It's time to say a positive word about a man who has been much-maligned by my media colleagues.
Yes, President Donald Trump.
Media fact-checkers have splashing around in their reported news that America's 45th president has lied, distorted or made misleading statements more than 5,000 times since his inauguration. But because media critics love to lambast my colleagues for focusing only on the negatives, we want to begin today by focusing on an event where Trump proved he was demonstrably accurate in one of his earliest and most-ridiculed assertions.
It was back on Sept. 24, 2012, when Citizen Trump, exploring his far-fetched notion of someday plunging into presidential politics, tried out what became his most famous road-tested future shtick before an audience of 10,000 at the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Virginia.
"The whole world is laughing at us," Trump said. "We just seem to have lost our edge." That became his most reliable stump speech staple ever since. It didn't deter him when the late-night TV comics and my pundit colleagues made Trump their go-to punchline. When he wasn't saying it, Trump was tweeting it, as in this Aug. 9, 2014 tweet from @realDonaldTrump: "We need a President who isn't a laughing stock to the entire World. We need a truly great leader, a genius at strategy and winning. Respect!"
Now this: On Tuesday, America's 45th president proved to the world the validity of that oldest Trump stump speech refrain � that the world is laughing at America's leader. Standing in front of the United Nations General Assembly's iconic green marbled rostrum and walls, Trump was just one minute into what was supposed to be his most-serious diplomatic address, when he dutifully read aloud a line that was reportedly written for him by his staff's non-speechwriting hardline nationalist Stephen Miller. Miller, who has never been known for his politically attuned antenna, surely knew the line always won cheers at Trump's rallies. Now he was writing a speech proclaiming Trump's America would be standing up for itself and wouldn't be pushed around by globalization. Maybe he didn't think about whether or not this U.N. audience would be wearing those red "Make America Great Again" caps. He just apparently wrote it, and so Trump unhesitatingly read it:
"In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country."
But after reading that line in a subdued diplomatic manner, Trump detected an undiplomatic undercurrent of undisguised laughter rolling through the massive U.N. hall. It built as the translators finished their delayed renditions. More and more delegates � grasping the absurdity of Trump's campaignish claim � broke diplomatic decorum in a way U.N. veterans never before witnessed. They were laughing at � not with! � the present occupant of the job we had always called "Leader of the Free World." Or as we are choosing to spin it positively here, they were finally showing us what Citizen Trump long ago warned about.
President Trump, surprised by the unmuted mirth, paused. His face evolved into that sheepish grin made famous by Jackie Gleason, every time he portrayed Ralph Kramden, the New York City bus driver, realizing another of his dumb schemes just backfired, bigtime. Then Trump sheepishly acknowledged the obvious:
"Didn't expect that reaction. But that's OK."
It was more than just OK. Continuing our most positive spin on Trump's U.N. moment, it was another historic first for Trump.
This was the week Trump became the first ever U.S. president to get the whole world laughing at an American president.
But this week may have even given Trump another First: On Wednesday, while presiding over a UN Security Council meeting, Trump said, without an elaboration (let alone evidence):
"Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration. They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first President ever to challenge China on trade. And we are winning on trade. We are winning at every level."
It was a most pointed accusation � especially considering how reluctant Trump has been during his two years as president to condemn Russia and President Vladimir Putin (whom Trump seems to much admire) for their infamous 2016 efforts to help him win the presidency. Top U.S. intelligence officials have maintained China's 2018 interference is nowhere near as large as Russia's this year.
Perhaps Trump's latest First is that he may have just sparked a new round of uproarious international laughter � inside the Kremlin.
