ON MEXICO, TRUMP SEEMS TO WIN, BUT WINNING DOESN'T FIT THE RIGHT'S BUSINESS MODEL

It appears that the Trump administration has reached a deal with Mexico that he can describe as a huge victory, whether or not it actually is:

President Trump backed off his plan to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods and announced via Twitter on Friday night that the United States had reached an agreement with Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants to the southwestern border.

... Mexico agreed to “take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration,” including the deployment of its national guard throughout the country to stop migrants from reaching the United States.

The declaration, distributed by the State Department, said Mexico had also agreed to accept an expansion of a Trump administration program that makes some migrants wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are heard in the United States.

The president is so excited he's breaking out the all caps.

MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2019

But will the new measures stem the flow of migrants? Will Trump stop threatening tariffs? And hey, wasn't Mexico already buying a lot of our farm products?

You'd expect every right-wing news site in America to be breaking out the big banner headlines and touting this as a massive accomplishment.

You'd be wrong. Here's the front page of PJ Media right now:



"Trump Reaches Deal with Mexico" is the #4 story on the front page.

Here's the Daily Caller's front page:



"Why the Left Won't Talk About HBO's 'Chernobyl'" is the lead story. (It's also a completely misleading headline, if my Twitter feed is any indication). The Mexico story is #3, after a story about fetal tissue research.

Here's the Breitbart front page:



Here's Lucianne.com:



Here's Townhall:



The Mexico deal is only the #12 story on the FoxNews.com front page, well below these stories:



And even then, the headline for the Fox story about Mexico is "CNN Panel Has Different Take on Trump’s Mexico Deal."

Trump thinks he can sell this deal as a success, but the right-wing media just can't handle success. The conservative audience is so addicted to rage that front pages have to be incessantly focused on enemies -- Democrats, Muslims, the "liberal media," the "politically correct," and of course the people behind the Russiagate "witch hunt" (see the Lucianne front page).

This may be why Republicans couldn't successfully campaign on the economy in 2018. Polls show that Americans think the economy is good (although many Americans don't feel they're personally benefiting from the apparent prosperity). But Republicans have lost the ability to feel good about good news. Even if they think happy economic days are here again, what good is that to them? Somebody needs to suffer! Even liberals benefit from a good economy!

They can fear their enemies. They can feel contempt for their enemies. They don't seem to have any other emotions anymore.