NYT Plays ‘Nationalist’ Card on Trump Overseas, Whines He ‘Broke With Tradition’ by Attacking US

July 7th, 2017 5:03 PM

The New York Times Used Trump’s overseas trip to pick on “right-wing” Poland and falsely suggest he’s the first president to criticize his country while overseas.

The headline and first paragraph of the lead story in Friday’s Times by Glenn Thrush and Julie Hirschfeld Davis: “In Speech, Trump Asks If West has ‘Will To Survive’ – Hits Nationalist Tone – Friendly Polish Crowd Is Warm-Up for a G-20 Summit Meeting.”

President Trump said on Thursday that Western civilization was at risk of decline, bringing a message about “radical Islamic terrorism” and “the creep of government bureaucracy” to a European capital he views as hospitable to his nationalist message.

Mr. Trump, who broke with tradition by attacking American leaders and his country’s intelligence services while abroad, delivered his message in a speech to a friendly Polish crowd before a two-day summit meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Hamburg, Germany.

The paper has evidently forgotten Obama’s notorious “apology tour” and criticism of his country while overseas. In fact, the Times fiercely (yet pathetically) defended Obama from Republican charges that he had ever apologized for his country.

In what may be a foretaste of the scene during the gathering, 12,000 protesters vowing to disrupt the G-20 summit meeting converged for a demonstration in Hamburg on Thursday night called “Welcome to Hell.” There were reports that dozens of police officers had sustained minor injuries as a small group of protesters attacked them with bottles, poles and iron bars in clashes that lasted until midnight. Up to 100,000 protesters were expected in the coming days.

Mr. Trump roused his Polish hosts by recounting the country’s history of resistance to invaders, including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. But he said nothing about the right-wing government’s crackdown on judges and journalists and its refusal to accept more migrants, policies that have upset European Union leaders. He instead praised Poland as a defender of liberty in the face of existential threats.

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The president made his sharpest criticism of Moscow since taking office, urging Russia to “cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere and its support for hostile regimes, including Syria and Iran,” and asserting that it must “instead join the community of responsible nations in our fight against common enemies and in defense of civilization itself.”

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Mr. Trump’s speech in Krasinski Square, which memorializes the Polish people’s resistance to tyranny, was well received, as was his message likening the fight against the Islamic State to Poland’s resistance of German invasion and occupation during World War II.

“We must stand united against these shared enemies to strip them of their territory, their funding, their networks and any form of ideological support,” Mr. Trump said. “While we will always welcome new citizens who share our values and love our people, our borders will always be closed to terrorism and extremism.”

The pro-Duda crowd at Krasinski Square, where many waved American and Polish flags, serenaded reporters from both countries with periodic chants of “fake news.”

That came about an hour after Mr. Trump tag-teamed with Mr. Duda in a transnational denunciation of journalists who write negative stories about them.

The American president criticized CNN and defended what he suggested was a lighthearted tweet of a video depicting him body-slamming a figurewhose head had been replaced by the CNN logo.

What made Mr. Trump’s sermon against the mainstream news media different this time was that Mr. Duda’s center-right party, Law and Justice, proposed restricting the news media’s access to Parliament last year. The government backed down after street protests.

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After chastising CNN -- a go-to move on both sides of the Atlantic -- Mr. Trump went after NBC, his former employer. “NBC is nearly as bad, despite the fact that I made them a lot of money on ‘The Apprentice,’ ” he said.

Also in Friday’s edition, Megan Specia, reminded readers that right-wing Poland has problems: “Called Beacon of Freedom, Poland Has Its Detractors.” Interestingly, the Times ignores its usual European hobby horse of Muslim refugees. Poland has refused to take any, and officials there point to the lack of terror attacks in Poland as vindication.

Poland is also apparently weak on women’s rights, by which the Times seems to mean “abortion”:

The government has come under fire for legislation aimed at women, especially a 2016 bill to ban nearly all abortions in the country. The bill failed after thousands of people protested in 90 Polish cities.

Before Trump’s arrival, Rick Lyman filed for Wednesday’s edition “Europe Wary as Trump Plans Visit to a Right-Tilting Poland.” Apparently left-tilting Germany, France, Great Britain, etc. have solved all their economic, environmental and refugee problems, leaving Poland as Europe’s only problem child. Lyman fretted on behalf of left-wing Europeans: “Opponents worry that the visit will be seen as a tacit endorsement of a Polish government that has been criticized by its European Union partners for moves to co-opt the news media, its political opponents and, most recently, the courts.”