President Trump's Ace in the Hole

No matter how many statements President Trump makes that are instantly shown to be untrue, no matter how much needless turmoil he causes with his tweets, no matter how gratuitously combative he is with his opponents, the man has an ace in the hole, a card slipped to him by the unlikeliest of allies: hard-core progressives who detest everything about him.

Go figure!

Even if they don't have a clue, the unhinged wing of the progressive movement is always there to help the man they can't stand - because they always seem to overplay their hand.

The hard left can't go 10 minutes without calling for President Trump's impeachment. On what grounds you wonder? Who knows? Bashing the media, even when he's wrong, isn't a high crime or misdemeanor — a point of absolutely no significance to his most ardent detractors.

So who looks goofier, our thin-skinned president who gets things wrong, a lot ... or the people who want him thrown out of office simply because they want him thrown out of office?

And here's a message for those progressives around the country who staged "He's Not My President's Day" rallies ... on - what else? — President's Day: Get over it. He won. You're not winning any friends in Middle America - even in blue states — when you show that kind of disrespect.

Or how about that pinata party at the University of Chicago. The one where grownups stood around laughing while their little kids repeatedly hit a pinata effigy of Donald Trump. The kids just wanted the candy. The grownups wanted blood. They cheered when the Trump lookalike was beheaded and was left hanging from a tree. And when the body hit the dirt, they shouted, "Tear him apart."

There's a nice lesson in civility and respect to show your children.

Let's imagine the unimaginable: that a bunch of right-wing yahoos encouraged children to rip into a pinata that looked like President Obama. Imagine if they cheered when his effigy was decapitated and yelled, "Tear him apart." We all know how decent people would respond to that. We also know how liberals in the media would respond. They would put the story on page one and probably lead the evening news with it on TV.

Unsurprisingly, the Trump pinata party got precious little mainstream coverage.

And now we have Congresswoman Maxine Waters who goes on TV to call the Trump cabinet, "Scumbags." I once wrote a book called 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America and Ms. Waters made the list. I said she had all the refinement of a pit bull in a bad mood. I now have second thoughts. Too bad for the congresswoman they're exactly the same as my first thoughts.

And then we have those GOP town hall meetings that progressives are disrupting - on national television. They may make the Trump haters feel good, but I suspect no one else thinks shouting down speakers you don't agree with is something we need more of in America.

And let's not forget that old reliable standby: "Trump is Hitler" signs at progressive rallies protesting whatever he did they don't like.

For at least four years the hard left will continue to call Donald Trump all sorts of names that pretty much come down to — he’s an incompetent jerk who has no business being president. And let's not pretend he won't give them the gun and ammunition they'll use to fire shots at him. If they can't help themselves, neither can he.

But if Mr. Trump is smart he'll thank his most passionate detractors — because they're doing him a favor by showing how sanctimoniously unhinged they can be. Unhinged doesn't play well with mainstream Americans, even with the ones who aren't big fans of the president.

Donald Trump may not realize how helpful those hard-left progressives are to him. And they certainly don't understand how helpful they are to him.

Before this plays out, the lefties who hate Donald Trump may save him - from himself.

JWR contributor Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of several bestselling books, among them, Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. Mr. Goldberg covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 10 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He now reports for the widely acclaimed HBO broadcast Real Sports.

He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and proprietor of BernardGoldberg.com.