RUSH: Contrary to the image portrayed — and I understand it. The image portrayed on, quote-unquote, “the news” every day is that Trump is a buffoon, Trump’s an idiot, Trump’s a pig, and Trump is losing. “Trump’s being shamed, and we, the media and the left, are winning.” That’s what is portrayed. That is left, the image, that is the prism that they construct every day — and nothing could be further from the truth, folks.

They aren’t winning. I know many of you are gonna say, “Rush, they are! You can’t give people false hope like that.” I’m not trying to give anybody false hope. I’m just telling you. They are not unbeatable. Trump’s very victory alone (and more) is evidence. Here’s a piece in the Investor’s Business Daily. It just happens to coincide with where I am here. “Someone Just Noticed That Trump Is Getting Stuff Done.” How many of these types of pieces have you seen lately?

There’s quite a few of them popping up now. As the economic news grows and is building, the employment, the economic growth, the wage picture. It’s all on the uptick. None of it was happening during four years of Obama, just the exact opposite with Obama. People are starting to notice it. Even Gavin Newsom, who wants to run for governor of California (former mayor of San Francisco), is out there warning (paraphrased):

“You Democrats, this Russia business is gonna get us nothing. It’s not gonna get us a single vote.” He’s a lone voice in the Democrat universe. But he’s out there saying, “It’s not going to get us a single vote. What are we gonna do in 2018, 2020, on the campaign trail? Just say ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’?” Gavin Newsom’s point is they’ve forgotten about people. They’ve forgotten about the people they claim to represent, the little guy — and they have. They have cast the little guy aside.

Here’s the Investor’s Business Daily: “Achievements: After weeks and months of fixating on tweets and Russia, someone in the press decided to have a look at what the Trump administration has been up to since January. Lo and behold, they discovered that it’s getting a lot done. ‘Trump Has Quietly Accomplished More Than It Appears’ reads the headline in the Atlantic,” which is a magazine that hates Trump. “‘With the Trump administration’s chaos sucking up all the attention,’ the article begins, ‘it’s been able to move forward on a range of its priorities. …

“It is remaking the justice system,” and that is a nod to Gorsuch and upcoming Trump judicial appointments. The Trump administration is “rewriting environmental rules…” By the way, Trump made it official. We have officially pulled out of the Paris accords. Up to now, it was just Trump saying so. But at the U.N., we have actually pulled out of it. There were still some people hoping that they could change Trump’s behind even behind the scenes.

But no, we have officially pulled out of the Paris accords. And that is… Don’t let anybody tell you that’s not a big deal. The way they’re trying to handle that is, “Well, you know, the Paris accords weren’t really that big a deal. It was just a framework! It was just a document where nations of the world were committing their preferences.” Yeah, that’s what they say when it falls apart on ’em. That’s what they say when it blows up. It is a huge deal that the United States is pulling out. Obama had signed us up for it.

Trump is pulling us out. It is a huge deal. It is a major blow, because, as goes the United States, so goes the world. And I’m telling you that leftists around the world are shocked and ticked off like you can’t believe. So Trump’s rewriting environmental rules. Trump overhauling public lands administration. This is the Department of the Interior, where major changes have taken place in terms of regulations and public use.

We have already, the Trump administration’s already green lighted major — green lit, I should say — major infrastructure projects and the Trump administration is appointing figures, people, who will guarantee the triumph of its ideological vision for decades to come. Bingo! And all of this in 200 days.

Now, people don’t know it because none of this is covered in the Drive-By news, which is Russia, Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion, collusion, Mueller, Mueller, Mueller. Trump’s a pig, Trump’s a pig, Trump’s a pig. Or whatever’s going on in the White House briefing, or whatever argument’s Trump is having with the media. But in the real world things are happening, and they are significant things.

Let me find — there is a companion piece to this major infrastructure pieces going on. Oh, have you seen the story, they’re trying to warn you that your pet’s environmental footprint is bigger than you think and that your pets may be contributing to climate change, too? But of course they’re not preaching to you to change anything. No, no, no. Gore’s not telling you to do anything. But here’s a story, your pets, your dogs, your cats, your hamsters, whatever, your gerbils, they are creating more climate change damage than you ever knew. You might want to think about getting rid of some, says the story.

This is from a website called Eureka Alert: “How to Pave Over Our Big Butt Problem.” Now, wait, before you have a knee-jerk reaction. That’s the headline. It’s a story about recycling and the thing that’s been discovered here is mixing cigarette butts with asphalt. “Asphalt mixed with cigarette butts can handle heavy traffic and also reduce thermal conductivity. This means the product could not only solve a huge waste problem but would also be useful in reducing the urban heat island effect common in cities.”

What is that? Very simply, what color is asphalt? It’s black. What happens when the sun shines on black surfaces? The black surface absorbs the heat, correct? And then that heat is reflected back off of the surface. In certain circumstances you can literally feel the heat waves, can you not? This happens frequently in major cities. You can feel the heat waves coming up. In fact, I remember back in the late seventies, eighties when I worked for the Kansas City Royals, the artificial surface in those days, AstroTurf, Tartan Turf, it was on asphalt. Did you know this? A bed of black asphalt was laid, and that’s what the carpet was put on top of. There was black asphalt underneath the green AstroTurf or Tartan Turf. And that stuff was very thin. There wasn’t any padding under it.

And I can remember on sunny Sunday day games in August where in our dugout there would be buckets and buckets of ice where players — outfield — well, the whole turf, there was no dirt except in the base pits. Players would come stand in the ice to cool off their shoes. You could be 120 degrees on the field with the heat waves rising. I wonder what impact asphalt has on temperature readings where they are measuring climate change temperatures.

Oh. And have you heard that in Australia they discovered that the official weather service there had been monkeying with the official temperature? You know how? They were not reporting accurate low temperatures. They were making up low temperatures by adding to them. The entire heat graph of Australia now needs to be changed because of this fraud.

So, anyway, cigarette butts mixed with asphalt reduces the heat absorption aspect of asphalt, and it also withstands the heavy traffic use that asphalt gets and it would help with these endless cigarette butts that are all over the place, cleaning up the mess, mixing them in with asphalt. Who knew? It’s part of what’s happening in all of this infrastructure innovation that’s taking place.

So IBD, Investor’s Business Daily talks about this Atlantic piece, goes on to detail these achievements and more. Border crossings are down. They have plummeted, in fact, even though all Trump’s done so far is to promise to enforce existing laws. The EPA is dismantling Obama’s coal-killing Clean Power Plan. How about coal coming back? Obama really did promise and fulfilled it, to tear down the coal industry. Trump’s bringing it back.

The point is, in 200 days major significant changes have taken place, and I’ll tell you this. This is also panicking the people in Washington, in the swamp, in the establishment. This just can’t stand. They can’t let this go on if they have any say-so over it at all.

So many people say, “Why don’t the Republicans just get up behind Trump?” Somebody over the weekend said to me, “Do you realize how much more Trump could have gotten done if his own party would get behind him?” I said, “Yeah.” I said, “Why do you think they’re not?” I’ve often found it to be more persuasive if you can encourage people to answer their own questions, ’cause then they will believe themselves. “Man, if the Republicans would just help him.”

“Yeah. Why aren’t they, don’t you think?” “Well” — you know, a little nudging along the way and they finally get to the conclusion maybe nobody in Washington wants Trump to succeed, not with this agenda.