President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, at the White House. Getty

Maureen Dowd and Donald Trump have been the best of enemies since he took office but Trump has taken to praising her most recent column. Why so?

It was rare praise indeed as Donald Trump lauded his arch-enemy Maureen Dowd’s column in the Sunday New York Times - but there’s a hitch.

Maureen annually hands over her Thanksgiving column to her brother Kevin, a devoted Trump supporter to give his perspective on the president.

Trump heartily approved tweeting on Wednesday night that “Just read the best Maureen Dowd column, in the New York Times, EVER (although she treated me great before politics), but it was written by her brother, Kevin. Someone in the News Media should hire her wonderful, talented, and very smart brother!”

Given his admiration for the president, Kevin clearly did not disappoint the Trumpster, praising his every move in office from the Supreme Court appointment of Justice Brett Kavanagh to his foreign policy on Iran and North Korea.

Kevin’s only quibble was Trump’s use of offensive language but otherwise, it was a big thumbs up.

In what could have been a critique of his own sister Kevin wrote:

“The mainstream media has reached a new low. It is not even pretending to be objective as it relentlessly batters the president daily (putting Trump just ahead of Harvey Weinstein and trailing only Satan). Reporters write opinion columns packed with innuendo and anonymous sources — not to mention what Anonymous is cooking up."

Kathy Sheridan in the Irish Times begged to differ however with Kevin writing:

“Kevin’s glowing focus on the markets, deregulation and the supreme court (where his friend is now safely stacked) and the fact that he feels safe in his bed “with the way the president is handling Iran and North Korea”, left no space, presumably, to address the soaring US national debt (once the big stick used to batter the Democrats) or the perils of a climate-denying, racist, misogynistic, narcissistic president, and the fallout of that poison on other people’s precious families around the world. “All aid is quid pro quo,” Kevin writes, and civil servants should obey the boss without question, or quit. Which is probably the scariest point among many.”

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