The public rolls its eyes as the media declares Donald Trump’s disastrous overseas trip a “success”
Donald Trump just arrived home from an overseas trip which went wrong for him and the United States in so many ways, you could write a book about it – and it might take a generation to undo some of the damage he did to America’s relationships with its allies. Yet news outlet after major news outlet is inexplicably rushing to declare Trump’s trip a success.
In the past few days I’ve encountered at least a dozen major U.S. news outlets which referred to Trump’s overseas trip as some variant of “successful” or a “success.” I’m left to wonder what convinced them. Was it the part where Trump used his Saudi Arabia visit to illegally funnel money into a phony charity run by his own daughter? Because if anything, that might have actually been the least bad moment of his trip.
Was it the part where Trump held a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Israel and blurted out even more classified intel about Israel, while insisting that he hadn’t previously leaked classified intel about Israel? Or the part where Trump got up and blankly wandered off before the press conference was finished? Was that what convinced American media outlets that Trump’s trip was a success?
How about the part where Trump physically shoved the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op? Or maybe it was the part where he trash talked Germany behind its back to other NATO leaders, who then promptly leaked it to German media, which then wrote op-eds calling for him to be impeached? Or maybe the U.S. media was convinced of the “success” of this trip by the fact that it fell apart so swiftly and steadily, Trump sent home three of his top staffers one by one – without explanation – as the trip went on.
Here’s the problem with trying to cover the Donald Trump administration: objectively speaking, at least 95% of what’s transpired since Trump has taken office has been bad news for him and/or bad news for America. There’s never been anything like this in the U.S. Presidency. Even when it comes to Trump’s own stated goals, and the hopes of those who voted for him, he’s gotten essentially nothing right. Yet if news outlets simply cover Trump on an accurate and unbiased basis, which would mean they’d have to accurately report that nearly everything is going wrong for Trump nearly all of the time, it would risk giving off the appearance of being biased against him.
And so any number of major U.S. news outlets have tried to combat the appearance of bias against Donald Trump by occasionally throwing him a bone that he hasn’t earned. In his State of the Union address, he read a simplistic and empty speech off a teleprompter in uninspiring fashion. It was, objectively speaking, the weakest State of the Union of the modern era. But he didn’t accidentally set his podium on fire, so the media decided to call it a “success.” That way, when they inevitably went back to covering his next series of disasters, they had protective cover, because they had just praised him for something.
It’s the same game with Donald Trump’s overseas trip. By any objective measure, the trip was a disaster. Too many things went poorly to keep track of, and nothing went particularly well. But he didn’t punch any NATO leaders in the face, so the media is calling this one a “success.” That way the media won’t look biased by turning around and immediately grilling him over his Kushner-Russia scandal. Meanwhile the public is rolling its eyes at how the media continues to show bias in Trump’s favor so it won’t risk looking like it’s biased against him. If you’re a regular reader, feel free to support Palmer Report
