Trump: The Maligned President

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

The Democrat Party has created a destructive and false narrative, and they are going to stick to it through thick and thin.  If accused of creating it through smoke, mirrors, and misdirection, they will deny, deny, deny.  The liberal left machine has maligned President Trump in so many ways, and as a result we don't even seem to understand who he is, or what he is, in the first place.  They want us to believe he ran for President to seek power, that Trump is a racist and a sexist who fed on the white supremacy feelings of a segment of the population, and that in the long run what he wants is a strong government that controls everyone, and destroys the freedoms we have enjoyed for over two centuries.  Interestingly, he was never considered a racist or sexist until he dared to run against the Democrats.

Let's take a look at their arguments.

1: Why Run for President?

Why did Donald J. Trump run for President?  Was it for wealth?  For power?  He already had those things, so surely neither qualify as a serious reason for Trump running for office.  Could it be he genuinely felt that America's light was being extinguished, and that it would take a firm hand like his to "make America great again?"

I believe Mr. Trump joined the 2016 Presidential Campaign because he had some issues that were important to him, and the party who was supposed to be strong on those issues, the GOP, wasn't even talking about them.  It was as if the Republicans were too afraid to discuss immigration, Islam, or repealing Obamacare.  Then, once Trump dove in, with the intent of putting a spotlight on his big issues, his business and economic acumen began to kick in.  People responded, so Trump responded.

Naturally, Trump is a boisterous son of a gun, and after decades of wimpy Republicans bending over backwards to the demands of the Democrats, even when the party of the donkey was in the minority, Trump's "in their face" attitude and techniques struck a chord with the voters.  Finally, someone who would not put up with the establishment, and would actually stand up against it.

2: Driving Forces.

Donald Trump reminds me of Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise.  He does not believe in no-win scenarios.  He is one to jump it without looking, even if it is the unpopular thing to do, because he thinks his way is the right way to fix whatever the problem is.  Sometimes, Trump speaks without checking with the consultants about the dangers of what he's saying, or doesn't realize that what he says or does could be twisted to mean something else.  But, in truth, Trump doesn't care; and often, those misspoken tidbits are not what they seem.  Often, they are well-placed land mines in Trump's never-ending art of the deal that may be setting up his next move.  Take what he says the way you want, he's going to do what he thinks is the best way to defeat the undefeatable, despite any political opinions by the same old consultants who've been screwing up the Republican Party since Reagan, anyway.  Fact is, Trump likes to win, and he's a competitor, and he will not give up on his pledge to make America Great Again - no matter how convinced some are that his efforts are efforts in futility.

3: Information.

Trump informs himself in a variety of ways, and most of them do not include the mainstream media. This ticks off the leftist journalists who think that their job is to set the narrative.  So, they accuse Trump of chasing "fake news," and of accessing news that is not authentic or trustworthy.  Problem is, after everything pans out, it turns out Trump knew what he was talking about, in the first place.  Sweden's problem with Islam is a great example of that.

The mainstream media also accuses Trump of disseminating misinformation, and they use the size of his inauguration crowds as an example.  Trump claimed his inauguration crowd was huge, and the press said otherwise.  Then, they provided an image to prove it, except, it turned out the image of the crowd was taken early in the day, prior to the moment the crowd reached its maximum number of attendees.  In short, the press believed their own bullcrap, and then hammered Trump for not agreeing with them.  In their eyes, either you agree with them one hundred percent, or you are misinformed.

4: Power of Repetition.

There is an old saying about if you repeat a lie often enough, it eventually becomes the truth.  The mainstream media uses that technique as much as they can.  Past tyrannies did, as well.

If telling a lie often enough turns it into the truth, can the lies not be combated by repeating the truth often enough that the truth becomes the new truth over the lies?

The Trump administration is very good about the power of repetition, and chipping away at the false narrative promoted by the Democrat Party and the liberal left media.  Sean Spicer, in his press conferences, slams the media, exposing them for their religious adherence to their false narrative.  And then, Spicer, like Trump, repeats it again and again and again.

5: Power of Distraction.

The Democrats have a history of using various strategies exposing certain pieces of news in order to distract you from what they are doing.  It's like the magician who uses misdirection to get you to watch one hand, while the other does the dirty work so as to make the illusion he is performing convincing.  The Trump team has realized that the Democrats do this, and have created their own power of distraction.  However, instead of creating scandals to cover up illegal doings like the Democrats do, the Trump distractions are designed to get you to stop talking about the crap the media is putting out there.  As the media accuses Trump of something, rather than bicker with them like he did until recently, he simply performs an action that takes your mind off the media's lies and onto what Trump is trying to do as President.  Usually, it works.  As the scramble with Congress to get them to work with him on Obamacare and tax reform is going on, a couple important military actions were pulled off.  Suddenly, everyone was talking about Syria's airbase, or the "Mother of All Bombs" being dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.  They were positive distractions to remind you this President isn't just what the liberal left media says he is.

6: Consistency.

Like him, or not, Trump is consistent.  He is always the guy we saw campaigning.  As the saying goes, it's just "Trump being Trump."

He's not a political figure, he's a businessman.  While everyone touted how "presidential" his speech to the joint session of Congress was, that was simply Trump relying on his speech writers, and realizing that sometimes, he has to make the establishment hounds happy.  But, what we love about him is that he's not a part of the establishment, and he has consistently reminded us of that with his actions as President, and the people he has surrounded himself with.

Trump Tweets.  He says seemingly bombastic things.  He slams the media and the Democrats.  And to the horror of the liberal left, Trump is not going to change those things for anyone.

The Democrats have been saying that the status quo has been the problem, that the Washington way to do things was broken, and someone needed to come in and drastically fix it.  Then, they offered a status quo candidate in Hillary Clinton, and are surprised people voted for Trump because he came in as an outsider agreeing that the status quo is a problem, and had a plan to upend it, and fix it.

And his drive to stir the proverbial establishment pot will not end.  He will consistently challenge the ruling elite, and put them in their places.

President Trump is not part of the status quo that Americans have now been conditioned to oppose, and he’s not going to change to accommodate the establishment's minions in Washington.

7: Poll Defiance.

The media had it wrong when it came to the polls about Trump approaching the election.  They were stunned that their polls were all wrong.  Their manipulation of the polls told them Hillary was the christened one, and that Trump had no chance.  How could the polls be so wrong?

Yet, now the media continues to follow their polls.  They are excited because their polls have Trump showing very unpopular numbers.  The polls are against Trump and this makes the media very happy.

But, if the polls were horribly wrong during the election, what makes the liberal left media think the polls are not horribly wrong now?

Those same polls that show Trump with a low approval rating, the worst of any president at this stage, also say that Trump has little chance to make it through his first term and assumes there’s no way for him to avoid a midterm disaster.

Is it not odd that the mainstream media is continuing to retain their faith in polls discredited by the election?  Could it be that the truth is something different than the polls are saying?  Could it be that the bubble the leftists live in is not the mainstream, but is actually way outside the mainstream, and that the media is so disconnected that even when the truth slaps them in the face, they can't recognize it?

8: A Well Oiled Machine.

The mainstream media and the Democrats have been trying to put out a narrative that all is not well within the Trump White House.  Chaos is knocking on the door.  They have no idea what they are doing, and the amateur hour of the new White House will be its undoing.  Except, Trump seems to have it all together. He's not showing the signs the leftists claim are there.  He's not crazy, he's not mentally unstable, and their attacks have not broken him like they thought they would.

Trump is the opposite, in fact, of what he is being accused of.  While the media and Democrats are trying to portray Trump as weak, he is showing strength that can be compared to only two twentieth century presidents, Reagan and Coolidge.  He doesn't back down, he's been focused on the tasks at hand, and he's been clear about his aims.  The Republican Party is still trying to figure out who it wants to be, and it has been the Democrats who have been seeming frighteningly unstable.  Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, for example, have had recent meltdowns of epic proportions.

The accusations that Trump's administration is not a well oiled machine like Trump claims it to be is based on a lack of speed in accomplishing what he wants to accomplish.  And, many times, Trump has said there is no hurry.  There shouldn't be.  We are a republic, not a democracy, and in republics, things take time.  Efficiency and swiftness are attributes of dictatorships.

9: Outside Washington's Bubble.

I remember when Pelosi murmured her famous, "I don't understand how McCain got so many votes.  I don't know anyone who voted for McCain."

The Washington Bubble is a real phenomenon, and shockingly, the politicians don't realize that the world outside their bubble is nothing like the utopia in their little bubble, or inside their demented little minds.  When the truth tries to sneak its way in, the media and Democrats will do what they can to protect their bubble's narrative.  For them, a view of the world outside their bubble would be devastating.

Trump does not reside inside the Washington political bubble, and he never has.  He's more in touch with the outside world than the media and the Democrats are.  And, when the media and the Democrats try to protect their bubble, the attempt is obvious, and exposes them for who they really are.

It's like when they had the narrative about the Tea Party being a bunch of violent racists.  They did everything they could to manipulate the coverage of the Tea Party, but the coverage was simply evidence of the bias of the media for those who understood what the Tea Party really is.

In short, the media is using a narrative and imagery in an attempt to create their own kind of truth.  The media cherry-picks quotes and images to fit their worldview, and then other journalists and social media warriors blow them out of proportion, and explode them into a cartoonish caricature that exposes the liberal media for exactly who they are - peddlers of fake news (as they try to accuse their opposition of being proponents of fake news).

10. Who the Trump Voters Truly Are.

The liberal left progressive Democrats still believe that they lost the 2016 Election because Hillary was a bad candidate, or because the Russians interfered, and the reality is, neither are the reason for Donald Trump's White House win.  The truth is, the voters who put Trump into office are average Americans fed up with the establishment, and happy to see someone willing to stir the political pot.  Some of Trump's voters didn't even necessarily agree with his politics, but they were excited to vote for an outsider who is willing to overturn the apple cart.

Average Americans were absolutely jazzed to vote for the outsider billionaire with no government experience.  They liked his temperament, and rejected the media's false narrative about Trump's character.  They don't trust the liberal media, they are sick of the establishment, and they knew that Trump was the only Republican with enough brass in his undershorts to stand up to the "bureaucracy as usual" crowd.

The media also does not understand that the rest of America is not California, New York City, or Washington D.C.  The political ruling elite, and their media minions, do not understand the impact that illegal immigration is having on our daily lives, the devastation to our wallets the leftist economic policies are having, the frustration of watching manufacturing die in America as we are inundated with Chinese imports, and the fear we have of Islam and the fact that our leaders have refused to take the fight to the terrorists without creating a drawn-out boots on the ground kind of campaign.

Simply put, we are tired of wimps and liberals giving away America and working to extinguish our shining light on the hill.  We wanted real change, and we wanted our change to be equipped with a brass pair.  With Trump, we got both.  Now, we simply hope he abides by the limitations on the federal government imposed by the U.S. Constitution.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary