Unforgivable.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Donald Trump is a polarizing figure. (In other news, it gets hot in Texas in the summer.)

More than any recent president, Donald Trump evokes a visceral reaction among a large proportion of voters. Millions of people – disproportionately concentrated in coastal states – despise the man.

A big reason is his outsized, brash personality that is unlike that of any politician in our time. Since the 2015 escalator ride that kicked off his first campaign, we have observed his penchant for incendiary statements, insulting personal attacks and often outlandish exaggeration. To a significant degree, Donald Trump himself has contributed to much of the animus against him. (To be fair, many of these characteristics have been greatly muted in his second term.)

But for my money, one of the biggest and most consistent contributors to Trump hatred is the corrupt and fundamentally dishonest legacy media. Shrinking in size, scope and influence as the legacy media are, a meaningful percentage of Americans still rely solely on the likes of ABC, CBS, NBC, et. al. for their news. In the same way that the diet of a college kid is carb heavy, the news diet of a legacy media consumer is agenda heavy. Members of the legacy media almost to a person see it as their civic and sacred duty not to merely report on what Donald Trump does and allow readers and viewers to form their own conclusions. They see themselves instead as specially charged with saving the republic from him. Example: If Trump vigorously prosecutes attacks on Iran, the media says he’s a “war criminal.” If he extends a ceasefire, they say he’s a “TACO” (i.e. Trump Always Chickens Out.)

The once-trusted legacy media are using the last shards of the credibility they once enjoyed to intentionally and shamelessly lie about Trump, his policies and his accomplishments.

And there’s a key word: accomplishments. They are many.

Since taking office for his second term, Trump has essentially stopped illegal immigration. Not slowed it down. Stopped it. It’s a campaign promise kept.

Another campaign promise: energy independence. The president has unleashed the American oil & gas industry in way that is completely reshaping the world geopolitical landscape for the long term in America’s favor. (It’s worth noting that in times not so long past, a war in Iran and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz wouldn’t have simply caused gas prices to go up, as has happened. There would have been gasoline lines.)

Some agenda-laden reporting to the contrary notwithstanding, very soon Trump will have completed the neutralization of a terroristic, nuclear weapons-seeking Iran – a regime that vexed seven prior administrations while holding the entire world hostage.

All of this while lowering the tax burden on every single American taxpayer.

There’s more, but space doesn’t permit.

The real knock on Trump boils down to this. The man has had the temerity to actually take on and solve problems that establishment politicians – of both parties – merely fundraise on.

In the realm of high-level Washington politics, that’s simply unforgivable.