Why is the press so easy on Trump?

Over the past 4 years, I’ve consistently argued that the press has gone easy on Trump. The criticism for his botched handling of the Puerto Rico hurricane was mild compared to the criticism Bush received for his handling of Katrina. (Perhaps neither president should be blamed, but there is a clear double standard.)

Trump outrages that would cause a normal president to be hammered by the press for months are barely even mentioned by the US news media. How much attention was paid to Trump’s praise of war criminals? Or his encouraging Xi to put Muslims into concentration camps? Or his claim that we should have stolen Iraq’s oil? Almost none. Why does he consistently get off almost scot-free?

Now the media seems to be acknowledging its shameful double standard:

He is held, by necessity, to a more forgiving standard than any modern president. But however low the bar is set, Trump continues to trip over it.

Here is the question by Guthrie that gave Trump the most difficulty:

“Let me ask you about QAnon. It is this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior, of that. Now can you just, once and for all, state that that is completely not true?”

Answering this query should have been extremely simple. Trump couldn’t do it.

Imagine if Biden had been asked the same question. He would have had little difficulty saying, ‘No, the Democratic party is not the cover for a satanic sex ring.’ The reason reporters don’t pose this question to Biden is not because it would be too difficult for him to answer, but because it would be too easy.

Another example:

Guthrie asked Trump why he tweeted “a conspiracy theory that Joe Biden orchestrated to have SEAL Team Six, the Navy SEAL Team Six, killed to cover up the fake death of bin Laden.” If Biden had tweeted out a claim that Trump had killed somebody, and that person was in fact alive, he would probably be asked about it — a lot. Indeed, if Biden had tweeted a ludicrous murder accusation, it would represent a crisis for his campaign so dire that the press would likely talk about little else. His allies would be pressed to denounce him, and Democrats would be discussing ways to force him off the ticket. For Trump, it was just another item on the list of questions.

It’s not the first time Trump has made a baseless murder accusation.

PS. I like Matt Yglesias’ take on the Hunter Biden scandal:

One corrupt son is better than two.

PPS. This headline caught my eye:

Ardern Storms to Historic Election Victory After Crushing Covid

Wait . . . you mean voters like it when you prevent thousands of deaths?

Maybe that’s why Merkel is so popular.


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14 Responses to “Why is the press so easy on Trump?”

  1. Gravatar of Skeptical Skeptical
    17. October 2020 at 12:06

    A gaffe for a normal politician is when they accidentally say something they believe is true (basket of deplorables, half don’t pay taxes, etc).

    Making an epistemological model for Trump is a fool’s errand, the correct thing to do when he says/Tweets things is mark it at zero value and move on. He’ll be gone in a few months, nothing will change, and we’ll be in the exact same position.

    Wait . . . you mean voters like it when you prevent thousands of deaths?

    The data do not seem to bear this out at all.

    Cuomo polled at an all time high while deaths soared.
    As did Raimondo of Rhode Island.
    And Baker of Mass.
    And Murphy of NJ.

    In fact there’s a positive relationship for being ‘worst 5 states in the Union’ and having massive polling spikes for the governors.

    A better model would be “massive increase in deaths allow the opportunity to appear ‘serious and in charge'”.

  2. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    17. October 2020 at 17:18

    I think Scott Sumner flatly flubbed on this one.

    The censoring and distortion of the Hunter Biden-laptop story raises serious questions about large internet platforms, having become modern-day town squares, deciding who is allowed to stand on a soap box.

    Facebook, Twitter, Youtube as statist, Democratic-Party operatives? A good case be made.

    The media has been pretty rough on Trump, and he deserves it. Good.

    But the media has been protecting Biden ever since he won the Donk nomination. The serial plagiarist, abider-of-racists who gropes office girls (the pre-nomination story line), and looks like he belongs on Gilligan’s Island, was transformed into a sincere statesman.

    I recommend readers follow the deeply experienced and smart Matt Taibbi, a terrific apolitical reporter. Taibbi should be on the cover of the NYT, but the NYT has decided being woke is more important than being truthful. WaPo too. They have become coprolitic.

    BTW, visit the Penn Biden Center.

    According to the Penn Biden crowd, Russia is a serious threat to global freedom, stability and democracy.

    China…a nation that does not exist, evidently.

    Look for “Beijing Joe” Biden to drop tariffs on China.

    I can tell you, that from Free Taiwan to Japan, to India, to Free Korea, to Australia, to Vietnam to the Philippines to Thailand, people are much more concerned with the CCP than with Putin.

    Justifiably so.

    https://global.upenn.edu/penn-biden-center

  3. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    17. October 2020 at 18:51

    Ben, You said:

    “I can tell you, that from Free Taiwan to Japan, to India, to Free Korea, to Australia, to Vietnam to the Philippines to Thailand, people are much more concerned with the CCP than with Putin.”

    LOL. You forgot to mention Ukraine, the only country recently invaded by either Russia or China.

    Your Biden derangement Syndrome is a bit embarrassing. At least Trump an extreme case; to be so hysterical about a boring normal pol like Biden is kind of creepy.

  4. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    17. October 2020 at 18:53

    Skeptical, You said:

    “A better model would be “massive increase in deaths allow the opportunity to appear ‘serious and in charge’”.”

    Good point, which makes me wonder why Trump tried so hard not to seem serious and in charge on Covid. I still don’t understand what his secret plan was. Maybe if he wins again it will all be revealed. But I’m stumped.

  5. Gravatar of xu xu
    17. October 2020 at 20:58

    The reason you are stumped, and it happens a lot, is because you are not very bright. This is obvious, when one considers that you’ve managed one book in the last 70 years of your life, while Thomas Sowell has written 50.

    People who own businesses are allowed to sell their products and services, whenever they want (assuming there is a buyer for said product or service). That is not corruption.

    On the other hand, when you sit on the board of a foreign company so that you can enrich your daddy, that is the definition of corruption. The two are not related at all. Although, considering your low intelligence: I can see why that might be difficult for you to understand.

    I do hope, although I fear for many Americans, that you actually get your wish: because #1. America is NOT my country. #2. It will be hilarious when your home is invaded by government officials, and your assets and cash are distributed under the communist democratic party. Then you will finally have an appreciation for capitalism, and for people like Jimmy Lai who spent their lives trying to stop the CCP, while dummies like you embraced it. YOU are the reason that the Uighurs are suffering. YOU are the reason half the United States workers cannot get jobs. YOU, and your failed economic ideas are the reason why YOUR country is failing.

  6. Gravatar of janice janice
    17. October 2020 at 21:32

    “Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world.” – Thomas Sowell

  7. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    17. October 2020 at 22:47

    Scott Sumner:

    “Censoring the Biden story: How social media becomes state media”

    From The Hill, which on occasion publishes a certain economist too.

    https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/521517-censoring-the-biden-story-how-social-media-becomes-state-media

    AS for Biden, I have few if any emotions toward him. He seems rather anodyne, no? As I say, he belongs on Gilligan’s Island. I never generated a lot of heat towards, say, the professor or Thurston Howell III.

    It may be the people of Ukraine are alarmed about Russia. I do not live in that part of the world, and talk to no one there, and read little media about it.

    My profession beings me into frequent contact with business people in the Asian Pacific and India. For every comment made about Putin, there must 100 made about the CCP or Xi, in this part of the world.

    Interesting thought: Russia gave up its empire, perhaps not by choice, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

    China, ascendant, is now building its empire.

    Yes, I think Joe Biden is in bed with the China-ascendant lobby. Ergo, “Beijing Joe” Biden.

    I think my view is a sensible deduction of Biden’s track record and his views on “global engagement.”

    Not that it means much, but as a person Trump is probably less likable than Biden. But remember, you are exposed to media caricatures.

  8. Gravatar of Cartesian Theatrics Cartesian Theatrics
    17. October 2020 at 23:14

    It’s definitely remarkable how quickly a totally new status quo of politics becomes normalized.

    My guess is the “easiness” is mostly culture over politics. Media demonize Trump only in so far as it gives them leverage in the culture war. Things that apply uniquely to Trump don’t let you tell larger stories who the bad people are.

  9. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    18. October 2020 at 04:14

    Add on:

    I am not much of a globalist, preferring that nations stick to their knitting, and run foreign trade-military policies that benefit domestic populations, which is to say militarily non-interventionist and sometimes managing trade flows (see Dani Rodrik).

    But taking the global view, China has an economy now about 15% larger than that of US, and six times the size of Russia’s.

    China has a population that is nearly 10 times that of Russia’s.

    Okay, by any measure, China dwarfs Russia, and is pulling away.

    Xi=Putin? Maybe in character, but Xi has the institution of the 90-million-member CCP backing him up, engaging in repression, suppression and oppression. They are strengthening their grip on China daily.

    Oh. Given those numbers, you want to keep your eye on Beijing or Moscow?

    The Biden camp screams, “Russia! Russia! Russia!”

    Why?

  10. Gravatar of Michael Rulle Michael Rulle
    18. October 2020 at 07:39

    You do have a bit of a comic sadistic streak. It is noticeably absent you did not say the Biden gets even better press treatment. So when someone says something like “how can you say Trump gets better press coverage” you can tell them they cannot read.

    You have become too transparent. You are just a troll. Yes, you hate Trump—-but you likely hate Biden—-you certainly don’t like Biden.

    Yet, look at me. I still respond. Maybe because I like to point out your tricks.

  11. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    18. October 2020 at 09:05

    XU, LOL, yes, I’m a commie sympathizer.

    Ben, You said:

    “Okay, by any measure, China dwarfs Russia,”

    Sure, if you exclude the one thing that matters when considering great power competition—military power. Russia dwarfs China in nuclear weapons. They are an aggressive power that invades neighboring countries. But none of that matters to you.

    Michael, No, I don’t hate Biden. I strongly disagree with many of his policies.

  12. Gravatar of Skeptical Skeptical
    18. October 2020 at 12:01

    @ssumner

    Good point, which makes me wonder why Trump tried so hard not to seem serious and in charge on Covid. I still don’t understand what his secret plan was. Maybe if he wins again it will all be revealed. But I’m stumped.

    He was never the brilliant 4D chess politician both sides occasionally made him out to be. He always was and will remain, thoroughly an idiot.

    I fervently stand by my stance in 2015. He’s a moron. He’s an orange Burlesconi with brain damage. He doesn’t have and never had ‘political instincts.’ He’s not an ideologue, he’s not a Nazi, he’s not a fascist, he’s not internally consistent enough to believe in anything at all.

    What he did was stumble into a vast untapped well of voters who think ‘America can’t do X anymore’. Insert whatever you want: build sufficient housing, build infrastructure, win wars, maintain high quality manufacturing industries, explore space, create class mobility for uneducated whites….

  13. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    18. October 2020 at 17:27

    Scott Sumner:

    “Sure, if you exclude the one thing that matters when considering great power competition—military power. Russia dwarfs China in nuclear weapons. They are an aggressive power that invades neighboring countries. But none of that matters to you.”–SS

    China has between 300 and 320 nuclear bombs, in a triad, reports Wiki. Plenty for any situation. Why the US and Russia have so many redundant and useless nukes is a sensible question.

    But I reject your premise that military power, especially nuclear, matters much in current context.

    Anywhere in the Asian Pacific, China is the ascendant power, while the US sails commercially sterile aircraft carriers around.

    China-CCP is the world’s number one economic power and pulling away. I see nothing that will stop that. Unfortunately, the world’s multinationals are enablers, even of the worst forms of CCP repression. Disney-NBA-BlackRock-Apple.

    No multinational has ever suggested that terms of trade include concrete steps towards less repression in mainland China.

    True, I live in the Asian Pacific and my families’ future is here. So I care about this region more than the Ukraine.

    I sense when Putin passes away, Russia will move another step towards Europeanization, but I really don’t know. Putin is a thug.

    China, rather than democratizing, has been illiberalizing for two generations now, and deploying high-tech to do so.

    In the novel-film 1984, there were occasional movie cameras behind mirrors, and human spies.

    Modern-day China has a surveillance apparatus that makes 1984 look like Gilligan’s Island.

    Why does the Penn Biden Center Diplomacy and Global Engagement go mute on China? Why does Joe Biden go mute on China?

    We will have to watch “Beijing Joe” Biden in action. I think he will win the race.

  14. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    19. October 2020 at 12:32

    Ben, I agree that China’s 5 years ahead of the US in the mad race to put cameras everywhere and create a 1984 society.

    You said:

    “But I reject your premise that military power, especially nuclear, matters much in current context.”

    Bait and switch. We’re told that we need to fear Chinese power, and then we’re told military power doesn’t matter. Are they going to destroy America with exports of Nike shoes?

    If military power doesn’t matter, why should Taiwan fear China?

    You said:

    “Why does Joe Biden go mute on China?”

    Why do you keep repeating false information from far right wing internet sites? Do trust this info? If not, stop parroting it.

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