Donald Trump has had more “he’ll never survive that” moments in the past twenty months than most people can remember. From crude comments recorded years ago on a bus to attacks over the size of his hands, Trump has been taking body blow after body blow since announcing his candidacy. Yet he staggers to his corner, cut man patches him up and he answers the bell for the next round. The man is nothing if not resilient.
This morning Trump’s overall approval rating has popped up to 55 percent! With 38 percent “Strongly approving” of his job performance.
Though his presidency is not yet four weeks old, Trump has achieved this number amidst a constant media avalanche of negative coverage. Data included in the same poll shows that “Nearly half (48 percent) also believe most reporters are biased against the president. Only 12 percent think they are biased for Trump…”
What media those twelve percent are watching, reading or listening to is a mystery right up there with Stonehenge. Of the three opponents with whom Trump seems to do daily battle –Democrats, Republicans, media– (some would argue that numbers one and three are one-in-the-same) none has been more dogged, more ruthless and more unrelenting that the U.S. media.
The so-called mainstream media have consistently portrayed Trump’s immigration and visa overstay executive order as a “Muslim ban” or “Muslim travel ban.” Most also consistently neglect to mention it is a 90-day moratorium, not permanent restriction and that it only affects seven nations; 85 percent of the majority Muslim nations of the world are unaffected.
The same media have been hammering Michael Flynn’s resignation as National Security Advisor like it were Trump himself resigning. (Which they would probably give up their left leg to see happen.) Most Americans have probably never heard of Michael Flynn prior to his resigning and such stories almost never include the fact that Lt. Gen. Flynn was never confirmed by Congress. The NSA position is a direct presidential appointment that neither goes through nor needs a confirmation hearing.
The media feeding frenzy over the latent narrative that Trump isn’t even a legitimate president because Russia somehow hacked the election is reaching embarrassment levels. New York Times writer Thomas Friedman said on CNN two days ago, “Russia hacked our election. That was a 9/11 scale event. …That was a Pearl Harbor scale event.”
A 9/11, where nearly 3,000 Americans DIED, scale event? A Pearl Harbor, where 2,400 Americans DIED, scale event? As usual neither Friedman nor CNN provide any information whatsoever on exactly what “Russia hacked our election” even means. Did Russia somehow take control of voting machines causing votes cast for Hillary to instead be registered for Trump? Did Russia send emails to millions of Americans encouraging them to contribute money to Trump’s campaign? What?
Yet despite these daily, often times hourly onslaughts Trump’s numbers continue to rise. And who knows, maybe bloody and battered but when the smoke clears, dust settles and final bell sounds, it may be Trump walking out of the ring holding that championship belt up high.
