Some conservatives, even Trump supporters, are unhappy about the president’s pathological tweeting. They say it’s a major distraction, getting in the way of the Trump agenda. They’re right. Well, sort of.
The tweets are indeed a massive distraction, but not for the White House. The administration has plowed ahead with its conservative agenda at full throttle. It’s the mainstream media (MSM) who can’t resist the urge to gawk, and they’re suffering big time. They have been so dead-focused on "substantive" issues like Mika, Joe, and the president body-slamming CNN, they seem to have forgotten how to report the news.
As I’ve been ranting about on my podcast, the president’s tweets appear to be helping his cause, because while the MSM is busy rubbernecking on Twitter, hanging onto his every word (or character), the administration has been quietly dismantling the Obama presidency and instituting the most conservative policies this country has seen since the Reagan era.
If the president is distracted by Twitter, why has illegal border-crossing plunged by a staggering 64 percent? Why is unemployment at its lowest level in nearly three decades? The president has taken long enough breaks from Twitter to reverse countless business-crushing measures and regulations from the Obama era. The administration managed to put down their iPhones long enough to convince the Supreme Court to unanimously allow the travel ban to stay in effect.
The EPA is on a record-setting rampage, determined to weaken its stranglehold on businesses, and allow the free market to operate unhindered. According to The New York Times, Scott Pruitt has moved to stop or delay 30 environmental regulations since taking office, the most ever in such a short period of time. Many of these are Obama-era measures designed to crush businesses, forcing them to comply with expensive emissions restrictions and other crippling regulations.
Just last week between Twitter rants, the White House announced new measures against illegals, including a policy to protect children by arresting adults who give kids to professional smugglers to bring them across the border. If not for the media’s voyeuristic obsession with the president’s social media habits, these policies would have gotten far more attention, and caused a major stir among the left. But because they are buried (if they’re printed at all), the president can quietly boost the economy, secure our borders and make our country safe, flying completely under the radar.
Even the House of Representatives, not known for getting things done, has managed to pass several important bills in the past few weeks. These include Kate’s law, which creates severe punishments for illegals who are deported and return a second time, and a bill that cuts funding from sanctuary cities. In the coming weeks, they will likely be voting on a bill that would privatize air-traffic control. Amazingly, these votes took place on days the president sent out tweets, yet Congress managed to get them done.
Here’s my question to fellow conservatives who criticize the president’s tweeting habits: He has shown time and again he can tweet and chew gum at the same time. What more do they expect?
He’s given us Gorsuch, he resumed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, he pushed Paul Ryan to pass a repeal bill, he’s proposing a tax overhaul the likes of which we have not seen since Reagan, he’s dismantling ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and he’s been very tough on Iran. He’s issued dozens of executive orders easing Dodd-Frank restrictions and boosting the economy. Would you like him to drive down to the border, roll up his sleeves, and lay the bricks himself?
To be clear, I am not saying the tweets have genuine value, or help improve his image. In fact, some are vulgar and offensive. But as a conservative who has been waiting 8 years for change, I want our Tweeter-In-Chief, @RealDonaldTrump, to continue to advance his agenda exactly as he’s been doing. If tweets are needed to create a smokescreen, so be it. If the president continues on this track for the next 3.5 years, #MAGA may very well become a reality, and conservatives will be so sick of winning, they won’t even notice how many 140-character rants the president sends from his iPhone each morning.
Josh Margulies is the host of "Politics: Clear and Simple," a daily podcast offering analysis with an intellectual, conservative perspective. He has worked as an intern for the "Imus in the Morning" program, and has hosted several online political talk shows. Josh is currently a digital marketing consultant. He has assisted companies like Lockheed Martin, Netflix, and Bloomberg. Josh is also an ordained Rabbi who has studied Talmudic law. To read more of his reports, Click Here Now.