RUSH: What happens when things go south for the Democrats? When things go wrong for the Democrats, what happens? For example, Benghazi. Well, that was the fault of some stupid filmmaker, some stupid videomaker. Hillary losing the presidency, that was Putin’s fault. Obamacare’s miserable problem, that’s because of the Republicans, and they won’t come up with something new. It’s the Republicans’ fault because they won’t fix it. And America’s problems? Well, that’s all Trump’s doing. So the Democrats are 100% blameless always.
There are no Democrat ringleaders for example. Yippee. Open Line Friday, the last hour of the busy broadcast day, hosted by me, Rush Limbaugh, your highly trained broadcast specialist. Do not try this at home. We who are great at what we do make it look easy. Make everybody think they can do it. Look at the number of Democrats who’ve tried to do this, and there still isn’t one that succeeds. And that’s my fault, by the way. Or the Fairness Doctrine’s fault. That’s what it is. The Fairness Doctrine. That’s why talk radio succeeds, the Fairness Doctrine, so it’s Reagan’s fault. The Democrats are always totally blameless. Have you noticed? When they mess things up, it’s never anything they have done.
I mentioned before the previous hour came to a screeching halt that the truth of the Trump administration is that there have been beaucoup promises kept. There have been vast improvements. You know, folks, I have to tell you, I had a post-show meeting. I’ve gotta be very careful with this. You know what the biggest problem for me doing this show has become? There’s less and less I can tell you about things I run into, things that happen.
When the program was early and new, first four, five years, I could tell anybody anything that went on without worrying that it was going to compromise anybody’s privacy or security, even if I didn’t mention their name. But now I find myself in circumstances that if I share the details, the people about whom I’m speaking will find out and hear about it and their feelings will be hurt or they’ll misunderstand or they will think I’m mean or some such thing.
And so the safest route is not to even discuss it. But I had the most amazing — even if I just tell you what I did after the program yesterday, I’m already running the risk of angering somebody. I would die to tell you. I would love it tell you, but I’m hamstrung. It’s almost like I’ve become too famous to do the show. It’s like the Stick-to-the-Issues Crowd is winning because when I veer away from it and want to describe — I know what of you are saying, “Rush it’s your show. Say whatever you want to say, tell whoever you want to tell what.” I understand that.
But people that talk to me, some of them have a reasonable expectation it’s not gonna be blabbed about all over the radio, even if I don’t mention their names. (laughing) Anyway, I just got a note from Kathryn ’cause I told her about it and she said, “You want to talk about the blah, blah, right?” I just got an alert on my watch. “Yes, sweetie, that’s exactly right, and I can’t.” Snerdley’s looking at me like, “What are you afraid of?”
I’m not afraid of anything, it’s just manners, folks. I mean, you don’t blab about other people. Well, you might and they’ll never know you’re doing it. I can’t. Every time I talk about somebody, they’re going to find out. You don’t realize how it hamstrings me. You don’t realize the limitation it places. Now, I suppose I could make it up, but even if I make it up, the next day somebody may be close enough to whoever was involved is — and of course the details of this, they’re hilarious. They’re funny.
I got an economic briefing yesterday. And if I comment on this at all, folks, I’m not gonna do myself any favors. Suffice to say that the Trump administration is off to a rollicking start. The economy is booming, and there are real jobs being created. In fact, some of the most recent presidential approval data that just came out today is that Trump’s unfavorable numbers are very high, except the economy he is kicking butt. The American people profoundly approve of the way Trump’s handling the economy. But they disapprove of most everything else, according to this poll.
It used to be that if the economy was chugging, all the other stuff took care of itself. But it is. There are real jobs being created. Trump is also focusing, his administration is focusing on reviving the old concept of the vocational tech school. This I happen to believe is crucially important. This country has been… I think it’s been hampered by this notion that everybody has to go to college, that the ticket is college. Parents have bought that hook, line, and sinker.
This all started in the Great Depression. The idea that the only way — well, not the only, but the absolute best way to have a solid economic future is to have a college degree. That started in the Great Depression when nobody could find work. Jobs were nowhere to be found and the only people that got them were the educated. And this has survived generation after generation after generation to the point now where every American parent has as the primary goal for their kids that they go to college. And it’s just not made for everybody, particularly with what has happened on the American campus today, it probably is more advantageous for a lot of people to never set foot on one.
Remember what I said. I think this is a profundity. It didn’t get any reaction from people, but I think this is profound. All this talk about artificial intelligence, these guys like Elon Musk and Bill Gates and Buffett and all these other clowns in the high-tech business say, “We need to be very worried about artificial intelligence. It’s going to overrun humanity. AI, robotics, if we’re not careful it’s going to swallow us up.” And I think that’s just bogus. It’s typical sci-fi panic on the part of a bunch of tech nerds.
We already are surrounded by a bunch of artificial intelligence. It’s called college-educated Millennials. We already have mind-numbed robots. They are graduates of major American universities today. They’re not being taught to think. They’re being programmed, they’re being propagandized. They come out all thinking the same, all feeling the same. White students are being turned into people that think they have eternal guilt over being white.
They now have discussion rooms on many campuses where you can discuss the dangers of white privilege and the problems of being white. It’s hideous what’s passing as an excuse for an education today. We have robots already. They’re human beings. They’re out there among us. They don’t know anything, and all they want to do is shut down everything they find uncomfortable. They don’t believe in free speech. They don’t believe in liberty or freedom. It’s dangerous. The intelligence is artificial. It’s not genuine. There’s no thinking involved. It’s a huge problem. Long before robots take over.
So what the Trump administration is doing — and this is extremely wise — is to rebuild, reestablish the concept of the old vo-tech schools. When I was in high school, there was a vocational tech center. That was part of the high school. And it was where kids who were going to, say, work on auto assembly lines or learn skills that involve manufacturing and engineering, this is where they went. And when they finished vo-tech, they were sufficiently educated to get decent jobs that would raise a family of four or provide for a family of four for a long time.
Now, I know that there is this automation is happening in certain factories and this kind of thing. But there are still plenty of jobs that need to be done that do not require a college education and that the training for that has been totally abandoned. The schooling for that’s been abandoned in exchange for the idea that everybody needs to go to college. And everybody doesn’t need to go to college. In fact, I would maintain that some people today would be far better off if they’d never go to college, given what’s gonna happen to them there, depending on the college they choose.
The point is that real, constructive economic things are occurring in the Trump administration. And Trump had a meeting today with the National Association of Manufacturers. Now, you might think, “Well, big deal, Rush. Trump’s been meeting with all these different groups.” Manufacturers’ optimism, according to a survey of themselves, manufacturers’ optimism is at a 20-year high. And these guys met with Trump this morning.
This survey has been taken for 20 years. It has never been as high as it is. The survey shows a dramatic shift in sentiment with more than 93% of manufacturers feeling positive about their economic outlook. This is the highest in the survey’s 20-year history, up from 56% one year ago and 77% in December. In just three months it’s gone from 77.8% to 93% optimism among manufacturers.
Folks, it’s just a year or two ago that people were complaining about the — well, two years and 15 prior to that. I mean, for 20 years basically, but intensely the last two years, three years, people have been complaining about the loss of manufacturing jobs, NAFTA, trade deals. They’ve lost their jobs. These manufacturers are feeling more optimistic about the return of their business in the United States, an all-time high in 20 years.
“Fresh off the heels of the third straight month of manufacturing job growth, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) today released the first Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey since President Donald Trump took office.” It’s up from 78% to 93%.
“Across America, manufacturers’ optimism is soaring, in no small part because of President Trump’s laser-like focus on pursuing bold action, particularly on rethinking red tape to address regulatory reform, to accelerate a jobs surge in America,” said Jay Timmons, who’s the president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.
This is just the latest. The automobile guys have been up to meet with Trump. CEOs in general have been up to meet with Trump. All kinds of different groups from various aspects of the economy have been up to meet with Trump. And they all walk out, and they all say: “Best meeting I’ve ever had. Best meeting I’ve had in 10 years.”
Real jobs are being created. There is real wage growth. You know how you know? Even if you don’t trust it and you think that’s just partisan BS, take a look at the possibility of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. They always do that when the economy starts growing because they are deathly afraid of inflation.
So there isn’t any doubt that it is happening. And throughout the Trump administration and his time so far, there are numerous achievements like this and promises which have been kept. But, again, it isn’t being reported, nobody knows it, and therefore there is no aura around it. There is no image that we’re winning. There’s no image that Trump is progressing and keeping his promises. There’s no image that America’s rebounding, because everything in the news, the hot take is, “That doesn’t look good. That doesn’t look good. That doesn’t sound good.”
Every day, whatever’s in the news, it’s negative for Trump.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, here’s some other things that have happened, are happening with the Trump administration that are rousing successes and that are at least things heading in the right direction, that it’s just infuriating the left. It’s making them livid precisely because Trump is succeeding. The first thing Trump’s gonna do is appeal this injunction of the Trump revised travel order. That Hawaii judge has now made it permanent.
Judge Watson has made his temporary stay permanent, and the Trump Justice Department is gonna take a poke at it. Now it’s gonna at the happen Ninth Circus Court of Appeals, so it’s up grabs as to what happens. The Daily Caller has a story: “ICE Report Dumps Cold Water on a Favorite Defense of Sanctuary Cities — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement report puts a damper on the argument that sanctuary cities aren’t a problem because they only shield non-violent illegal immigrants.”
Have you heard that advanced as their argument? The sanctuary city people say (summarized exchange), “We’re not a problem! Look, we’re not shielding criminals here! We’re not shielding ringleaders here. We’re not shielding bad guys! We’re only shielding the decent and the law-abiding.” So here comes ICE saying, “Oh, yeah?” They have just thrown cold water on it with a “weekly declined detainer report shows, however, many county and city law enforcement agencies regularly release criminal aliens who have been convicted of violent crimes, including domestic battery and sexual assault.”
They’re released back into the community. They’re not turned over to ICE as the law requires. They are not detained and put in jail. They are released in these sanctuary cities. “The report, which covers February 4-10, tallied 47 declined detainer requests from two dozen jurisdictions across the country.” What this means is there are 47 different requests from ICE to detain specific violent, illegal criminals, and those 47 requests were rejected by various sanctuary cities. “New York City accounted for 12 of those rejections, far more than any other jurisdiction.”
This just one week, folks! Forty-seven is just one week, and Trump’s not accepting “no.” He’s continuing to target them. “Sessions: Convictions Likely Needed to End Government Leaks,” and they’re going to seek the leakers and they’re gonna prosecute them. The only thing that’s gonna stop the leaking is actually finding and convicting these people. He said, “This is not right. We’ve never seen this kind of leaking. It’s almost as if people think they have a right to violate the law. This has got to end, and it will probably take some convictions to put an end to it.”
There’s no “probably” to it. There is no question.
But the Trump people are pursuing it. “Jeff Sessions Moves to Speed up Deportation of Federal Inmates — Illegal immigrants convicted of a federal crime may be deported more quickly under a policy move announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday.” My point is the Trump administration is getting up every day and going to work, and they are trying as hard as they can to keep the promises that they made during the campaign, and in many ways, they are succeeding. But you don’t…
Even that story — the success that Trump is having in targeting illegal immigrants, sanctuary cities — it’s all portrayed in the media: “This doesn’t look good! This looks really mean. This seems really intolerant. Trump must really hate Mexicans.” All that kind of thing is the way it’s characterized. But it isn’t stopping him. It isn’t stopping Sessions. They’re moving ahead with cleaning out the barn and they’re moving ahead with the wall and shoring up the border, and all the caterwauling and whining and moaning by these children in the media is not stopping Trump.