Media Pushes Unverified Gossip To Hide Trump’s Amazing Economic And Foreign Policy AchievementsBy Andy Puzder

https://thefederalist.com/2020/09/15/media-pushes-unverified-gossip-to-hide-trumps-amazing-economic-and-foreign-policy-achievements/

With the most dynamic economic comeback in U.S. history and unprecedented progress towards peace in the Middle East, what did the media establishment choose to cover?

The Democrat-media complex has a new mission: to distract our attention from President Trump’s incredible—and I mean incredible—progress on both economic and foreign policy.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently announced another historic month of job growth as the economy added 1.4 million jobs in August. It was the fourth-best month of job growth on record dating back to 1939 (and likely ever), beaten out only by the preceding three months.

As a result, the country’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 percent from its post-pandemic high of 14.7 percent. Recall that in April the Congressional Budget Office forecast a 16 percent unemployment rate for the third quarter.

By historical measures — by any measure, really — this is a remarkable resurgence. Based on recent data, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow forecasting model increased its prediction for third-quarter GDP growth to 30.8 percent. That would be the highest number on record dating back to 1947 (and, again, likely ever).

Of course, this is all on top of news about the Trump administration’s historic steps towards peace in the Middle East. First, it was the United Arab Emirates and Israel making peace. Then Serbia and Kosovo agreed to normalize economic relations with Kosovo (a mostly Muslim nation) recognizing Israel and Serbia moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Then Bahrain and Israel agreed to normalize relations. Despite protestations from the Palestinians, the Arab League refused to condemn the Israel/UAE deal. Saudi Arabia agreed to let Israeli commercial aircraft fly over its territory.

As a result, the president received two nominations for a Nobel Peace Award. Seriously, if Obama or Clinton were president, the calls for a Nobel would be deafening.

So, with the most dynamic economic comeback in U.S. history and unprecedented progress towards peace in the Middle East, what did the liberal media establishment choose to cover?

Just hours before the release of the official BLS report on Friday morning, The Atlantic ran a story based on “anonymous sources” alleging that President Trump disparaged fallen U.S. soldiers during a 2018 trip to France. The claim was absurd. Officials and staffers who were with the president on that journey and actually willing to identify themselves emphatically challenged the story. Even well-known Trump antagonist John Bolton debunked The Atlantic’s ridiculous account—and ridiculous is a kind way to describe it.

Realizing that casting doubt on the president’s patriotism was a losing battle, on Sunday the corporate press moved on to another smear campaign —just in time to hijack the Labor Day news coverage. In a lengthy essay, The New York Times blasted President Trump for allegedly being inconsistent in his approach toward China while building up Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden as some sort of born-again anti-China hawk.

Has the Times been asleep for the last four years? It was President Trump’s national security strategy in 2017 that declared great power competition, chiefly with China, as the priority mission of American foreign policy. Since then, the administration has used every tool of national influence to grapple with Beijing over a variety of contentious issues, including China’s flagrant violation of international trade rules, economic imperialism, diplomatic bullying, and aggressive military expansionism — all in an effort to repair the damage caused by policies that Biden enthusiastically supported for decades.

The president has also loudly called out the Chinese Communist Party for its mishandling and catastrophic cover-up of the novel coronavirus, insisting that the regime be held accountable for the death and economic devastation it unleashed upon the world

The American public knows that Trump has been tougher on China than any of his predecessors — even if the New York Times somehow missed it. Maybe they also missed the intelligence service report that China is working to elect its friend Joe Biden and to defeat President Trump.

Most recently, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward is trying to spin the president’s words to make it sound like he misled the American people about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic. No less than Dr. Anthony Fauci, a widely respected and fastidiously apolitical public health expert and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, quickly debunked Woodward’s concocted narrative.

Not only did Fauci flatly deny the accuracy of quotes Woodward attributed to him, he also insisted that President Trump never distorted any of the information coming from government scientists, declaring that Trump was “always straightforward about the concerns that we had.”

As for President Trump trying to prevent a panic, of course he was trying to prevent a panic. It wasn’t even a secret. On March 30, responding to a question from a CNN reporter on national television, the president said, “The statements I made are: I want to keep the country calm. I don’t want to panic in the country.”

Imagine, the temerity of a president trying to prevent a panic while accurately informing the public of the dangers the virus posed. That actually sounds a lot like leadership, something a Franklin Roosevelt or a Winston Churchill might have done. Are we to believe that Woodward and his ilk would have preferred that the president induce panic?

Clearly, these hit pieces were never intended to be rational or believable — and they weren’t. Rather, they were carefully crafted and timed to draw attention away from the most remarkable economic comeback in American history and unprecedented progress towards peace in the Middle East.

As we edge closer to November, expect more of these disingenuous efforts. Keep in mind that if a suspicious, eyebrow-raising narrative seems to be dominating the news cycle, it might not be the most important news of the day. In fact, it is likely another example of “fake news”—which really isn’t news at all.

Andrew F. Puzder is author of “The Capitalist Comeback,” the former CEO of CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc., on the advisory board for the Trump campaign, and a senior fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.

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