President Trump’s First Press Conference Was Epic
According to post-election poll conducted by Suffolk University and USA Today, the top four things voters wanted President Donald Trump to do after he was sworn in were: create and preserve jobs, fight terrorism and ISIS, build a wall and deport illegal immigrants, and change Washington.
When the pundits and talking heads assess President Trump’s first 100 days they are likely to concentrate on how he did on the first three and completely ignore #4, which actually ranked above “build the wall” in the poll (17 percent vs. 15 percent).
However, in ways large and small, President Trump is slowly, inch by inch, changing Washington, and one of the most profound changes is the relationship between the establishment media and the American people.
That change was on full display yesterday at the President’s press conference, and it was epic.
Said the president:
Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system. The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.
One of the best parts of the news conference was when President Trump said he wanted to take his message “straight to the people,” and then did so as the opposition party on the cable news programs ran his entire hour and 17-minute press conference live:
I’m making this presentation directly to the American people, with the media present, which is an honor to have you. This morning, because many of our nation’s reporters and folks will not tell you the truth, and will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve. And I hope going forward we can be a little bit—a little bit different, and maybe get along a little bit better, if that’s possible. Maybe it’s not, and that’s OK, too.
What could be better than getting your enemies in the media to provide you with a live broadcast documenting your beatdown of them?
Another one of our favorite parts of the presser was toward the start of the president’s introductory remarks when he said, “I’m here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration. We have made incredible progress. I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done.”
This is classic Donald Trump, and it drives the media nuts.
All of the dorks at CNN, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc. grabbed their slide rules and their encyclopedia and immediately began to try to figure out if that was true.
Was there any other president elected who, in this short of a time has done what Donald Trump has done?
Real America to wedgie-deserving reporters: No one cares if President Chester Arthur or Grover Cleveland signed more executive orders in his first month in office than has President Trump.
What folks out in flyover country want to know is, is President Trump doing what he said he would? The answer to that is yes, as the president explained in great detail what he has done in his first month in office.
But the best part of the show was his exchange with CNN’s Jim Acosta.
Acosta, as is typical, started with an editorial comment criticizing the president for in essence being a hypocrite on leaks:
“If I may ask you, sir, it sounds as though you do not have much credibility here when it comes to leaking if that is something that you encouraged during the campaign.”
President Trump’s response, over the course of a lengthy exchange, included telling Acosta his ratings were no good, that other reporters with better ratings were waiting, telling him to ask his boss Jeff Zucker how he got his job, to trash Hillary Clinton and John Podesta … and to give a coherent and understandable explanation of the difference between the WikiLeaks exposure of the Podesta and DNC emails and the illegal disclosure and publication of U.S. government classified information.
But President Trump saved the best for last:
I won with news conferences and probably speeches. I certainly didn’t win by people listening to you people. That’s for sure. But I’m having a good time.
Tomorrow, they will say, “Donald Trump rants and raves at the press.” I’m not ranting and raving. I’m just telling you. You know, you’re dishonest people. But—but I’m not ranting and raving. I love this. I’m having a good time doing it.
Why does President Trump’s adversarial relationship with the establishment media seem to help him sell himself and his agenda?
Rush Limbaugh summed it up better than we can on his show not long after the President closed his news conference:
This was one of the most effective press conferences I have ever seen. The press is going to hate him even more after this. Don’t misunderstand. When I say effective, I’m talking about rallying people who voted for him to stay with him … he was reassuring the people he’s on top of everything. Nothing has changed. Everything he campaigned on, he is doing. All he is doing is fulfilling campaign promises. And of course, the Democrats don’t like him. Of course, the media don’t like him. It isn’t going to stop him.
It isn’t going to stop him. That’s why Real America, despite the attacks of the media elite, is sticking with President Trump. {eoa}
This article was originally published at ConservativeHQ.com. Used with permission.