The Wall Street Journal is one of the most respected financial newspapers in the world. While one may not always agree with the publication, the journal is a reliable source of information on many critical topics to economics and the world. It is not “fake news”, but some of the most real news that a man can get.
But Trump, being one not to like criticism, has consistently called those news outlets which criticize him part of the ‘lying press’ with the term “fake news,” which he recently called the Wall Street Journal and to which the Journal responded:
The President took to his favorite communication venue to tweet: “The Wall Street Journal always ‘forgets’ to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are ‘through the roof’ (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, according to @nytimes) & is only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!”
Thanks for reading, sir, and we agree the briefings are an excellent way to communicate directly with Americans. Our point was about the way Mr. Trump is communicating about a subject that is literally a life and death matter. That’s the reason they’re a ratings hit, not because people enjoy Donald Trump sparring with the White House press corps like a Packers-Bears game.
We’ll bet the ratings for the briefings would be even higher if they were shorter and more focused. We suggested 45 minutes, but at least one reader who wishes Mr. Trump well thinks they should be 30, delivering an update on key developments, taking a question or two—and that’s it.
The ratings that will matter for Mr. Trump this year are where he stands in public approval come November. And those ratings will depend on Mr. Trump’s results in conquering Covid-19 and restarting the economy. (source)
The Wall Street Journal generally tries to remain neutral on most positions. It is needless to say that the response of the paper to Trump’s words is rather stinging, but also very accurate.
Trump’s numbers are floundering because people can see, with enough time, that all of the bravado and braggart behavior he exhibits, Trump’s had a superficial response to the COVID-19 crisis.
If conditions were normal, there is a strong chance that he would not be re-elected. The only thing keeping this from happening is the seemingly intentional Democrat insistence on refusing to put forth a viable political candidate for 2020, presumably with the intention in 2024 of sweeping the election.
Trump’s presidency is already lame duck, and while it is very likely he will be re-elected in 2020, expect four years of nonsense ending with the complete evisceration of the American economy. Criticize Obama as one may, but Obama will likely not go down as the worst president in history, for it will be on Trump’s record that he oversaw and directly helped further the bankruptcy of the American empire.
This could not work out better for the Democrat party, for not only will they have eight years in office, but can present themselves with a ‘new FDR’ and write themselves into history a place that could guarantee political victories for possibly a century or more to come.
What Trump will also go down in history for doing is not just ruining the economy, but also setting up rhetoric as well as an economic situation that is reflection of a government where state and corporate power have merged. This is what is happening right now, which is the rise of fascism in an American context. One may want to remember that all people with dictatorial desires throughout history are known to severely criticize media outlets, and while there has been unfair coverage of Trump at various points, the normalization of the term ‘fake news’ is highly dangerous for this very reason, as it was not even a century ago that the term “Lugenpresse” was once popular.
As I noted before, there is talk that Trump may be setting Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, for an attempt at the presidency in 2024. To put him in that position would be as much of a shoo-in for the Democrats to win as it is to put Joe Biden as a presidential candidate for 2020 against Trump. as Biden stands no chance of victory.
Trump is going to continue to be Trump, but he is on borrowed time in so far as his viability is concerned. He can rant and rave as he wills, but his presidency is existing on borrowed time, and even he knows it.