So much for honeymoons as one assumes the presidency. Before Trump left Blair House to go to mass on inauguration morning demonstrations that would turn violent were underway. On the morning after as he awoke, there were millions marching in protest. He hasn’t made a decision yet, but the protests are in force.
Then his press secretary called a news conference for Saturday night and it was like none I had ever seen. That makes two days in office and two never seen events. (A different inaugural speech and this press conference). The press secretary was angry and blasted the media. He knocked what he called negative and inaccurate coverage. He informed the press that this administration would fight back when in office.
The media was angered to say the least. So who’s right, and what does it mean?
First a warning. There is an old saying, never get into a verbal fight with someone who has access to unlimited print ink. Now that was said before the age of the internet and social media, but it is a dangerous position.
The media, for their part, is biased and this blog has been clear on our feelings about that. They are a little stunned. They beat up George W. Bush for eight years at will. They never got pushback. Then they had a love fest with Obama for eight years. So along comes Trump who they see as worse than Bush and they attack. Except Trump fires back with everything he has. They are shaken, angry, confused and very mad.
What happened on day one was this:
First the media went into the oval office to see Trump sign the cabinet nominating forms. One reporter (Time Magazine) put out a tweeted story that Trump had removed the Martin Luther King statue from the office. Now understand this. Each President hangs pictures and places mementos in the office that they choose. Obama removed a bust of Winston Churchill that was in the office since Dwight Eisenhower placed it there in 1952. He replaced it with the MLK statue. The English felt a little snubbed.
Trump brought the statue back to its original place, but did not take the King one out. He moved it to a different spot. The reporter reported he moved it out. No doubt the reporter believed it because he wanted to. He was sure Trump would do that, after all he is a racist. Except he didn’t. So the wrong report set off a false firestorm and was issue one.
Then on Saturday AM he awoke and watched the morning news. He did not like the station saying his turnout was low and less than Obama’s in 2008. They showed a picture that illustrated open areas compared to 2008. He got mad and said they were undercutting his crowd. That caused the Trump people to say the media was lying and the media to react. From what I can tell the turnout was lower than 2008, but who cares? The Nielsen media numbers were 30.6 million watching, which was greater than 2012, but less than 2008. So what? The all time record by the way is 1980 for Reagan– over 41 million.
Trump needs to get into his head he is President. He won and he needs to rise above such pettiness. He needs to lead and stop talking about who voted for him, how many turned out and how great he is. It will be fine to call out the media, but you better be right or they’ll bury you. He was right about the statue, but wrong on the crowd. How much about the crowd did you hear and see versus the statue? They control the airwaves. He controls his message.
It’s pretty clear President Trump is not going to get anything from the MSM, any support ever from the Hollywood elite or intolerant left. So he needs to govern for the average American and isolate them as radical. Let the statements like Madonna’s stand out and not drown them out with his ego insecurities. She thought about blowing up the White House because her candidate lost. Meryl Streep gave Roman Polanski a standing ovation, a man who raped a 13 year old girl and ran out of the country to avoid jail, but sees Trump as the problem. Let them ruin themselves, why does he have to get in the gutter with them?
If he continues to let his ego run him he will defeat himself and let them win. The 100 days of work start today. Expect a lot of action and hopefully a quieter off the cuff President.
Let’s close with another story you probably didn’t hear on the MSM. Responding to an article published by CNN originally entitled, “Nancy Sinatra not happy Trump using father’s song at inauguration,” the singer and actress replied:
“That’s not true. I never said that. Why do you lie, CNN?”