Media Coverage Of Trump's Presidency Is Negative Because Trump Is a Terrible President

A week ago, a Harvard study revealed that as much as 80% of all coverage of Donald Trump's presidency has been negative. Some conservative outlets jumped on this as evidence of bias against Donald Trump. But after the week he's had, it's increasingly clear that the problem isn't biased coverage, but the abject failure of the man being covered.

We've covered the fact that his policies on the Global Gag Rule, oil pipelines versus refugees, and response to a changing economy are severely lacking, but much of that is tied to our own values here at WITWT. So let's take a look at four "victories" that Donald Trump claimed for himself and see how he's doing.

After claiming he'd saved a thousand jobs manufacturer Carrier before even assuming the presidency, it's now been revealed that further layoffs will occur, and only 770 workers will remain, with 632 employees out of a job. Trump said himself in November that 1,100 was a "minimum" number of jobs retained, thanks to his policy, so he's clocking in at 70% of what was promised (a generous C- for those keeping track at home).

Once inaugurated, he named Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. That accomplishment is owed more to the work of Mitch McConnell in blocking Barack Obama's nominee from receiving a hearing, but still, we'll give that to him. He got a young conservative in the mold of Antonin Scalia into Scalia's seat, so kudos to him for that. But because Supreme Court justices serve for life and are able to exercise a great deal of independence, it's hard to declare just how much of a victory that is at the moment. Keep in mind, it was George W. Bush's pick for Chief Justice, John Roberts, who was the deciding vote to keep Obamacare alive. And just this week, "reliable" conservative Clarence Thomas joined the bench's liberals to strike down racist Republican redistricting efforts in North Carolina. Gorsuch is a big deal for Republicans, and especially for conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation who backed him. But his impact on the Court will take some time to be written. More importantly, Trump's platform on Constitutional law is... well, lacking, especially compared to his predecessor, so it's hard to say what exactly this victory even means to him.

Now, for the one Trump celebrated bigly. With a Rose Garden ceremony. (In the interest of fairness, I've even linked to the article that mentions the fact that some women were present.) That's right, we've got passage of the AHCA. Sort of. At the time, it was noted by New York Magazine (and, I assume, other news organizations) that it was bizarre to celebrate a bill passing one house of Congress when that's only the beginning of a long process. And that process has only gotten more bizarre. As of a week ago, the House hadn't even sent the bill over to the Senate for consideration, a fact that caught even some members of the Republican leadership off-guard. Regardless, the Senate GOP was already planning to write its own legislation from scratch because they knew that the House bill was a stinking pile of garbage, an assessment confirmed by today's CBO score. The CBO score was so bad, in fact, that Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows was brought to tears by reporters pointing out gaps in the AHCA's coverage based on the CBO estimate.

These are the victories Trump has celebrated. We're four months (1/12th of the way, barring impeachment or resignation) into Donald Trump's term as president, and two of his biggest celebrations have shown themselves to be hollow at best, and job/health-killers at worst.

But I told you I'd give you four Trump victories, so here's one more. In light of his disastrous record on foreign policy (unless you believe in celebrating autocratic dictators), let's talk about one of his victories: that he wasn't protested in one foreign country. That's pretty great, right? In which country did Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross celebrate his not being protested?

Saudi Arabia. And, Mr. Secretary, do you have any idea why that is?

Considering your boss doesn't know where Israel is located, perhaps we're getting a picture of why your team has so few real victories to tout.

#DonaldTrump #AHCA #Carrier #NeilGorsuch #WilburRoss #SaudiArabia #Israel