Mainstream media talking heads are openly rooting for President Donald Trump and his high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to fail because their “conversation is not at all about policy” and is “completely devoid of being based in reality,” radio talk-show host Tammy Bruce said Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“This shows you that … this conversation is not at all about policy or that they have a better idea and they want their ideas to succeed. It now is completely devoid of being based in reality,” said Bruce, a Fox News contributor. “They simply want [Trump] to be hurt. They want the nation now to be hurt because it is now pathological. It’s — it’s a personal loathing.”
Bruce continued, noting that the way such media figures “might explain it to themselves, is that [Trump] is bad for the country, but of course, now that’s been proven to be incorrect, hasn’t it? So now that gets added in to their anger. That he’s actually been successful.”
Trump will become the first U.S. president to meet with North Korea’s leader since the communist nation was formed in 1948. The two leaders will discuss U.S. demands for denuclearization and Kim’s desire for certain security assurances during the historic summit in Singapore.
But the media can’t seem to handle the idea of a successful summit simply because Trump is the president, especially after the nation witnessed “the success of the president economically,” Bruce said. Noting that the Singapore summit’s outcome could change “the nature of how the world operates,” Bruce admonished members of the media who’d like nothing more than to see Trump fail in this venture.
“Now look, you can be a little skeptical, of course, because of the history, and you can have the conversations,” Bruce conceded. “But what you heard — and what you hear especially in this news coverage — is a kind of cheering for and wanting for their audiences to believe and to be as cynical as they are when it comes to the intentions of the president.”
Thus, it’s “a shame” that mainstream media members “can’t enjoy this possibility” of a successful Trump-Kim summit “as the rest of America is,” Bruce lamented.
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle fretted Monday on “MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle” that a successful summit could “end up being a strong talking point for President Trump.” She also complained that the entire summit was just a “brilliant PR stunt that doesn’t get us anywhere.”
“What a turn of events seeking peace with enemies, picking fights with friends,” ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos said Sunday on “This Week,” referring to both the summit and Trump’s war of words over the weekend with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following the Group of Seven (G-7) meeting.
“The president set the bar lower to start,” a voiceover read on NBC News’ “Sunday Today.”
Related: Trump Optimistic as Kim Summit at Hand
“Everybody’s skepticism is warranted,” CNN’s John King said Sunday on “Inside Politics.” “Canada, our best friend next door, gets the cold shoulder while the President jets off to sit down with no preconditions with Kim…The happiest people in the world today are [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.”
Trump’s success — whether with North Korea or with the booming U.S. economy — is so anathema to the mainstream media that even HBO talk-show host Bill Maher said Friday on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point. And by the way, I’m hoping for it. I think one (way) you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy.”
“So please, bring on the recession,” Maher added. “Sorry if that hurts people, but it’s either root for a recession or you lose your democracy.”
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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