Wednesday night, President Trump announced the winner of the “Fake News Awards.” Frankly, all the contenders deserve gold medals. They each played a big role in driving the 90% negative coverage of the president. 

But you have to pick a winner, and I have to agree that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is a fake news champion. In the wee hours of Nov. 9, 2016, Krugman offered this analysis of the election results:

“It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover? … A first-pass answer is never.”

Krugman could not have been more wrong. On Election Day 2016, the Dow Jones closed at 18,332.74. Wednesday, it closed above 26,000 for the first time, up 8,000 points and setting a new record high for the umpteenth time since Trump’s election.

I’d say the markets have recovered fairly well.

Flakey News

While we’re on the topic of the lying left-wing media, I’d like to offer some thoughts about Sen. Jeff Flake’s speech Wednesday. 

Incredibly, Flake felt compelled to go to the Senate floor and defend the liberal media from President Trump. He even went so far as to compare Trump to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin because Trump once called the media “the enemy of the people,” a phrase Stalin once used.

According to a new poll, only 11% of Americans have “a great deal of confidence” in the media, while 68% of Americans had little or no confidence in the media. 

There’s a good reason for that. Most Americans believe the media are biased and not serving the public’s interest but pushing their own left-wing agenda.

For some inexplicable reason, Jeff Flake chose to side with the 11% who like the left-wing media. Like so many in the GOP establishment, Flake seems more comfortable attacking conservatives than he is in taking on the radical Left that is constantly attacking traditional American values.

As Tucker Carlson asked, where was Jeff Flake when Barack Obama routinely attacked Fox News and seized the phone records of the Associated Press?

But his comparison to Stalin was beyond the pale. Stalin didn’t merely ridicule the media for “fake news,” he controlled the press. He killed his political opponents and murdered millions. 

If Trump is such a tyrant and a threat to the free press, how is it that the media are so comfortable attacking him? After all, 90% of the president’s coverage is negative! (By the way, Flake seems to have a soft spot for real dictators.)

“Huge Win”

Silicon Valley is no friend to conservatives, even its own conservative employees. But the CEO of Apple was forced to admit that President Trump’s tax reform law created the right incentives for massive investment here in America. 

Apple announced that it was investing $350 billion and creating 20,000 new jobs in the U.S. over the next five years. It is also offering $2,500 bonuses in the form of stock to employees. 

Responding to this news, President Trump tweeted:

“I promised that my policies would allow companies like Apple to bring massive amounts of money back to the United States. Great to see Apple follow through as a result of TAX CUTS. Huge win for American workers and the USA!”

Apple joins a growing list of more than 160 companies that are offering bonuses and better pay in response to President Trump’s tax reform plan. 

Now think about this: Not one Democrat — not one, zilch, zero — voted for the tax cuts. 

Something to remember in November.

Shutdown Showdown

As we noted yesterday, Congress is barreling toward a Friday midnight deadline to keep the government open and functioning, such as it does. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon yesterday, President Trump said, “If the country shuts down … the worst thing is what happens to our military." 

Echoing the president’s remarks, Speaker Paul Ryan warned that our military has reached a breaking point:

"We have simply pushed our military past the breaking point. Instead of upgrading our hardware, we have let our equipment age. Instead of equipping our troops for tomorrow’s fight, we have let them become woefully underequipped.”

As you may recall, there were dire warnings last year that two-thirds of the Navy’s strike fighters couldn’t fly.

But let’s be clear about this: If the federal government shuts down this weekend, the cause will be the Left’s demand for amnesty. Don’t take my word for it. The Washington Post writes this:

“Democrats, whose support would be critical for passage in the Senate, began lining up in opposition amid pressure from immigration activists to use the budget talks as leverage to legalize many young immigrants known as ‘dreamers.’”

In past debates, Republicans were accused of shutting down the government over funding of Planned Parenthood. At least they were trying to save the lives of innocent babies. 

In this case, the Democrats are shutting down the government for people who are not U.S. citizens. And our troops, who don’t get paid during government shutdowns, will pay the price.

Defending Religious Freedom

The Trump administration announced that it is taking action to expand conscience protections for medical professionals, such as doctors and nurses who don’t want to perform abortions or transgender surgeries. 

A new division on religious liberty is being created inside the Department of Health and Human Services. “For too long, governments big and small have treated conscience claims with hostility instead of protection, but change is coming and it begins here and now,” said Roger Severino, director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights.

Once again, the Trump/Pence team is delivering for men and women of faith!