Trump's "Mission Accomplished" moment

[marmar]

Trump’s “Mission Accomplished” moment gives Democrats an opening
The president falsely claimed he "fixed" the affordability crisis. He and the GOP will pay in the November midterms

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published February 17, 2026 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) Most presidencies have at least one iconic moment that makes the history books. It may not be fair or legitimately representative, but it’s usually an image that people remember if they recall nothing else, like Ronald Reagan in Berlin — “Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall” — or Bill Clinton falsely claiming “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” One of the most indelible images in recent memory was George W. Bush’s misguided aircraft carrier stunt in which he donned a flight suit and landed on the ship in a fighter jet during the early days of the Iraq War in 2003 to give a speech before a banner that proclaimed “Mission Accomplished.” The war would go for another eight years.

That image of Bush has become a meme — a symbol of presidential hubris that any leader with a drop of sense would seek to avoid at all costs. But Donald Trump apparently didn’t get the message.

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Trump is a reflexive braggart and a hype artist, so his claims of success where none exists are so common as to be unremarkable. But this time, he may have stepped on Bush’s landmine. Even former president Joe Biden, who was punished for his inability to fully tame inflation while maintaining his insistence on touting impressive jobs numbers, didn’t go that far. And Trump’s dismal approval ratings show that most Americans are anything but convinced.

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Having people such as Attorney General Pam Bondi declare that Americans should be celebrating the stock market instead of worrying about the massive pedophilia scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein that has enveloped some of the world’s decadent elites — including Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — is tone deaf on virtually every level. Not only aren’t people in a celebratory mood about the markets, they are downright sour on the future. That affects consumer spending, business start-ups — everything. ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/02/17/trumps-mission-accomplished-moment-gives-democrats-an-opening/