Even media hostile to President Donald Trump have to admit the economy is extraordinary. CNBC says “Trump’s economy” is providing a rate of growth “unlike anything seen in 13 years.” “U.S. Job Market’s Strength Is Allowing More to Share in Pay Gains,” announces the New York Times. I imagine the headline writer had to grit his teeth to write it. A friendlier source, the respected financial paper Barron’s, says “Bright Outlook for Economy and Stocks.”

Why isn’t there more celebration? Two big reasons. First, the media. That’s not a surprise to conservatives. The second? Donald Trump himself.

The Welcome News

Trump’s latest reported coarse comments and supposed payments to pornographic actresses bury the welcome news about our economic growth. He denies the charges, but they give his enemies a chance to change the subject. But that welcome news deserves to be made very clear:

• The manufacturing sector, long seen by economists as a declining part of the economy, saw an increase in 184,000 jobs since last January. New manufacturing orders are “increasing at their fastest pace since January 2004.
• The stock market has gained 5,000 points since Mr. Trump took office, a historic 27 percent increase.
• Over the past year, due to the massive increase in stock values, “some $6 trillion of wealth has been created for Americans.”
• African-American unemployment is at 6.8 percent, the “lowest in 44 years.”
• Many major firms are giving their employees bonuses or hourly-wage increases.

Since the new tax plan was enacted into law, “the economic news has been overwhelmingly positive.” Remember not a single Democrat voted for it. “The stock market smashed records. Job creation is up, and according to [the forecasting firm] Challenger, Gray and Christmas, job cut announcements last year were the fewest since 1990.”

The Issues

Of course, in a fallen world, there are always problems. Some of them are very serious. Americans are not having enough children to sustain an adequate workforce for our future needs. Social Security and Medicare need market-based modernization. Debt and deficit are like undertakers waiting in the wings.

But the reality is that unlike any period for decades, the economy is really growing. Americans are beginning to enjoy the benefits in job creation, higher incomes and total compensation.

Our mainstream media should celebrate this. Whatever they think of Donald Trump, they should be excited about what this economic growth means for Americans — all Americans. Why don’t they? Two big reasons: the media and the president.

The media thrives on controversy. Disaster, conflict, dark undersides: These are the things that sell papers and improve ratings. And the media, overwhelmingly, cannot stand Donald Trump. So whose alleged disasters, conflicts, and dark undersides are they going to play up? Trump’s. Will they be so quick to cover his successes? No, because writing balanced stories would ruin their big story about the disaster of Donald Trump’s presidency.

In October, Pew Research published a study showing that “62 percent of the coverage (of President Trump) was negative and only 5 percent was positive. In contrast, President Barack Obama’s coverage in early 2009 was 42 percent positive and 20 percent negative.”

As much as journalists hate being accused of bias, many of them deserve it — and some don’t really seem to care. They are now more propagandists than reporters. And they are fine with that.

But President Trump

But the president is often his own worst enemy. Yes, the national media like throwing bombs at the president. But he hands them the gunpowder. He makes up names for his opponents like a twelve-year-old and publicly attacks members of his own Cabinet. He shows no sensitivity to issues of race and ethnicity. I could go on. In many of his actions, Trump gives the media reasons to attack him. He doesn’t have to do that.

I like much of what President Trump has done. Most of it, in fact. I remain, every day, grateful that Hillary Clinton is not and never will be president. Trump deserves a far bigger break than his relentless, almost pathological critics will ever give him. The economy is one of the principal things for which he deserves substantial credit.

A man of his temperament, age, and experience is unlikely to change. Without Christ, that is. He Who can raise the dead can restrain a mouth and transform a heart. Let us pray for the president of the United States, that God will work in Donald Trump. The mainstream media will still hate him — but they’ll have a lot less reason to. And he’ll be a president who can not only improve the economy but inspire the nation.

Editor’s Note: This is a revised version of an article first published earlier Monday.