Hell freezes over: Media start admitting that Trump's first year isn't a flop
I have sensed for weeks now that some in the media were on the verge of rolling out a contrary take on President Trump’s first year in office.
And in the wake of yesterday’s final passage of massive tax cuts, that moment has arrived.
The dominant media narrative, of course, is that Trump hasn’t gotten much done, that he’s in over his head, that he doesn’t understand government, that he keeps picking petty fights rather than winning big battles.
But the thing about the pundits is that they get tired of pushing the same line, week after week, month after month. Some inevitably want to seize credit for a new insight, for getting ahead of the pack with a burst of contrarian wisdom.
And that hot take is, hey, maybe Trump has gotten some important things done after all.
It’s true that the president had not gotten much from the Republican Congress this year. But a new law that cuts taxes for businesses and individuals—even though the measure polls poorly and is not mainly aimed at the middle class—puts an end to the verdict that Trump doesn’t know how to work the Hill. Like it or not, this is a sprawling piece of legislation that was quickly pushed through the House and Senate in a show of party-line muscle.
Trump hasn’t gotten much credit for the record-breaking stock market, but there is now some recognition that Dow-Almost-25,000 can’t be completely divorced from his policies. And there’s starting to be a greater appreciation for the president’s progress on slashing regulations and appointing judges (even though three nominees recently had to withdraw, one because he couldn’t answer a Senate panel’s questions about basic court procedures).
On Axios, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen stake out the new ground :
"The media often appraises presidencies and politics through liberal-tinted glasses. But the vast majority of the Republican Party like, even love, these policies ...
"We have been saying all year: Watch what he does, not what he says. Until recently, he hasn't done much. But these wins are substantial, with consequences for millions of people and many years to come."
They note that Trump has won approval not just for Neil Gorsuch but for a dozen Circuit Court judges.
And while Trump failed in repeated attempts to scrap ObamaCare, he boasted yesterday abolishing the individual mandate—a provision added to the tax bill—amounts to repealing the health care program. That’s an overstatement, but letting people wait until they get sick to buy insurance could well undermine the exchanges created by Barack Obama.
On foreign policy, there is a telling New York Times piece by conservative columnist Ross Douthat, a harsh critic of Trump. He says the decimation of ISIS has drawn scant media attention:
"There is nothing more characteristic of the Trump era, with its fire hose of misinformation, scandal and hyperbole, than that America and its allies recently managed to win a war that just two years ago consumed headlines and dominated political debate and helped Donald Trump himself get elected president — and somehow nobody seemed to notice."
It’s true there was no surrender ceremony and ISIS still exists, but it has lost physical stronghold in Iraq.
Says Douthat: “This is also a press failure, a case where the media is not adequately reporting an important success because it does not fit into the narrative of Trumpian disaster in which our journalistic entities are all invested.”
But the narrative is changing a bit. While Trump remains quite unpopular, at least according to the polls, the media are reluctantly starting to acknowledge that his presidency is having a significant impact.
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It only took a year
For what?! What has Trump done that was taking place or something in place a year earlier? 2 years earlier?
Please explain?
Did you? Once again what has Trump done that forecasts and projections have shown would have happened regardless of who was in office? The DOW has been steadily going up every year for the past 5 years, ISIS has been steadily been on the decline for the last 3 years! What has Trump done?
Dude the entire article is right in front for everyone to see....no need to click on the link, it explains NOTHING Trump has done!
Talk is cheap.....show me ONE policy Trump has done that has benefited the economy or America that wasn't on track to benefit America already
You have just confirmed Howard Kurtz point. Progressives will now try to pivot from their year long narrative that Trump didn't accomplish anything and his Presidency was a failure. So, let's see if we have this straight - You now say that the frequent record setting performance of the stock market and the 3% growth rate (that Obama could not produce in 8 years) is because of Obama's Keynesian policies??? That's gonna be the spin???
Well not only is that totally false but you ignored all the other things Trump did which don't involve the economy and WOULDN'T have got done if a liberal won in 2016.
Now to answer the false narrative:
1) Trump kept his promise of tax reform & a tax cut, which will bring business back to the US, grow jobs and give the middle class a break. In 8 years Obama DIDN'T DO IT!
2) Trump got rid of the regulations that strangled growth for the past 8 years. Something Corporations rate as important as reducing the corporate tax rate.
3) Trump has re-done trade policy - AS PROMISED
4) Trump has re-done energy policy - AS PROMISED
All of the above has already restored the type of growth the American economy is known for.
You see the President who preceded him emphasized redistribution over growth and left office with a $20 trillion deficit. His primary objective was not to untagle the US tax code, which hampers economic growth, nor to make the US economy more competitive by lowering the extremely high corporate tax rate. It was to rescind the 2001 tax cuts for joint earners making above $250,000 "IN THE NAME OF FAIRNESS"! SS Disability and Food Stamps exploded in costs as Obama used waivers to free states from the strict work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform.
There's the difference as far as the economy alone goes!
.....waiting!
Then your'e in denial aisle
Comedy! This is like a second string player coming in the game in the last 2 minutes, hitting the last shot then wants to take credit for winning the game after the starter had played 4 quarters, and put the team up by 20 points! The reason Trump's first year wasn't a flop was that he was set up for success by the previous resident of the White House!.....when is the media (or better yet Trump) going to start admitting that!
Really? Then please show me where the DOW as on the decrease and somehow it miraculously made a tremendous increase over the past 5 years? Show me where within the last 3 years ISIS was GROWING as opposed to decreasing? Where was the unemployment rate at on Jan 19th 2017? The national deficit? Jobs being added? Household incomes increasing or decreasing?....Please let's compare when Obama took office as opposed to when Trump was sworn in and say who was set up for success and who wasnt
You really do live in a cave don't you? Seriously. How can you can't be that ignorant to what is going on?
Since President Trump took office the DOW has hit record highs REPEATEDLY. Something that never happened under Obama. And the idea that Obama orchestrated it is laughable.
ISIS has taken severe hits since Obama left office and Trump untied the hands of the military allowing them to do their jobs.
Obama had 8 years to do just those two things and didn't. Trump had one year to do it, and did it. Keep in mind this is also amidst the temper tantrums, and fallacy of an investigation by the Democrats.
There has been a bull market for the last 108 months, 92 of them has been under Obama! During Obama's first 11 months in office the Dow gains were at 30% under Trump it went up 24%! You're totally off your nut!
Comedy! At it’s peak ISIS controlled 35,00 square miles, by the time Trump took office it had fallen to 23,00 square miles and as of June it’s about 14,00 square miles, in which every defense experts states that most of the offensive operations that liberated most of these territories began under Obama, like the battle of Mosul that began 4 months BEFORE Trump took office! And as for supposedly untying the hands of commanders, there was no shift in the overall strategy that the Obama administration laid out! But I guess you think it's fine to take credit for a plan someone else largely put in place!
Are you that much of a Trumpeter or that much of an ODS sufferer that you refuse all logic and facts?! You claim that I may have been living under a rock…..but it’s obvious you have been living in something a little more warmer and smellier that has a orange spray tan on the outside!
Remember how America works........Hoover was largely set up by his predecessors policies but it is Hoover who was blamed for the Great Depression.
While FDR continued Hoover's policy of grand public work projects (Hoover Dam) it is FDR that gets the credits even though the economy languished for almost 8 more years
until we started supplying weapons and supplies to China and our European Allies prior to our involvement in WWII. (Lend-Lease Act of 1941)
Hoover had a great Banking program pr0posed but it was FDR on his 2nd day in office, who implemented it.
FDR becomes the hero, Hoover goes down in infamy.
obamas master plan for the economy involved trump killing the tpp, and the paris agreement??
are ya sure about that? I think your making stiff up.
Obama was a piece of crap who said 2% gdp was the "new normal"
guess what... obamas new normal was also crap and easily beaten by trump.
next year our gdp will hit 5% (count on it)
Cheers
And how does that make Trumps first year a success? What does that got to do with the fact that every forecast has been showing a steady increase in everything for the last 5 years?
Boy! You all are going to ride that one trick pony til the cows come home huh? Well when Trump doesn't get his 3% what are you going to do then?
the question is not what I will do "IF" this or that happens
but what you will do "WHEN: this or that happens.
5% next yr, no problem
killing the tpp and paris agreement is what started the economic optimism responsible for the increased gdp. trump killing thousands upon thousands of regulations helped also.... obama did not do any of that and never would have.. neither would hillary.
I cant wait to hear how obama is responsible for this also...
He drove his tax scam through the crowd and the market started dropping already.
May want to check again............up 108 as I type............
Absolutely nothing substantial that's what! Except for the Dow going up (which it also did when Obama took office) there has been nothing substantial that Trump can claim his policies and his alone can take credit for! Warm and fuzzies doesn't put food on the table when you're looking for a job, or paying an emergency room bill!
What that means is Trump wont be getting his 3% GDP this year like he promised!
.....so yeah, you're right it is WHEN he DOESNT get it! And read your link that was for the 3rd quarter only! You all act like Obama never had 3%+ quarters before!
No.....you may want to check again
So..Trump killing regulations during an already RISING economy?!........and?!
silly twitter feuds aside, he had an excellent first year policy wise.
while the left has been focused on the palace intrigue and manufactured drama trump has been getting it done
if we wanted a polished political speaker hillary would have won
Cheers
I guess those 7 million obama voters who voted for trump are just too painful to think about...
And you're crowing like that's an accomplishment?! He got Betsy DeVos appointed as Secretary of Education! With a Republican majority Congress, the bar set for being appointment is so freaking low that they just have to meet the bare minimum requirements to be appointed!
Yeah and if he keeps bringing people like Jeff Mateer who described transgender children as proof of “Satan’s plan”, Brett Talley who had little to no trial experience and once defended the early KKK under a pseudonym on a sports website, and finally Matthew Petersen, supposedly the cream of the crop of this bunch who couldn’t even answer basic legal questions!.....Filling up the bowl with shit is not an accomplishment!
Dude! Regurgitating debunked rightwing talking points doesn't prove your point!