{"id":156055,"date":"2026-07-17T18:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/156055\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:54:23","slug":"pd-editorial-trump-only-has-himself-to-blame-for-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/156055\/","title":{"rendered":"PD Editorial: Trump only has himself to blame for elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him, as many as they could and they didn\u2019t care what they said.\u201d<\/p>\n

These 42 words came out of President Donald Trump\u2019s mouth Thursday night as part of a nearly 30-minute address<\/a> to the nation where he railed on about \u201cvulnerabilities\u201d within the nation\u2019s election system.<\/p>\n

Still smarting from his 2020 loss<\/a> and likely fearful of what may come this November, the president took to the lectern Thursday night to stoke fears that, while \u201cAmerica is respected like we have never been respected before,\u201d one of its most basic tenets of democracy \u2014 voting \u2014 is at risk of corruption.<\/p>\n

This guy. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too.<\/p>\n

Many Americans and news organizations saw and heard the speech for what it was: Half an hour of posturing and finger-pointing at others for his failures as a policy-maker and leader.<\/p>\n

Poor polling numbers<\/a>? Inept cabinet?<\/p>\n

China is to blame.<\/p>\n

Russia is to blame.<\/p>\n

Journalists are to blame.<\/p>\n

Yes, journalists.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes into his speech, Trump said China paid journalists to write negatively about him leading up to the 2020 election because China did not want to see him re-elected. And while there is some evidence showing that China, Russia and other countries indeed did not want to see another Trump presidency, there is no evidence showing that journalists were paid.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s simply not how journalism works. If journalists accepted bribes to write articles, we would all be a lot richer and the integrity of our industry would be in complete shambles.<\/p>\n

Unlike our president, journalists don\u2019t have cake and eat it, too.<\/p>\n

Instead, journalists are notoriously underpaid while serving as both the watchdog and scapegoat for Trump\u2019s cockeyed government. Take ABC and NBC, for example. Both news networks chose not to air the president\u2019s speech<\/a> Thursday night, simultaneously angering and baiting Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech,\u201d Trump said during his address. \u201cThey knew what it was about, because of the fact that they don\u2019t like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is and they don\u2019t want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot.\u201d<\/p>\n

What plot?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to protect the radical left,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey can\u2019t have a great country and that\u2019s true; you can\u2019t have a great country without free and fair elections \u2026 Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot be allowed to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump doesn\u2019t want free and fair elections. He wants to maintain power for himself and the Republican party that bows to him. During his speech, he pointed to some of America\u2019s longest-standing principles \u2014 voting and the free press \u2014 and called them corrupt.<\/p>\n

Apparently Trump doesn\u2019t realize that when he points his finger at someone else, he has three fingers pointing back at himself.<\/p>\n

He is right on one account, however. The trust of the American people has been lost. The president\u2019s overall job approval rating sits between 35% and 37%, with roughly 60% of Americans disapproving.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this \u2014 his continued deteriorating and mockery of our democracy \u2014 cannot be allowed to continue.<\/p>\n

Journalists will keep working to hold him and the Republican party that props him up accountable. In November, it will be up to the American people to do the rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. president and pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,41892,10,65,11,64,315],"class_list":["post-156055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump","tag-election-fraud","tag-potus","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-president-of-the-united-states","tag-president-trump","tag-speech"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116936839196021691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}