President Trump delivered an important speech at the United Nations Tuesday. But unless you tuned in or read the text of his speech, you wouldn’t know its significance, because the mainstream American media’s coverage focused on one thing and one thing only — that Trump’s opening line drew laughter from the U.N. attendees.
Trump opened his speech with this line: “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” That was followed by audible laughter. Trump continued, smiling, “Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay.” He got more laughter and some applause.
The exchange was over in less than a minute, and Trump went on to give the rest of his speech. It touched on topics such as America’s economic growth, trade policy, and foreign policy, especially with respect to Iran and North Korea. But the mainstream media couldn’t care less about the substance. All they could focus on was that some world leaders laughed at Trump’s first sentence. Just take a look at some of their headlines:
- Politico: Trump bragged about his presidency and world leaders laughed
- CNN : Donald Trump bragged about himself to the United Nations. The UN laughed
- Washington Post: ‘People actually laughed at a president’: At U.N. speech, Trump suffers the fate he always feared
Beyond these headlines, CNN calls Trump’s first sentence “ridiculous.” WaPo went further: “For Trump, the moment wasn’t just embarrassing. It also punctured one of the core fabulist assertions of a president who has, according to Washington Post fact-checkers, made more than 5,000 false or misleading statements since taking office.” WaPo seems to forget that only recently, other media, including the liberal Huffington Post, have identified several factual errors in WaPo’s own reporting.
What I found ridiculous and embarrassing is that American liberal media are so biased that they are delighted to take the foreign leaders’ laughter as vindication of their bias against Trump. I don’t recall the liberal media happily siding with foreign leaders like this when President Obama was snubbed by China and had to get out of Air Force One in the back door.
Did Trump exaggerate his and his administration’s accomplishments? Probably. But he is not the first and will not be the last politician to do so. Remember when Obama bragged that the ocean would recede and the planet would heal because of him? Unlike Obama, Trump actually does have real accomplishments to brag about.
I made it clear in many of my own previous writings that I disagree with some of Trump’s policies, such as the trade tariffs. But there is no denying that many good things have happened under the Trump administration. Take the economy as an example. Per Trump’s speech:
The stock market is at an all-time high in history, and jobless claims are at a 50-year low. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment have all achieved their lowest levels ever recorded. We’ve added more than 4 million new jobs, including half a million manufacturing jobs.
Any other presidents would kill for an economic report like this. Not surprisingly, former President Obama has been trying to take credit for the booming economy himself. It’s no secret that Trump is facing a hostile liberal media who refuses to give him any credit for anything good happening under his administration. If Trump doesn’t toot his own horn, who will do it for him?
On the foreign policy front, while I am disappointed that the Trump administration hasn’t made much progress in North Korea’s denuclearization effort, there is no denying that there are encouraging signs on the Korean Peninsula. Last December the world was afraid we were at the brink of a nuclear war between the United States and North Korea. So far this year, Trump said:
The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction. Nuclear testing has stopped. Some military facilities are already being dismantled. Our hostages have been released. And as promised, the remains of our fallen heroes are being returned home to lay at rest in American soil.
Does either CNN or WaPo’s fact check prove anything otherwise?
What I found most impressive is that Trump didn’t mince words on Iran. He said:
Iran’s leaders sow chaos, death, and destruction. They do not respect their neighbors or borders, or the sovereign rights of nations. Instead, Iran’s leaders plunder the nation’s resources to enrich themselves and to spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond.
Trump appealed to Iranian people directly by acknowledging that “The Iranian people are rightly outraged that their leaders have embezzled billions of dollars from Iran’s treasury, seized valuable portions of the economy, and looted the people’s religious endowments, all to line their own pockets and send their proxies to wage war.”
He recognizes that “Iran’s neighbors have paid a heavy toll for the region’s [regime’s] agenda of aggression and expansion.” In his assessment:
The Iran deal was a windfall for Iran’s leaders. In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget grew nearly 40 percent. The dictatorship used the funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, increase internal repression, finance terrorism, and fund havoc and slaughter in Syria and Yemen.
Can either CNN or WaPo deny any of these as untrue?
In the strongest language ever, Trump warned Iran:
We cannot allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous weapons. We cannot allow a regime that chants ‘Death to America,’ and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth. Just can’t do it.
I doubt any world leaders, especially the Iranian leader, were laughing when they heard this. In contrast, in his eight years in office, Obama has never pushed back Iran nor any other dictatorial regimes in such an unequivocal moral authority, determination and strength.
Trump is a flawed person. But no matter which country he visits, he never has to come out of the back end of Air Force One. The media should never sugarcoat any of his shortcomings or any wrongdoing by him or his administration. At the same time, the media also has a responsibility to the American people by giving this democratically elected official honest, truthful and objective coverage when he and his administration do something right.
When the media lets their own bias cloud their judgment, they lose credibility. No wonder increasing numbers of American people don’t take them seriously any more.
