Opinion - Leland Vittert's War Notes: 98 Days and Counting
NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight's 9 pm ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.
Set your DVRs: For coverage of President Trump's first 100 days of his second term unlike any other network.
Wednesday, April 30, from 8-10 p.m. ET: Chris Cuomo and Bill O'Reilly's town hall – with President Trump himself calling in.
Then, a special postgame edition of 'On Balance.'
Friday, May 2, at 9 p.m. ET: Are you better off? Bill O'Reilly and I will give you a totally different way to look at Trump's first 100 days – as former President Biden would say, compare me to the alternative, not the Almighty.
Common sense: Today, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced the PELOSI Act – get it?
It stands for the 'Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act,' which spells out 'PELOSI.'
It requires members of Congress to put their securities in a blind trust rather than trade stocks and get returns that make Warren Buffett look pedestrian.
A+ for effort: In the past, such bills have had poisoned bills attached to keep them from passing – we'll see if this gets the same treatment.
Favorite story of the day: 'Prosecutors in Minnesota's Largest County Must Now Consider 'Racial Identity' in Plea Deals,' by Matthew Xiao of The Washington Free Beacon.
Yes, the home state of Gov. Tim Walz thinks it's OK to decide prison sentences based on race – wow!
Thought bubble: Are they doing this just so Trump gets mad and they get famous?
North Lawn posters: The White House put up a hundred posters on the North Lawn of illegal immigrants, who allegedly committed crimes, that the administration has arrested.
Over the next week, we will hear a never-ending mashup of report cards on Trump's first 100 days – remember that's an invention of the media and presidential campaigns.
No American sits there and thinks about their life in this way.
The media will reflect on what they want.
Perspective: I can paint you a picture that shows Trump with the worst 100 days of a modern president and the best … and both would be entirely factual.
Gleeful: Trump has the lowest approval rating at the 100-day mark of any president in the past 80 years, according to polling by ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos and CNN – much of the media loves this story.
Be fair: How much of those results is the American people reflecting back what the media has told them?
The previous record-low approval rating at 100 days was also held by President Trump during his first term.
Look back: And save COVID, the first Trump administration worked out really well for Americans, especially on the economy.
Tomorrow: The Trump administration will hold a victory lap on the economy – huh?!?!
Maybe the economy will be good in September when all of the deals have been made with foreign countries, but it's not good now.
Read: Bill O'Reilly's latest column, 'Trump vs. the Press.'
'To say the corporate media is delighted by President Trump's falling poll numbers is the understatement of the year so far. The press wants Trump to fail so the media industry can be redeemed. Simple as that,' O'Reilly writes.
What I am thinking: I don't get how Trump failing redeems the press, but I do know that a lot of people in the press hate Trump.
Trump supporters want it both ways – they want credit for closing the border and deporting folks right now – but want everybody to wait and withhold judgment on his economic policies until they start to 'work.'
Watch tonight: Bill O'Reilly on what parts of Trump's first 100 days matter.
We must apologize: Something important happened this weekend at the White House Correspondents' dinner – we didn't think it was possible.
BUT: Someone told the truth.
Watch Axios' Alex Thompson's acceptance speech for the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House coverage – it's short, only 2 minutes, and worth watching.
He said, 'We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it. We should have done better.'
Look back: Thompson was a regular on the show when he broke story after story about Joe Biden's health – he took a lot of heat for those stories.
Back then, he was easy to book because no other network wanted him.
Now, he's a CNN contributor with a book out next month with Jake Tapper titled, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.'
The setting: This past weekend, Washington's elite got together for a weekend of self-congratulations and self-importance – otherwise known as the White House Correspondents' dinner.
You can read all about 'Nerd Prom' coverage somewhere else – I wasn't there.
Contrast: White House Correspondents Association President Eugene Daniels proclaimed, 'We are not the enemy of the state' while begging for relevancy.
Zoom out: If the likes of Alex Thompson filled the White House press corps – tenacious, smart, humble – the White House press corps would be a lot more relevant and would be worth celebrating.
At first it seemed like satire: A Vox article that headlines, 'The unspoken rules of MAGA womanhood.'
'At the White House, women stand at his side as he speaks from the podium, sporting what has come to be known as 'Republican ' makeup and 'Mar-a-Lago face.''
YIKES, moreover, YUCK!
Can you really lump every Trump-supporting woman together? What is this, the 1950s?!
For a Left that hates Donald Trump and attacks his treatment of women, they appear okay with treating many women even worse.
Allie Beth Stuckey has been the victim of this for years and joins us tonight with her experiences.
Plus: Ana Marie Cox, a progressive, on why women on the Left aren't speaking out – remember when they said to support and believe all women.
Tune into 'On Balance with Leland Vittert' weeknights at 9/8 CT on NewsNation. Find your channel here.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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