That was the weirdest episode of Celebrity Apprentice I’ve ever seen. I generally shy away from using these pixels to cover the sport of politics, but last night’s GOP debate really evolved (assuming one publicly acknowledges evolution) into a massive cultural moment. Consider this: The debate in Cleveland got an overnight Nielsen rating that was higher than the last game of the NBA Finals.

+ The morning after news coverage of the event was equally engulfing — just look at Friday’s NYT homepage. (Trump Week is the new Shark Week.) The team at WaPo had the lede that best summarized the debate: “Donald Trump landed on the Republican debate stage like a hand grenade here on Thursday night — serving notice that he may run as an independent if he does not get the party’s nomination, dismissing criticism of his insulting comments about women as ‘political correctness’ and flatly calling the nation’s leaders ‘stupid.'” The way I see it, Trump is bombastic, wrong-headed and offensive, but our obsession with him is worth noting, if only because ‘normal’ political discourse has become so scripted and disingenuous that Trump actually comes off as weirdly refreshing (to everyone other than Rosie O’Donnell).

+ The Atlantic won the battle of the headlines: Trump’s Narcissism Obscures His Outrage. (I’ve fallen victim to that a few times myself…)