Screengrab from https://twitter.com/realannapaulina/status/1078061772341420032

The trip by President Trump to the US base at al-Assad airbase in Iraq has proven to be exactly no different than basically any other action by President Trump. First we have the utterly unhinged NeverTrump people slinging spittle:

Which is it, MAGAs?

Cowardice or indifference? https://t.co/iSVmXUbq8P

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 26, 2018

Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime. https://t.co/VEyyij9B0S

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 26, 2018

One can’t help but gloat here at the fact that by the time Wilson and Milano sent these out, Trump was already on the ground in Iraq. And a note to the no-talent has-been Montel:

Breaking: Dow surges more than 1,000 points, its biggest point gain in history, recovering from days of losses https://t.co/RN7DQxL9MG

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 26, 2018

Then we have a fairly successful execution of a plan that has been in the works for a while

White House official tells me this was not a last minute trip — was in the works for 6 weeks. Trump and Melania would have left from Florida if not for the shutdown.

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) December 26, 2018

I believe Trump just flew to the Middle East on VC-25A (Air Force One) using a disguise callsign of RCH358 and a disguise hex code which couldn't be traced back to any aircraft. Thanks to spotters in Europe, there is visual confirmation this is VC-25A 92-9000! pic.twitter.com/PyVHRS2zlb

— Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) December 26, 2018

.@HeatherChilders & I discussed what #Trump trip to #Iraq means to the troops
And what it means about our strategy & policy for the region pic.twitter.com/Gh0XTRZ3l2

— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) December 27, 2018

https://twitter.com/realannapaulina/status/1078061772341420032

And Trump manages to step on his own message by ad libbing praises to himself:

"They said, ‘You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent. We could make it 2 percent. We could make it 4 percent,’” Trump said. “I said, ‘No. Make it 10 percent. Make it more than 10 percent.’ #Trump https://t.co/wv5Lr2msrg

— 🍁 Leanne Lancaster 🍁 #ChooseForward 🍁 (@LancasterLeanne) December 27, 2018

The media immediately, attacks the people who were happy with the action (Bonchie’s diary is a must-read)

So to summarize the last two days, the media went from…

"Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime"
⬇
"Trump only went to Iraq to visit troops after he got embarrassed"
⬇
"The troops were too excited and political when Trump showed up" pic.twitter.com/7st75mEp0a

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) December 27, 2018

And then, whatever Trump did either wasn’t good enough

So CNN is now labeling Trump as "the Grinch" who stole Christmas from the troops in Iraq.

This of course comes after they spent an entire day railing on Trump for not visiting troops during Christmastime (even though it turned out he had a scheduled trip to Iraq) pic.twitter.com/xWXnWSUyRC

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) December 27, 2018

National security expert @MalcolmNance nails Trump for revealing classified identities of special ops troops in Iraq visithttps://t.co/66gKArJE4i

— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 27, 2018

Or what he did just didn’t matter.

Old and broke (Nov 21): Trump *still* hasn’t visited US troops in a combat zone

New and woke (Dec 26): Do presidential visits to combat zones offer leaders any insights, or boost morale for troops? pic.twitter.com/ed3sSAEUM0

— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) December 26, 2018

https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1078133401071292416

This is sort of pathetic. And it was really fun watching the “I don’t like Trump but I will praise him when he’s right” wing of NeverTrump suddenly find this trip to be so wrong that they couldn’t say anything good about it.

Ironically, the media opposition to Trump has become rote and predictable. No one even bothers to read the negative stories about Trump and his administration anymore because everyone already knows exactly what they are going to say. When you have the cognitive dissonance of positive imagery and negative reporting, the reporting is discredited even by people who are inclined to believe the story.