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POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Donald Trump's Political Death Being Reported (and Greatly Exaggerated)

A Commentary By Charles Hurt

The river of fake news continues to run unabated.

It’s not even 100 days into the Trump presidency, and already the man is finished. Unprecedented turmoil and mayhem. Chronic infighting. Can’t get anything done. Even Republicans in Congress are turning on him.

Then, suddenly, lob a bunch of missiles into Syria, and the guy is Abraham Lincoln.

Nothing like a little warmongering to get all the establishment toadies on both sides of the aisle around here excited. And, by the way, has anyone noticed that old Honest Abe was a bit of a white nationalist too?

I mean, both he and Donald Trump were white. And they are both nationalists. In fact, Lincoln invented the whole “America First” platform that Mr. Trump ran on.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand” is about as “America First” as you can get. Then going to all-out war to make sure the nation “will cease to be divided” is belligerently “America First.”

And now that Mr. Trump has gotten a little into the war game, he’s smelling more and more like Lincoln every day!

So much for all the fake news about Mr. Trump’s doomed presidency.

Remember Bleeding Kansas? Mr. Trump’s popularity was so far down the throat of the toilet that even in fiery-red Kansas, voters were turning Democrat.

It wasn’t so much that Democrats were going to gain one seat in their 44-seat deficit in the House. It was what the stunning upset was going to mean about Mr. Trump’s current popularity and for midterm races next year.

Not only would Mr. Trump be limping along, he would be all alone as Democrats would ride into power on a wave of historic anti-Trump rage among voters.

Just look at Kansas’ 4th District. Endless stories revealed that Democrat Jim Thompson would beat Republican Ron Estes.

SPOILER ALERT: Republican Ron Estes wins.

Despite a healthy 7-point margin, The New York Times declared Mr. Estes “Survives Tight House Race.”

Largely unmentioned is that Mr. Estes was actually dragged down by an unpopular Republican governor — not Mr. Trump — and that special elections always bring out the crazies.

On top of that, Kansas Democrats did their best to trick voters by running a candidate who, well, ran as a Republican. Mr. Thompson is an Army veteran who, until last year, was a registered Republican.

For America’s next great rebuke of Mr. Trump and the party he owns, please now turn to Georgia, another fiery-red Republican state about to be infested by a wave of Democratic voting.

In Georgia’s 6th District, Democrat Jon Ossoff is the latest canary in the coal mine to prove the certain demise of Mr. Trump. Anti-Trump sentiments are so far off the charts there that Mr. Ossoff (who cohabitates with a woman not his wife in a home not in his district) will somehow lock up a majority of the vote and win the seat without facing a runoff.

The only reason we are even talking about this prospect is that there are a dozen Republicans splitting the vote against Mr. Ossoff. Everyone agrees that in a runoff, the Democrat would be doomed. And, anyway, even if he were to pull off an upset, he would go down as a very short-lived congressman — surely booted in the midterms next year.

But just read the papers: The intensity of anti-Trump sentiment in this reliably Republican district is palpable. So intense, in fact, is this anti-Trump sentiment that when Mr. Trump was actually on the ballot in Georgia’s 6th District last year, he won.

See, that’s the great thing about fake news: Not only does it not have to be news, it can be entirely made up. And, like all the best children’s games, fake news can report what is the precise opposite of what is true.

It’s going to be a long eight years for these people.

Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com; follow him on Twitter via @charleshurt.

See Other Political Commentary by Charles Hurt.

See Other Political Commentary.

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