Fourteen months into the current administration, CNN anchor Erin Burnett felt compelled to make a startling admission — Donald Trump may go down "as a great president."
She added, "And there's no way around that. That is the reality here."
Burnett's assessment was referring to President Trump's ability to get the North Korean dictator to the negotiating table and solve the 70-year-old problem with the communist regime.
But there is another factor already pushing Trump into the "greatness" pantheon — the economy.
The first three quarters of Trump's presidency have been tabulated and GDP growth comes in at about 3 percent.
The magnitude of this result becomes clearer when one realizes President Obama averaged GDP growth of about 1.5 percent — so low it is considered near recessionary.
Shockingly, Barack Obama is the first U.S. president since the Great Depression to never see a 3 percent GDP rate in any year of his presidency.
In a short time, Trump has jumped economic growth by almost a 100 percent!
This is the really big story of the Trump presidency you have never heard on the nightly news.
Trump critics are quick to deride him and take away the credit he deserves. They tell me he inherited this as a gift from Obama.
"How so?" I ask. I usually get shrugged shoulders.
Trump indeed drove economic growth last year.
It was a massive deregulation program, backing the Keystone pipeline, ANWR drilling, opening liquefied natural gas exports, and bringing in over $500 billion in foreign investment and purchasing deals — all while delivering on a massive business and personal tax cut.
The media harps on his alt-right base, but miss his real base: small business people, entrepreneurs, and corporate America.
This "business class" love Trump and see him as one of their own in the Oval Office.
We see evidence of their support in record business confidence numbers, including Gallup's small business confidence index hitting records.
Make no mistake about it, Trump has created a new version of the presidency. I call it "Trump 3.0."
Typically a 2.0 version updates the original. But 3.0 breaks all the molds.
Coincidentally, 3.0 matches that high GDP growth rate President Trump has been overseeing.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned to the president that his presidency is "Trump 3.0."
He liked the idea, but quickly added, "It's going to be 4.0, and then 5.0 — very soon, you'll see."
Always striving and relentless, Trump indicated to me he wants 4 to 5 percent GDP growth rates.
Most establishment economists scoff at such a goal.
But Trump has a soul mate in Larry Kudlow, his new chairman of the National Economic Council.
Kudlow, one of the country's most respected macro-economists, was a key architect of Reagan's economic program, one that gave the U.S. hyper GDP growth in the 1980s, reaching over 7 percent annual growth one year.
Kudlow tells me Trump's prediction of 4 and 5 percent GDP rates is not off. These benchmarks will be reached, he says.
So, forget the "smoke screens" the major media are pushing on the American people on a constant basis, non-stories like Russian collusion and Stormy Daniels.
The big story is about the economic miracle ignited by President Trump.
In journalism, we have always been counseled to "follow the money."
Well, you should too — and make your own judgment about the president.
Christopher Ruddy is CEO of Newsmax Media, Inc., one of the country's leading conservative news outlets. Read more Christopher Ruddy Insider articles — Click Here Now.
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