Donald Trump has gotten so good at playing the media, they don't even know when they are being played. 

At the end of last week, the President Elect agreed to pay a $25 million dollar settlement (something he said he would never do) in the lawsuit over the now defunct Trump University. 

It was not a story that Trump wanted out there, one, because he paid out millions to people that sued him and second, it was something that he said he would never do. So the settlement payment made him look like a loser and a liar. 

But, Trump got the media to look away by creating a distraction. 

His VP, Mike Pence went to the Broadway play Hamilton and as the play ended, the actors gathered on stag with a message to Pence. 

“We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

Trump took to Twitter to criticize the Hamilton cast for going off script with their message to Pence. 

This got CNN media critic Brian Stelter and the gang at the one time cable news channel all riled up. Stelter called it an attack on free speech. 

But wait....doesn't Donald Trump have the same right as the cast to voice his opinion? How did Trump's tweet do anything to free speech? 

It didn't....but what it did do is get Stelter and many other media people to not focus on the Trump University settlement and get them more focused on his tweet about a Broadway play. 

Trump continues to play the media in anyway that he wants.