Posted on 10/12/2018 12:52:06 PM PDT by Red Badger
At least for the moment, the APs Jill Colvin observes, Donald Trump seems to be having the time of his life. The president has never been more available to the media, even offering what might have been unthinkable a few months ago chatting up reporters in the private lounge in Air Force One. Trump spent 45 minutes on Fox & Friends, not an unusual venue but certainly a lot of time in an unstructured phoner. On top of that, he managed to have some fun with both the press and the entertainment industry with Kanye Wests Oval Office drop-in yesterday.
So whats happening? Nothing bad, Colvin notes, and thats remarkable in itself:
The presidents inclination to chat comes as Trump has been enjoying a spate of good news for his administration.
While the Russia investigation still looms and polls still predict major Republican losses in the House in next months midterm elections, Trump has been logging a series of wins, including appointing a second Supreme Court Justice to the bench and reaching an updated North American trade deal with Canada and Mexico. The stream of negative headlines that have been a constant presence through most of Trumps administration, has abated at least for a time.
I think hes having a lot of fun right now, said former campaign adviser Barry Bennett.
There hasnt been a bad story in over week, Bennett marveled.
Thats quite a difference from a few months ago, when the national media had painted Trump as practically isolated from reality and barely functional. That narrative depicted an angry, frustrated Trump, paranoid over Robert Mueller almost to the point of incapacity. Expectations soared that investigators would find enough evidence to push Trump into either resigning or being impeached, speculation that increased when Muellers team cut a deal with Paul Manafort.
And since then nothing much has happened, except for the Brett Kavanaugh debacle. That drove everything else out of the headlines, including all of the minute developments on metastories that so far havent touched Trump. The economy has chugged along respectably or better, Trump won a victory in NAFTA renegotiations, North Korea hasnt yet blown up, and most of all Trump played out the Kavanaughcalypse without backing down.
Now, with his base at least temporarily energized for the midterms, its no wonder Trumps feeling on top of the political world. His isolation was greatly exaggerated in the first place, but there does seem to be a more relaxed approach and a renewed sense of enjoyment, too. His attitude toward reporters has definitely mellowed, at least temporarily, in person if not in rhetoric.
Or maybe Trump just feels most comfortable in campaign mode. Barack Obama exhibited the same enthusiasm for stumping, if perhaps a bit more consistent in presentation. Trumps doing a lot of rallies for Republican candidates that center more on himself, and as the 2015-16 campaign showed, he gets tremendous energy from those events.
Put that in combination with a lack of bad press, even for a week, and its no real wonder why Trump feels hes winning its because he is, for now. After the midterms are over, that may change, but hes making the most of it while he can.
He will have his own mountain to match his skin color.
Yeah but this year we have trump. A fighter. Likely is very prepared and will counter with “surprises” of his own.
BTTT
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