President Donald Trump is not a popular President. He lost the popular vote in the 2016 election by the largest margin of any electoral college winner. Since then, his average approval rating has never risen above 50 percent.
Nevertheless, the Conservative network Fox Business, an affiliate of Fox News, is determined to prop up the President's ego, and the delusion of his supporters that Trump is incapable of doing wrong.
With over 80 thousand Americans dead and millions more unemployed in the wake of the global pandemic and Trump's delayed response to it, it's been harder than ever to convince the nation that Trump's job performance merits reelection.
That may be why Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo got a little too eager when heaping praise upon the President in a bizarre new interview.
Watch below.
Maria Bartiromo starts to wrap up the interview by asking, Mr Trump, your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular? pic.twitter.com/dQaMpe1EsR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 14, 2020
Bartiromo asked Trump:
"You've gotten so much done...and yet FBI takedown effort, pushback on all of your Supreme Court judges, a complete drama around Brett Kavanaugh, the Democrats in Congress attacking your call with the Ukraine leader, and an impeachment trial...I've never seen anybody to take a punch and then get right back up and keep punching. Where does this resilience come from, that you keep getting things done in the face of all of this?"
Naturally, Trump basked in the praise, repeating a claim that Rush Limbaugh asked him the same thing: how he could supposedly take so much and still be a great President.
Trump then falsely claimed that his administration had done more in its first four years than any other President.
In reality, Trump is the first and only president who received a vote in favor of conviction from his own party during an impeachment trial. His attempt at repealing Obamacare was unsuccessful, and—with the exception of a deeply flawed tax bill—his administration hasn't achieved much of any landmark legislation. Like Obama, Trump has appointed two Supreme Court Justices in his first term.
In Obama's first term, the former President oversaw the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the death of Osama bin Laden, and other achievements.
Trump has managed not to be removed from office.
People mocked Bartiromo's attempts to prop up Trump's presidency.
The question was reminiscent of a state-run propaganda network.
They parodied her question with questions of their own.
For a look into Fox's tactics, check out Foxocracy, available here.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter