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Tipsheet

Media Meltdown: President Trump's Inaugural Address 'Hitlerian,' 'Militant', And...'Anti-Semitic'

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Frankly, I thought President Donald Trump’s speech was good. He promised to work hard for the American people, promised not to let the country down, especially the millions of his supporters who have been neglected and ignored by Washington, and said he would put America first. He also said he would take on radical Islamic terrorism, unite the country, and make America great again for everybody. These aren’t controversial statements. Yet, the Left thought this literally was the inauguration of Adolf Hitler. Then again, it wasn’t just liberals bashing the president’s address.

Conservative commenter George Will described it as “dreadful.” Former Bush speechwriter David Frum, who famously coined the phrase “Axis of Evil,” said that Trump was the worst person to ever enter the White House—and that included “all slaveholders.” It was just a total meltdown for the anti-Trump wing of America.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was probably the worst, saying that he felt the address had a “Hitlerian background.” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd noted that he felt the address insulted every former living president (via Mediaite):

That was not the type of Inaugural address that was intended to bring this country together,” Todd said. He added, “There was a point there, Lester, where it felt as if he almost was insulting every living President that was sitting next to him — in very personal ways.”

His colleague Tom Brokaw added, “He was also insulting all the republican Congressmen and Senators who were on that stage. He has a majority. But he went after politicians point blank.”

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MSNBC’s Maddow was triggered by the term “America First,” adding that the address was “militant,” while ABC News’ Terry Moran said Trump’s speech had “anti-Semitic” overtones (via Fox News):

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow emotionally proclaimed Trump's "America's First" slogan has "very dark echoes in American history."

"There was an America First Committee that formed in this country, hundreds of thousands of people in this country, some of the richest businessmen in the country who were part of it, they were formed to keep us out of World War II. They were infiltrated by the Nazis, many of them are anti-Semitic, part of why they weren't alarmed by Hitler's rise in Germany," Maddow said.

Over on ABC, journalist Terry Moran echoed Maddow's comments saying Trump's speech reminded him of the 1930s.

"It carries with it overtones from the 1930s when an anti-Semitic movement saying, 'We don't want to get involved in Europe's war. It's the Jews fault in Germany!'"

The Huffington Post also described the address as unveiling a “dark vision of America.” Now, let’s be honest, if it were Rubio, Cruz, Walker, or Bush up there—these folks would have probably said the same thing. But since it’s Trump, the bias is on steroids. It’s not like this is a shock either. Trump has for months said that he was going to put America first—it’s actually the default behavior of states in the anarchic system of international relations. States do what they will to survive. Period. Trump is merely saying that he will put our national interests first when we decide on any venture with our allies across the world. There is nothing controversial about that statement. Second, we all know he’s not politically correct. If it gets the message across, he will say it, regardless of the history of whatever words he feels would best serve delivering his narrative. Of course, he wasn’t condoning or even advocating anti-Semitism in his address with the words “America First.” Grow up.

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For Americans who aren’t from the coasts, don’t inhabit the cities, and aren’t progressives, this speech was fine. This speech spoke to their concerns, especially when the president mentioned how wealth had been stripped from the middle class and redistributed throughout the world through what he feels are bad trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement. That resonated for voters in the Rust Belt who have felt this way for years. It was about injecting our national psyche with more nationalism, to be proud to be an American—to not be ashamed of patriotic acts. After being told for eight years that American exceptionalism is more or less crap, it’s refreshing to have what my colleague Justin has said often in the office: a cheerleader for America in the White House.

As for the slamming of every the political class, yeah—that’s partially what got him elected. Voters feel that the system is rigged. They feel that the political class has abandoned them and here comes a billionaire real estate magnate, not part of the club, who spoke to their concerns and promised to get Americans back to work. Better yet, protect the jobs that were being cannibalized through free trade agreements. Clinton didn’t do that. The white working class, which number in the millions, saw a protector and every time the media, the Democrats, and some Republicans tried to tear him down, his support was entrenched. Besides the feeling that Trump was on his side, there was also the competing feeling of supporting Trump because they saw how it drove the Left mad. The Left had had backed them in the New Deal era, only to disregard them for the cities, from which, on their high perch, they viewed the rest of the country with disgust and scorn. How could they support Second Amendment rights? Why do they like small government? Don’t they want to be educated, speak with learned diction, be dependent on the buffet of government programs, and fight for people to use whatever bathroom they want? No—millions of Americans don’t want that—and it showed on election night when rural American surrounded the urban areas and swallowed them whole.

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Trump is a populist, which means he will go after both parties if need be to get his point across. His tweet shaming the GOP for gutting the House Ethics Committee was proof that a) his Twitter could be used to move his agenda; and b) he has no qualms about taking on the GOP if he feels they’re in the wrong. For the die-hard Trump supporter, there’s something refreshing about that; there’s a man who going to take a baseball bat to the Capitol Dome. The Federalist’s Ben Domenech described Trump’s inaugural address as “the dark knight inauguration” (via NYT):

This was a speech for those who support him, and it immensely satisfied supporters I spoke with on the mall. It was for them a sign that Washington would not change him, that he would deliver on his promises and that he would not stop being the leader with the aura of toughness and grit that so inspires them.

The night before the inauguration, I tweeted a prediction about the speech — that Mr. Trump would echo the theme of a speech from Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Rises,” in which the character Bane promises war against the elites, and that he will return power back to where it belongs — to the people.

This is the speech Donald Trump decided to give: populist, nationalist, thrilling to his fans, disturbing to his foes — and sending the message to Washington that he intends not to bring peace, but the sword.

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In all for the Left (and some on the right), Trump’s inauguration caused a mental meltdown. Hope and change is dead. Now, that space was occupied by a post-apocalyptic vision, where proto-Nazis are in control. That’s widely inaccurate and an almost textbook definition of hysteria.

We can expect more insanity from the liberal media over the next four years.

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