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Trump Approval Rises as 'Resistance' Narrative Starts to Unravel

Deroy Murdock

By Deroy Murdock

Published May 11,2018

Trump Approval Rises as 'Resistance' Narrative Starts to Unravel

What will Democrats do once their entire “Resistance” narrative collapses around them, like a termite-ridden dormitory?

Democrats have “resisted” Donald J. Trump at nearly every turn. Why? Trump, they argue, is an economically illiterate bully controlled by Moscow. But what if President Trump emerges as an economically adroit statesman, untethered to the Kremlin?

House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi of California dismissed the Trump/GOP tax cuts as “crumbs” and “unpatriotic.” They also would be “Armageddon,” Pelosi predicted, versus the Edenic 1.5 percent annual GDP growth, 4.7 percent unemployment, and 43 million people on Food Stamps, during Obama’s final year.

Trump’s economy is stunning. Free-trade turbulence aside, Trump’s tax cuts, regulatory relief, and pro-business tone are working. GDP advanced 2.3 percent in 2017. Unemployment hit 3.9 percent last month, the lowest since 2000. And February found just 40 million on Food Stamps.

“The U.S. now has a record 6.6 million job openings,” cheered a headline in Tuesday’s Washington Post. “The United States now has a job opening for every unemployed person in the country,” the Post’s Heather Long wrote.

“Trump the Bully” is how Politico’s Jack Shafer painted the president, just one week into office. But “the bully” is achieving the unachievable overseas.

President Trump kept his campaign promise and withdrew from the Iran-nuclear “deal” and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran. He also encouraged America’s allies in London, Paris, and Berlin to keep pursuing a new, non-laughable agreement with Iran. The abandoned pact borders on slapstick: Iran’s military bases are off limits to inspectors, and Obama literally never required the ayatollahs to sign this “political commitment.”

On the Korean peninsula, Trump’s high-volume bluster about subjecting “Little Rocket Man” to “fire and fury” spooked some manners into the young dictator. Kim Jong-un’s recent meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, his release Wednesday of three American hostages, and his pending summit with Trump all reflect a Jacuzzi-like relaxation of tensions that, just months ago, approached thermonuclear temperatures. The Korean War suddenly seems nearly over, after an ice-cold, 65-year cease-fire.

Regarding “Trump the Bully,” President Moon said in January, ”I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks.” Moon declared April 30: “President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have spent the last 17 months on the Russian front. The FBI probe, launched by the disgraced and demoted Peter Strzok, and Team Mueller’s 51-week-old investigation have distracted Americans from the booming economy and the burgeoning global order. More important, despite their raging anti-Trump animus, the FBI and Mueller have presented zero evidence that Trump or his campaign colluded with the Kremlin to beat Hillary Clinton. Democrats’ “Russia! Russia! Russia!” allegations are, to date, a total bust.


Beyond that, the Democrat/Obama legacy and the Trump/GOP record on Russia differ like a waiter and a bouncer.

Obama’s “Russian Reset” included cancelling missile-defense deliveries that President G.W. Bush arranged for Poland and the Czech Republic, approving the Uranium One deal (which gave the Kremlin control of 20 percent of U.S. uranium supplies), and boosting Moscow’s influence in Syria after Bashar al-Assad deployed chemical weapons against his own people, thus trampling Obama’s vaunted “red line.”

Trump’s toughness on Russia detonates the notion that he is a pro-Kremlin stooge. Trump has tightened sanctions on Moscow, shipped offensive weapons to the Ukraine, and fatally bombed some 200 Russian mercenaries cavorting in Syria.

All of this transpires as Trump’s approval rating rose to 48 percent in May 4’s Reuters/Ipsos poll, matching Rasmussen’s May 10 daily tracking survey. “On the generic congressional ballot,” Reuters concluded, “our current poll shows a +5-point advantage for Democrats, the smallest lead we’ve seen in recent weeks.”

This abundant good news should buffet Democrats and buoy Republicans. Lugubrious Republicans, especially on Capitol Hill, should ditch their inexplicable and potentially self-fulfilling defeatism. As this article confirms, the GOP has a heartwarming story to tell. So, Republicans, go tell it on the mountain!


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