The stats don’t lie.
Within minutes of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union speech, CBS News revealed their YouGov poll approval ratings on it.
Unsurprisingly, 97% of Republican speech watchers liked it.
More surprisingly, 72% of Independents liked it.
Staggeringly, 43% of Democrats liked it.
President Donald Trump is pictured delivering the State of the Union address from the House chamber of the United States Capitol Tuesday
Overall, CBS reported that 75% of Americans approved of the speech.
For such a seriously divisive and polarising President, who is currently languishing with just 39% personal approval ratings, these were sensationally good results.
Interestingly, 8/10 Americans in the poll felt the President was trying to unite the country with his speech and two thirds of Americans said it made them feel proud.
Less than a quarter that watched said it made them feel scared or angry.
Contrast this reaction with the instant and so tediously predictable blind rage spewed by the world’s liberal celebrities on social media before, during and after the address.
From my own unofficial poll – i.e. my own eyes on Twitter – I’d say 99% of them were so furious at the speech they could barely think straight.
‘I was told darkness could not exist in the light,’ tweeted Sarah Silverman. ‘But here it is, for everyone to not see.’
Jim Carrey tweeted an illustration of sharks across a map of America, then another of a weeping Abraham Lincoln and the caption: ‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.’
Trump holds up his speech as US Vice President Mike Pence (left) and Speaker of the House US Rep Paul Ryan look on during the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives
Andy Lassner, producer of the insufferably smug The Ellen Show sneered: ‘Good luck ‘Saturday Night Live’ on trying to make this any more f***ing ridiculous than it already is.’
Jeffrey Wright raged: ‘Can’t even watch this vile, deceitful fraud and his bizarre cult of self-interested sycophants.’
Patton Oswalt seethed: ‘I’m gonna fact check this speech: whatever he just said was bullsh*t.’
Jessica Chastain urged people not to watch the speech at all.
Billy Eichner fumed: ‘The President is a lying, incompetent, racist, misogynist sack of sh*t.’
And George Takei spouted: ‘I’m not watching some frothing orange gorilla read off a teleprompter.’
On and on it went, with these stars and many more assuming America agreed with them.
But it turned out the vast majority of Americans DIDN’T agree with them, which suggests they’re no longer listening to what celebrities say about politics or Donald Trump.
Jessica Chastain (left) urged people not to watch the speech. Billy Eichner (right) fumed: ‘The President is a lying, incompetent, racist, misogynist sack of sh*t’
Chastain urged people to avoid watching the President’s State of the Union address
Eicher shared this ‘fun tweet’ urging people to vote in the Midterms come November
For more evidence of this, look at Sunday night’s Grammys that turned into a marathon political rally of epically dreary proportions.
Ratings duly plunged 24% to an all-time low.
Why? Because Americans are sick and tired of entertainers preaching about politics at awards shows, particularly when they’re all preaching from the same liberal Trump-loathing handbook.
It’s hard not to agree with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders when she said yesterday: ‘I think if Americans cared what celebrities thought then Hillary would be president but they clearly don’t.’
She added: ‘Frankly, I feel sorry for these people. They’re so focused on hating this president that they’re missing all of the great things that are happening in this country.’
George Takei (left) spouted: ‘I’m not watching some frothing orange gorilla read off a teleprompter.’ Jim Carrey (right) tweeted an illustration of sharks across a map of America
Actor Carrey also shared this picture of a weeping Abraham Lincoln and the caption: ‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to’
Takei tweeted: ‘I’ve got better things to do, like alphabetize my spice cabinet’
Now, she would say that wouldn’t she… and yet, she has a point.
None of these celebrity Trump-bashers ever give him credit for anything.
Yet there are things happening in and to America right now for which he absolutely deserves credit not derision.
Most notably, the US economy is full steam ahead, with consistently impressive quarterly growth, the stock market smashing weekly records, and job numbers at 17-year highs.
Yes, it’s true that this is continuing a positive economic trend from the Obama years. But it’s also true that nobody would be blaming Obama if the economy had weakened under Trump in his first year.
Most impartial observers credit the President’s war on regulation and his big tax reform plan as the major driving forces for the current economic positivity.
Andy Lassner, producer of the insufferably smug The Ellen Show sneered: ‘Good luck ‘Saturday Night Live’ on trying to make this any more f***ing ridiculous than it already is’
Patton Oswalt seethed: ‘I’m gonna fact check this speech: whatever he just said was bullsh*t’
Jeffrey Wright raged: ‘Can’t even watch this vile, deceitful fraud and his bizarre cult of self-interested sycophants’
Kesha burst into tears as she was hugged by Camila Cabello, Bebe Rexha and Cyndi Lauper following her powerful rendition of Praying on Sunday at the Grammys. Ratings for the awards plunged 24%
Certainly, it helped inspire Apple, one of America’s biggest overseas job outsourcing companies, to recently announce they’re bringing $350billion and 20,000 jobs back home to the US economy.
But have you seen a single liberal celebrity acknowledge that? No.
Trump vowed in his presidential campaign to whack ISIS hard and as he said last night, the terror group’s now been driven out of Iraq and Syria.
This is a significant achievement too but no liberal celebrity will thank him for it, so profound and deep-rooted is the antipathy towards him.
What they don’t seem to understand is that the American people are beginning to calm down about President Trump, understand him better, accept him for what he is – good and bad – and appreciate some of the good stuff he is doing.
Trump delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of the US Congress on Capitol Hill in DC
That much is crystal clear from the reaction to his SOTU speech that was long, thoughtful, and delivered with none of the frothing, hyperbolic style that we have seen from him in the past.
As I think I may have mentioned (!) I spent time with President Trump last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and I was struck by how relaxed and confident he seemed, both in my interview and in his speech to the world’s business elite the next day.
I was also struck by how much more diplomatic, conciliatory and unifying he was too – especially with his statement that yes, it’s America First but no, it’s not America Alone.
This approach was a far cry from the raging bull in a china shop that rampaged to the election win and has presided over a chaotic and turbulent first year in office.
It appears that Trump has finally begun to make the pivot many of his supporters hoped he would make a lot earlier – from firebrand, fight-picking, tweet-storming, rabble-rousing candidate, to a more considered man as President.
I think the reason for this simple: success.
Trump’s entire DNA is predicated on winning. Every sinew of his being for the past 50 years has pulsated with a burning, insatiable desire to win.
‘You’ve gotta win,’ Trump once told me. ‘That’s what it’s all about. You know, Muhammad Ali used to talk and talk, but he won. If you talk and talk but you lose, the act doesn’t play.’
And now, after months of under-achievement, he’s beginning to win.
Meanwhile, his opponents don’t seem to have a clue either how to stop him, or who in their ranks can beat him in 2020.
Happy Hil: In the segment at the Grammys (above), Clinton had a giant grin as she read a passage about President Trump’s ‘longtime fear of being poisoned’
One thing’s for sure: it won’t be Hillary Clinton, who apparently still hasn’t got the message either that she lost or that hanging out with liberal celebrities is a vote-crusher to middle America.
I don’t know what possessed her to pop up in the middle of the Grammys to read out Trump-mocking lines from Michael Wolff’s book, but all it did was remind everyone yet again that she’s a sore loser, and that the Democrats haven’t found anyone else to replace her yet.
Until they do, Trump will continue to surge in confidence and if the economy does the same then I predict he will be re-elected at the next election by a bigger majority.
Don’t believe me? Take a long, careful look at that CBS poll after last night’s SOTU speech.
Like I said, the stats don’t lie.
‘This is our new American moment,’ Trump said last night. ‘There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.’
This message, one of his 115 applause lines, was approved by 75% of the country that watched it.
Trump’s American Dream is very rapidly becoming the Democrat Nightmare.