𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐏 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀'𝐒 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌
President Trump posted something this morning that I'd like every conservative who has ever been gaslit by a press conference to read twice.
His thesis: even if Iran surrendered in the most theatrical, unambiguous way humanly possible — Navy at the bottom of the sea, Air Force destroyed, military walking out of Tehran with weapons dropped and hands held high, entire leadership signing the formal Documents of Surrender — the Failing New York Times, the China Street Journal, Corrupt and Irrelevant CNN, and the rest of the Fake News Media will headline it as 𝘐𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢.
He's joking. He is also 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠.
Look at the pattern across the last decade.
Inflation drops under Trump? The economy did it. The Fed did it. Anybody but the man in the Oval Office.
The Abraham Accords — the most consequential Middle East breakthrough in a generation? Page A14. Below the fold. A paragraph.
Border crossings collapse by 90 percent? It's actually Mexico. Or the cartels getting cold feet. Or the weather. Or a coincidence.
Hostages come home? "Career diplomats" did the heavy lifting.
So when the United States reduces the Iranian regime's navy to artificial reef material, watch what happens. The headline will be about Iranian "resilience." The op-eds will lament American "humiliation." Foreign policy "experts" who have been wrong about every Middle East question since 1991 will be ushered onto cable to explain — with maximum seriousness — why this was actually Iran's win.
Trump has watched this movie nine times. He has memorized every line. He knows exactly which reporter will write which sentence, in which paper, by what hour.
So instead of waiting for them, he 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.
That is what this post actually is. Not a complaint. A pre-buttal. He has neutered the spin by predicting it in advance, with enough specificity to ensure every reporter who follows through now reads like a parody of themselves.
And they will follow through. They cannot help themselves.
The "Failing New York Times" line lands because it's accurate. The "China Street Journal" jab at the WSJ lands because their editorial page has spent a decade telling Beijing that the American business class is fine keeping the supply chains right where they are. "Corrupt and now Irrelevant CNN" lands because their primetime ratings have collapsed to roughly the size of a midsize talk-radio show.
This isn't rage. It's 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
The man understands his enemies better than they understand themselves. He can quote their playbook back at them in their own cadence before they've finished writing the lede.
And the maddening part for them: every prediction in that post will come true within 48 hours.
𝐇𝐞'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠. 𝐇𝐞'𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲
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