This isn’t “Make-a-Wish” Day. Maybe it should be.
I’ve heard this from numerous of my conservative friends, relatives, and, of course, from numerous anti-Trumpsters: “I wish President Trump would just tone down his rhetoric. Presidents aren’t supposed to speak as he does. And he doesn’t seem ‘Presidential.'”
One thing I know, he doesn’t do anything I have seen accidentally — it always purposeful. But that’s a story for another day. Let’s just imagine we can change that in him: “I Wish, Mr. President, you would start sounding more Presidential!”
Every American, whether a Trump supporter or an opponent, hear things said by President Trump that act like a sharp stick in the eye. When hearing those, some go crazy, some are merely disappointed, but many Americans feel some of what he says hurts him — not what he says, but many times it’s the context in which they are told or how he says them.
Let’s face it: he’s been a very successful business tycoon. Many will argue that point, but he built an empire mainly on his own. Yes, just as happens to almost every entrepreneur, there are often problems in structuring and operating after implementation that cause significant difficulties. In business, sometimes such challenges make the business enterprise unviable. There’s no successful entrepreneur that will disagree with that.
Being President is a bit different. President Trump is learning that. Many Americans are accustomed to past presidents who were proficient at giving speeches using the art of “political correctness” in their speeches. In interviews, especially with the Media, presidents like Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush exhibited such correctness. Donald Trump adopted a significantly different process in his communications.
When giving a speech with the use of a teleprompter, Mr. Trump’s delivery is usually calm, direct, and proficient. When off script, the President almost always delivers his message to those to whom he is speaking in a manner vastly different from a politically correct perspective.
Personal Insults
President Trump has a an itch which he loves to scratch naming folks he’s not particularly fond of. Take, for instance, his opponents for President.
- Joe Biden
Within hours of Joe Biden’s announcement, Trump dubbed the 76-year-old former vice president, “Sleepy Joe,” and called him someone whose “intelligence” had been “long in doubt.”
Weeks later, Trump amended the nickname ever so slightly, dubbing Biden “SleepyCreepy Joe.”
Trump insulted Biden as “another low I.Q. individual” after the former Delaware senator accidentally admitted he was going to run for president, and then corrected himself.
- Elizabeth Warren
Trump has repeatedly used the slur “Pocahontas” against Warren, dating back to the 2016 presidential race, when the Massachusetts senator emerged as a fierce critic of Trump. He also slammed her as “goofy Elizabeth Warren.”
- Mayor Pete Buttigieg
“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” Trump told Politico in an interview about Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
- NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio
“De Blasio Trump tweeted, “is the worst mayor in the U.S.” and “a joke,” adding that “NYC HATES HIM!”
- Carly Fiorina
- Cher
There are many, many more who bear nicknames with which he branded on them. Some will wear their names permanently, like “Pocahontas” for Warren, “Mini-Mike” for Michael Bloomberg and “Low Energy Jeb” for Jeb Bush.
Fake News
The mainstream news media has been the perpetual thorn in Mr. Trump’s flesh since he declared his run for the presidency. We all remember the laughs on the evening talk shows, morning news shows, and even the comedy shows during the 2016 campaign. None could fathom a scenario in which they saw Donald Trump as a candidate, yet alone as President. Who can forget when Conservative author Ann Coulter responded to Bill Marr’s question at the very beginning of the campaign cycle, “Whch presidential candidate do you picture winning the presidency in 2016?” Coulter immediately responded, “Of those already running? Donald Trump!” Marr, every one of his guests along with his entire studio audience, doubled-over with laughter.
When Trump won, the media ratcheted up their rhetoric, their jabs, and jokes about and against President Trump. After all, he not only defeated Hillary Clinton — their “Anointed One” — in doing so he blew a huge hole in the bottom of the Democrat Party Ship set to take the Obama Administration’s plans to the next level under Hillary: Socialism. The media factored heavily in the policy-making and White House voicing during the Obama years. With Trump, they saw their inside track for all things politics obliterated. So they set out to diminish the President in every way possible.
We will not go into details: we all know hundreds (if not thousands) of instances where their animus, disdain, and certain goals have been illustrated in news reports since his election. Our basic premise is that this media, for the most part, do not like President Trump. Subsequently, much of their reporting is nasty, often untrue (or slanted negatively) and nasty about Mr. Trump and his family.
So he responds. He calls them out. He invented and presented the media with his name for them: “Fake News.” On the most part and most of the time, his doing so about specific stories are appropriate — unfortunately for the Nation.
Many, if not most Americans would love for President Trump to lighten-up on the press. Many feel that the way he handles talking to and about the media is crass and unnecessary. Although they love his policies and their results, Americans would love for the President to soften his tone with the media. I doubt that will happen.
When he recently left the White House headed to Marine One going somewhere out of town, he, as usual, stopped to talk to the White House media. One reporter asked, “Mr. President, will you consider stopping with your tag of ‘Fake News’?” The President responded in two parts: “I can’t do that. Most of the news about my administration and the things that we are doing are mentioned untruthfully in the press. Not all in the media use fake news about us. But most do.”
The reporter followed up with this: “But, Mr. President, Americans don’t understand why you put names on everybody: people you don’t like, people in the media, even leading newspapers in the country. Isn’t that important enough for you to consider stopping?”
The President’s response (paraphrased): “Some Americans don’t understand, but many do. The media is NOT going to put our message out in the public: our good economy, our trade deals, unemployment, new jobs, corporate expansion, and tax cuts. I want Americans to know about all these and other good things that have happened in our Administration. Because the Fake News doesn’t report on those things, I’m the only one who can get it all out there. That’s why I use Twitter so much. My message goes to millions of Americans on Twitter without being filtered, misreported, or just flat lied about.”
Who can forget this happening in the White House:
He has a point! CNN’s Jim Acosta demonstrated the very worst of today’s media in that White House briefing.
Good News
Let’s be honest: this media is horrid to President Trump. Non-partisan media monitor groups have audited every news outlet numerous times and reported this: news about Mr. Trump in most cases has been negative more than 90% of the time — and in some cases 95% of the time. Much of their reporting has been incorrect, misrepresented, and sometimes just downright false.
I’m a journalist. There has NEVER been a time when so many “reputable” news sources like the Washington Post, New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, and even the Wall Street Journal have withdrawn stories about the President — sometimes with a formal retraction, sometimes by just editing and re-releasing stories. I know factually that process happens ONLY when the editor of any of those stories approves its written or electronic details as presented. That happens only when those editors wish to discredit Mr. Trump.
Why is that so? Read the line at the beginning of this article that states: “The media factored heavily in the policy-making and White House voicing during the Obama years. With Trump, they saw their inside track for all things politics stomped out. So they set out to diminish the President in every way possible.”
“I Wish…”
In a perfect world, those who support President Trump but would really enjoy seeing moderation in his messaging, would in large part utter a collective sigh “IF” the President tamped it down. In closing this today, why don’t we list a few of our “I Wishes” about and to President Trump.
“I Wish…”
- The Media would collectively begin to tell the truth about ALL things “Trump” — both good and bad.
- The Media would stop narrating with their “political perspectives” in news stories or newscasts and would simply just give us the news! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they did so trusting that Americans are smart enough to figure things out on our own?
- The Media would give the credit due Mr. Trump and this Administration for each of their monumental accomplishments during the past 3.5 years for the American people. NO other President has achieved such results in such a short time.
- The Media would callout all those on the Left and those on the Right — EVERYBODY — guilty of publishing reports termed “news” that are incorrect, sourced incorrectly or not at all, and force each other to be real journalists and reclaim the attribute of journalists that existed for 200 years that this crop of reporters threw away: INTEGRITY AND TRUTH IN REPORTING.
- The President would continue to speak to Americans the way he has for the past two weeks. He has softened his messaging, calmed his delivery, and has seldom uttered the negative words and names he has used incessantly during his first 3.5 years. It’s important to mention this: much of what we are seeing and hearing from his own mouth and those of the members of his Coronavirus tactical team would certainly have been translated into “politispeak” by the media in reporting the content of these daily briefings, IF they were not televised live. That is the primary reason Mr. Trump has contributed heavily in almost all of those daily reports. I wish he did not feel it necessary to do so for that reason.
Summary
I predict Donald Trump will win the November election. There: you have me on record!
Some will say, “Dan, aren’t you fearful that the Left will hang the economic downturn experienced during the Coronavirus pandemic on the President? Won’t they hammer through all of their reporting that he didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t prepare sufficiently to prevent further spread of the virus and the death of so many Americans?”
Here’s what I know: the undergirding of the American economy is such that has not been experienced at any other time in my 66 years. It’s strong, it’s wide, and it’s deep. With the measures the President has already ordered that have and are being implemented right now along with those still on the drawing board, Americans will beat Coronavirus!
Because of the huge growth in the economy, the losses that have happened primarily from fear in the marketplace will NOT kill the economy. In fact, I predict during the six months immediately following the end of this pandemic, the U.S. economy will soar again — but to NEW HEIGHTS! The facts show how this never-before-seen economy happened on his watch. That cannot be credibly disputed.
Sit back and relax. Yes, we are in a horrible time. Yes, people will get sick and people will die. Few remember that in 2009, 16 million Americans were infected with H1N1 and 1000 died. Let’s pray (and I believe) we will not see Coronavirus even remotely close to those numbers.
Hey, when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said this about President Trump: “Politics aside, this is incredible and the right response in this critical time,” WE KNOW HE MUST BE ON THE RIGHT TRACK!
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