As a Republican, when you’ve lost the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, you’ve lost a pillar of your base support. Yet the rabidly conservative, over-the-top reactionary and reflexively pro-Trump WSJ Editorial page has apparently had enough of Trump’s nonsensical campaign rallies masquerading as “daily press briefings,” and the sycophantic swill that comes with them.
Titled “Trump’s Wasted Briefings,” the paper’s lead editorial states, in somewhat more genteel terms, what the majority of Americans have already known for some time: Donald Trump’s captive clown show does next to nothing in terms of informing Americans, mostly because the buffoon who leads them can’t stop trying to make himself the story, with little if any regard for the actual concerns of the American people.
There are the usual, no doubt mandatory allusions in the editorial to the conspiracy-addled fever dreams that perpetuate the right, but there is also a fair degree of disgust, probably reflecting the fact that Trump’s tactics seem to be falling flat from a polling standpoint.
A friend of ours who voted for President Trump sent us a note recently saying that she had stopped watching the daily White House briefings of the coronavirus task force. Why? Because they have become less about defeating the virus and more about the many feuds of Donald J. Trump.
This begs the question: Who could this “friend” of the Wall Street Journal be? Peggy Noonan? Rebekah Mercer? Certainly it would have to be someone with a significant financial stake in the future of conservatism. Sounds a little like a coded message to me, but … whatever. At least they cut to the chase.
The public doesn’t care who among the governors likes Mr. Trump, or whether the Obama Administration filled the national pandemic stockpile. There will be time for recriminations. What the public wants to know now is what Mr. Trump and his government is doing to prevent the deaths of their loved ones or help the family breadwinner stay employed.
A friendly hint to the Wall Street Journal: No one with more than two working brain cells is going to blame Barack Obama for this catastrophe. But please proceed, WSJ, you do have my interest (for once).
The President’s outbursts against his political critics are notably off key at this moment. This isn’t impeachment, and Covid-19 isn’t shifty Schiff. It’s a once-a-century threat to American life and livelihood.
Note that emphasis on the “livelihood.” How many people are reading the Wall Street Journal these days? Not too many, I’d suspect. Not unless you’re a glutton for punishment. The financial news, which is the reason most people read the rag to begin with, is beyond horrible, and it’s going to get worse.
As summarized by Yahoo News (for those not interested in circumventing the Journal’s paywall):
“If Mr. Trump thinks these daily sessions will help him defeat Joe Biden, he’s wrong,” the board wrote, suggesting Trump’s 2020 campaign against the de facto Democratic nominee Biden is “about one issue: how well the public thinks the President has done in defeating the virus and restarting the economy.”
There are a lot more “issues” than that, but yes, those probably will do for the Journal’s intended audience.
So it’s kind of funny that the administration is coming down so hard on CNN for cutting away from his propaganda circus. The Wall Street Journal suggests outright that he should simply step aside and cheer once in a while from a safe distance, while Mike Pence or (gasp!) even someone qualified takes the helm.
The board concluded with some advice for Trump, who they suggested should largely step aside from the briefings, allow Vice President Mike Pence to take control and only appear occasionally to reinforce the message.
That’s gotta hurt.