in the middle of the night, he did do it. “Wow, @megynkelly really bombed tonight. People are going wild on twitter! Funny to watch,” he tweeted at 3:40 am. At another point that same night he retweeted this: “Fox viewers give low marks to bimbo @megynkelly will consider other programs!”

At another point in the debate, Baier challenged Trump on his past support of universal healthcare: “Now, 15 years ago,  you called yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren’t you for it now?”

Trump didn’t distance himself much from his previous position, responding, “As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you’re talking about here. What I’d like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state.”

Baier brought up Trump’s history of donating to Democrats:

Mr. Trump, it’s not just your past support for single-payer health care. You’ve also supported a host of other liberal policies. Use — you’ve also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related favors. And you said recently, quote, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.”

Incredibly, Trump proudly responded, “You’d better believe it.” There were some jokes on stage by the other candidates about how they’d like his money too, and someone asked, “What did you get from Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi?” Trump took the bait:

Well, I’ll tell you what, with Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. She didn’t have a choice because I gave. I gave to a foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good. I didn’t know her money would be used on private jets going all over the world. It was.

Moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump why he should be trusted to run the country considering four of his businesses have gone bankrupt, and Trump made light of it, saying, “Because I have used the laws of this country just like the greatest people that you read about every day in business have used the laws of this country, the chapter laws, to do a great job for my company, for myself, for my employees, for my family, et cetera.”

Wallace pressed on: “Well sir, let’s just talk about the latest example … which is Trump Entertainment Resorts, which went bankrupt in 2009. In that case alone, lenders to your company lost over $1 billion and more than 1,100 people were laid off.” Trump dug himself out of the hole there by saying, “Let me just tell you about the lenders. First of all, these lenders aren’t babies. These are total killers. These are not the nice, sweet little people that you think, OK?”

But despite the tough line of questions from the Wallace, Kelly and Baier, the audience still cheered for him, and afterwards, a Drudge Report poll suggested that he was the clear winner, with an impressive 44 percent choosing him. A Time poll also showed him as the clear winner.

Not only does Trump have a significant following that isn’t going anywhere, many were likely turned off by what they saw were unfair attacks primarily directed at him. If things keep going this way, Trump may ultimately end up becoming the Republican nominee. Where things get worrisome is the general election. The left-leaning media will come much more into play for him there, because it is the independent, moderate voters who decide general elections, and they tend to get their news from those sources. Suffice to say, Trump will prove a target-rich environment in that context.