Trump's low approval ratings aren't fake news

Theotis Robinson Jr. | Columnist

Who knew that four months could feel like four years? President Donald Trump has taught us that it can. Lurching from crisis to crisis, rumors abound that he wants to replace a few of his key advisers. The names Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, keep surfacing. Bannon needs to go. Coming from the racist so-called “alt-right” publication Breitbart News, he should never have been appointed in the first place.

Back from his disastrous trip abroad, Trump has declared that it was a “home run.” One of his trolls, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., surprisingly said that he “could not be more pleased” with the trip. It seems that Corker has a very low bar for measuring “perfection.” In the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump circled all the bases. Putin is bent on a course to diminish the role and strength of U.S. ties to western European nations. In his mind, NATO has always been a threat to Russian hegemony in Europe. Now he has an ally in Trump to advance his goal. The “home run” looked more like a pop-out to the catcher.

The first stop on Trump’s trip was Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001, attackers were citizens. So was Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attack. This Arab country is the main financier of madrasas that teach a radical view of Islam that justifies killing in the name of religion. Trump was effusive in his praise of Saudi government head King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Never was there a word of criticism for the Saudi’s role in fomenting terrorism in the world. Trump's admiration for the king was unsettling.

Later in his overseas trip, Trump visited NATO headquarters. While fawning over his regal reception in Saudi Arabia --- Trump takes to pageantry like a kitten to catnip --- he was full of criticism for America’s European allies. His disparaging Twitter attacks on German Prime Minister Angela Merkel served no purpose. In his mind, that denigration of our allies is somehow productive. Only in the eyes of Putin and Trump is this true. And he wonders why his press coverage is so critical.

Trump now wants to change his press messengers. Rumors abound that Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, is on the verge of being replaced. As the spokesman for an administration that lies constantly, he goes before media to defend his boss’s falsehoods. By now, one would think that the public should understand that Trump is incapable of speaking the truth. With approval ratings in the low 40s, Trump blames his spokespeople.

Spicer has been placed in the unenviable position of defending Trump’s lies and half-truths. When Trump stated that he fired FBI Director James Comey based on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Spicer took to the podium to proclaim the aforementioned as the reason, only to be undercut the next day by his boss telling the world that was not the reason. He just wanted the investigation into Russia connections to go away.

Trump’s flop-flips undermine his spokespeople. If Spicer is replaced, it will probably be with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who couldn’t find the truth with a Bible in one hand and a cross in the other. Truth matters. Yet the Trump administration, with its tenuous grip on that fact, continues to proclaim that black is white, up is down, and that crap no longer stinks.

Recent polls show that Trump’s approval rating stands at 42 percent. In the deep red state of Tennessee, his support has dwindled from 60 percent to 52 percent, an eight-point drop. He claims that anonymous sources are all made up by the “fake news media.” But Trump often claims anonymous sources provide him with information. Remember the assertion that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.? An anonymous source. That the crowd size at his inauguration was the largest in history, dwarfing Obama’s crowd size? Fake news. That Obama wiretapped Trump Tower? Bogus news citing anonymous sources. Trump has been instigating “fake news” from the start.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is fast becoming a focus of the FBI investigation into Trump's Russian ties. This is not the time to defend and deflect criticism of Trump’s every misstep. We must never get comfortable with rank hypocrisy. This is not about partisanship that stands as tall as Mount Everest. It is about principles.

Our democracy hangs in the balance. This is not fake news.

Theotis Robinson Jr. is a freelance writer, former Knoxville City Council member and retired vice president of equity and diversity of the University of Tennessee. He may be reached at thewriteone7@comcast.net.