During President Trump’s first month in office, the media went to DEFCON level five and they went there fast. Again and again and again, journalists portrayed Trump as unstable, as a madman, as an unhinged leader of the free world. But they must have forgotten that he was troller-in-chief.
Trump deliberately fed the media a caricature of extremism, working journalists into a fever pitch. Then the president stepped aside during his first congressional address. It was boring and calculated and brilliant. In short, Trump was presidential and it left the media gasping.
On que Tuesday night, the celebrity president assumed the role of a ho-hum executive. He talked jobs, security, and immigration without breaking news. And according to plan, the media looked like an industry of fools.
Suddenly starved of hot-take oxygen, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow couldn’t help being complimentary. “This will be a very well-received speech for Donald Trump,” the liberal said. Over at ABC, White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl remarked that Trump was “at his most presidential—[in] his most effective speech yet.”
Score one for the White House and against journalism. With reactionary and extreme headlines, the media lowered the bar for Trump. What they didn’t recognize is that with every criticism, they were lowering the bar.
None of this is new, though. President Obama ran the same play during his eight years. The Democrat welcomed attacks from the right calling him an extremist. Then after those journalists overextended, Obama would offer a restrained and reasonable message.
In basketball and politics, it’s called a pivot and tonight it left liberals scrambling.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
