Thursday, January 4, 2018

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Trump vs. Bannon

There are a lot of other issues I'd prefer to cover today, but one story is dominating the headlines, so here we go. 

Late yesterday, reports erupted in the press about infighting within the Trump White House.  Controversial author Michael Wolff has a new book coming out soon, and excerpts, extremely unflattering to President Trump, were published in London's left-wing rag, The Guardian.  More troubling were very damaging and disparaging quotes attributed to Steve Bannon saying things that have the swamp creatures salivating. 

Here are the things you need to know:
 

  • I know President Trump and I know Steve Bannon.  They are both intelligent men.  Steve Bannon did not elect Donald Trump.  Donald Trump, as he said himself, was elected by you -- the voters of Middle America.  In case you didn't notice, Trump has a remarkable list of accomplishments after just one year in office.  (More on that below.)

 

  • President Trump is portrayed in the book as having no interest in briefings and being unaware of key facts.  This is simply untrue.  In my conversations with the president, he has always shown a wide grasp of knowledge and details, which helps explain the incredible success he has had in life.  (You don't become a billionaire by being dumb.)  More importantly, he doesn't have to unlearn all the leftist drivel that infects every "progressive" politician in this city.

 

  • Here's one example of the many lies in the book:  Wolff claims that after the election, Trump did not know who former Speaker John Boehner was.  Only an idiot could believe that.  Trump has tweeted about John Boehner multiple times, played golf with him and donated $100,000 to his political efforts. 

 

  • Wolff's credibility is very questionable.  A Washington Post media reporter wrote this: "Wolff has a penchant for . . . pushing the facts as far as they'll go, and sometimes further than they can tolerate. . .  He has been accused of not just re-creating scenes in his books and columns, but of creating them wholesale."

 

  • An editor who once worked with Wolff described him this way:  "His great gift is the appearance of intimate access.  He is adroit at making the reader think that he has spent hours and days with his subject, when in fact he may have spent no time at all."

 

  • Multiple people cited in the book -- here, here, here and here -- immediately denounced as lies quotes that were attributed to them. 

 
Unfortunately, I have not seen Bannon deny statements attributed to him.  On his Sirius/XM show last night, he did say this in response to a caller:  "The president is a great man.  You know I support him day in and day out." 
 
White House attorneys delivered a cease and desist letter to Bannon last night, reminding him that like all other presidential appointees, he signed a confidentiality agreement preventing him from discussing the inner workings of the White House.  Today, they are going after Wolff, seeking to stop publication of the book.
 
As conservatives we need to remind ourselves that one of the sick pillars of modern philosophy is that there is no such thing as truth or right and wrong.  Our journalism schools and law schools teach aspiring reporters and lawyers that everything is relative and that truth is whatever advances the progressive agenda. 
 
This is why the Trump mantra of fake news stings so many media mavens. 
 
 
 
Who's Insane?
 
As we noted in yesterday's report, the left was pushing a narrative that President Trump's tweet about the nuclear button was evidence of his mental instability.  Incredibly, reporters asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if the American people needed to be worried about the president's mental state.  Her response was excellent:
 
"I think the people of this country should be concerned about the mental fitness of the leader of North Korea.  He's made repeated threats. He's tested missiles time and time again for years, and this is a president who is not going cower down and is not going to be weak and is going to make sure he does what he's promised to do, and that's stand up and protect the American people." 
 
Sadly, after eight years of Obama, it is now considered "insane" if a president responds to a nuclear threat.
 
Let me ask you a simple question:  Which would you describe as insane? 
 
An American president telling an enemy threatening us with nukes that we will destroy him? 
 
Or an American president who sends billions of dollars in cash to the Islamic Republic of Iran believing the mullahs will use the money to help their people and, thus, peace will breakout in the Middle East?  Keep in mind, Obama did this while torpedoing an investigation of Hezbollah, allowing these terrorists to pour cocaine into American cities. 
 
Now that is insanity!  You have to completely ignore history, your own Pentagon briefings and the nature of Shiite Islamic supremacy to think the ayatollah can be reasoned with.
 
Was there one reporter -- or even one Republican leader -- who in the past few years ever dared to ask if Obama was insane?
 
Folks, this is just another version of what the left says about conservatives all the time.  They did it to Barry Goldwater in 1964.  They did it to Ronald Reagan, who was derided as an "amiable dunce."  Today, conservatives are "bigots," "science deniers," "deplorable and irredeemable."
 
 
 
Good News
 
This vicious attack, seeking to divide the conservative movement, is coming now because the left is trying to distract and demoralize you.  It does not want the American people to realize that good things are happening.  For example:
 

  • An ADP/Moody's Analytics report shows that 250,000 new jobs were created in December.  In contrast, NPR reported that job growth under Obama "averaged 109,000 jobs per month." 

 

  • Based largely on that stellar report, the stock market shot up to a new record high, crossing 25,000 for the first time.

 

 

  • Dozens of companies are giving out bonuses and expanding pay and benefits as a result of Trump's tax reform plan, which every progressive politician in Congress opposed.     

 
By the way, do you remember the left's slogan "Fight For $15" about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour?  Many of these companies are doing that on their own now that government is getting out of the way. 
 
Here's a good way to drive your liberal friends nuts:  Tell them that it was Donald Trump and the free market, not Barack Obama and big government, that delivered bigger paychecks for these workers!