RUSH: You know, this is classic. This is classic Trump. This is great Trump. And it just irritates the hell out of the media and the Democrats and the snowflakes. Trump… (laughing) Trump said yesterday that everybody thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but he would never say it. (laughing) He would never say it out loud. (laughing) He just did! (impression) “Everybody — everybody, a lot of people. You know, everybody. Everybody! When I say ‘everybody,’ I mean everybody. Everybody thinks I deserve a Nobel Peace Prize because of what we’re doing here in North Korea. Now, I would never, ever say that out loud.”

(laughing)

Quote, “Trump was asked by a reporter at the White House if he’s deserving of the prize after” getting the three hostages back. “‘Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,’ said Trump… ‘You know what I want to do?’ Trump said to reporters. ‘I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world — not for even here — I want victory for the world. Because that’s what we’re talking about, so that’s the only prize I want.'”

So he just rams it in and turns it and just keeps goading these people, and they don’t know how to deal with it. They ask him a question. “Oh, no! Everybody thinks I should be, but no. I would never say it.” (laughing)

Trump also has the fur flying over the supposed allegation that he is going to start credentialing people in the media to get rid of fake news. “President Donald Trump on Wednesday raised the prospect of taking away credentials from news media outlets that he believes are reporting negatively on his administration, claiming that the ‘Fake News’ is ‘working overtime’ against him.”

He tweeted, “The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?” And, now, this… Matt Drudge has tweeted that he thinks that it is extremely possible Trump could actually try to follow through on this down the road.

But, you know, whether or not there is validity to that, let’s go back to, “Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?” You know what they could do without having to take away credentials? Just cancel this daily White House briefing. It is absolutely pointless — and I don’t mean this to be insulting, ’cause I actually think that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is one of the best press secretaries this country has had in many, many years.

I think this woman is so utterly competent and qualified at what she’s doing. But still, why give the media the forum and then televise it? Why give them the free shot every day not only at Trump, but at her? If Trump is about revolutionizing things, get rid of that. It’s a tradition that dates way back to when there wasn’t a World Wide Web, when we didn’t have bloggers, when we didn’t have all these different news sources.

It’s a throwback to when all there was was print journalism and the boys on the bus would collect the news and write it and put it in the paper and so forth, and that’s how people learned about things. Then radio came along and it became a little bit more immediate. Then radio and TV together made it more immediate. Then here comes the internet some years later. And now? I mean, it’s unnecessary. It’s just a tradition. And you talk to any White House press secretary.

They’ll tell you the job was to say a lot but say nothing, to talk a lot but don’t say a thing. No real news is ever made in a White House press briefing. It’s just a place for these reporters to act out whoever they wish to act out. In the Obama administration, the press briefing was where the reporters went to suck up. It’s where the reporters went to try to suck up to the press secretary so the press secretary would go back and tell the president how much in love with him they are.

The press briefing today is exclusively for NBC and CNN to act like SOBs and be able to televise what they think is their brilliance the rest of the day on their networks. It’s showbiz for these people, and it’s a lame attempt at it. If Trump did that, can you imagine? Can you imagine the outrage that would be forthcoming? Let’s go to the audio sound bites. We have the president here welcoming the hostages back and thanking Little Rocket Man and telling the media they’re gonna be breaking records for 3 a.m. ratings because of Trump.

Here is Prince George County, Maryland, Joint Base Andrews, Trump welcoming home the three Americans released by Little Rocket Man…

THE PRESIDENT: The fact that we were able to get ’em out so soon was really a tribute to a lot of things, including a certain process that’s taking place right now, and that process is very important. We will see if we can do something that people did not think was going to happen for many, many years, and a lot of bad things could have happened in between. So I just want to say this is a special night for these three really great people. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early. That is a big thing, very important to me.

RUSH: And then a reporter started shouting, “Mr. President! Mr. President! Is this your proudest achievement?”

THE PRESIDENT: My proudest achievement will be — this is a part of it, but will be — when we denuclearize that entire peninsula. This is what people have been waiting for for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of speed. So I’m very honored to have helped the three folks. They’re great people. You know, I got to speak to them on the plane. These are great people. They’ve been through a lot. But it’s a great honor. But the great — the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

RUSH: And then Trump decided to start bragging about ratings at 3 a.m. during this ceremony.

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank you all. It’s very early in the morning. I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o’clock in the morning. That I would say. But I want to just congratulate. These are three great people.

RUSH: (impression) “And, of course, the reason we’re breaking the 3 a.m. TV ratings is because of me. I’m doing this at 3 a.m., and everybody wants to watch it. Everybody wants to be here, including you,” he’s saying to the media. Now, this morning on the Today show, the chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, interviewed the vice president, Mike Pence. She said, “Is the president praising [the Little Rocket Man] too much? Is the president raising expectations too high?”

PENCE: I think what the president was referring to is that in this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see in good faith. They’ve been —

MITHCELL: (interrupting) You’re talking about a dictator, sir —

PENCE: — responding to engagement.

MITCHELL: — who’s enslaved millions of his own people!

PENCE: (big sigh) Andrea, we have no illustrations about that. We do believe that the regime in North Korea has taken steps that indicate this may be an opportunity for a breakthrough, the kind of breakthrough that’s eluded the United States and the world community for more than 20 years.

RUSH: How about that? Andrea Mitchell telling Pence, “Remember, this go is a dictator!” When’d that ever stop you, Andrea, from praising people like Fidel Castro? What a bunch of… I mean, for crying out loud! “Remember, he’s enslaved his own people. He’s a real bad dictator,” as though Pence doesn’t know this? Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington? They get in bed with these foreign dictators and think they’re the greatest things on earth.

Moving over to Good Morning America now, Jonathan Karl interviewing Pence said, “The president called Kim Jong-un a madman. Was the president wrong back then or is Kim Jong-un a madman?” Now, study this question. This is from an otherwise sane person. I knew Jonathan Karl when he was unpoisoned. I knew Jon Karl way, way back. He used to be, I think, at ESPN.

No, no. CNN. Then he moved over to ABC. I used to know this guy back when I lived in New York. He was a sane, rational individual. These people — ever since Trump — have lost their grip. This question, “The president called Kim Jong-un a madman. Was the president wrong back then or is he a madman?” And that’s a trap question, obviously. Here’s Pence’s reply…

PENCE: Well, we’re seeing hopeful signs from Kim Jong-un that he is prepared to embrace complete denuclearization. That’s his words. But President Trump found a way to communicate in terms, I believe, that Kim Jong-un could finally hear.

KARL: Wuh?

PENCE: He could hear that this president was serious about achieving the objective that has eluded the world community for a quarter century; that is the full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

RUSH: Let me just tell you: The media doesn’t know what just happened. They can’t comprehend this. In their world, Trump is this bumbling bull in a china shop that’s gonna upset every norm that has been established. And Trump is gonna cause our enemies to go nuts and start attacking us. Trump is gonna create just continual chaos because the rest of the world is not gonna understand him and so forth. And what’s really happened here is Trump has come along and is doing exactly what they all feared.

He brings… Can you name for me a president since… Let’s see. Let’s just see. Let’s just see. Can you name for me a president since Ulysses S. Grant who has been as successful at what he did in life as Donald Trump? Can anybody? Name… (interruption) Okay, who? (interruption) Herbert Hoover did what in the private sector? What was Hoover known for? What did Herbert Hoover do? My point is that all of these people come from the Ivy League.

Harry Truman was a bit of an outsider. He was a haberdashery, and look at him. Now, in retrospect, he’s considered a pretty good president. But you can’t name a president from the Kennedys on that had accomplished anywhere near what Donald Trump has accomplished in real life, in the real world — outside the political arena where so many things are put in place and are prearranged. They don’t know how to deal with him.

These people have no ability to relate to people who have not been or are not in politics. So Trump comes from the outside, he looks at Kim Jong-un, and sees what everybody not in Washington sees: a literally insane, lunatic who is there simply because of the family. And Trump sees the way he’s been dealt with for the last 20 or 30 years. Kim and his father and his father before him. And what Trump sees is the standard, ordinary procedure of dealing with these people has done nothing but make these people more powerful.

But Trump says, “Why should I continue this?” So Trump brings his own real life experience to bear on this world, the political world, and everybody in it does not know how to react to it. My point is, there isn’t a president in the last 30 years that could have done this. They all tried. They all tried to do exactly what’s happened here. Madeleine Albright and all these brilliant secretaries of state got nowhere, except making the Kim family of North Korea more dangerous and stronger. Look at what Trump’s done in a year and a half.

I’m telling you, these people are gobsmacked. They don’t understand. Trump calls this guy Little Rocket Man? “Oh, my God. Oh, no. Oh, no. We’re gonna die. Oh, no.” It is like when Reagan said, “The bombing starts in five minutes” before recording a radio commentary, calling the Soviet the evil empire. “Oh, no! You don’t do that. That’s not proper diplomacy! Oh, my God, oh, my…” They’re totally gobsmacked.

They don’t understand Kim Jong-un giving up these hostages. They don’t understand Kim Jong-un wanted to talk about potentially denuclearization. They don’t understand any of it. And look at this next bite. Here’s how they’re dealing with it. This is absurd. This is Good Morning America today and Jonathan Karl’s interview with Mike Pence. Here he’s talking to George Stephanopoulos after the interview with Pence.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It is striking that both the vice president and the president seem to believe that Kim Jong-un might completely denuclearize?

KARL: That he might completely denuclearize — essentially, George, that he might be a transformational, historical figure.

RUSH: Right. Kim Jong-un… In these people’s distorted vision, Kim Jong-un is the transitional figure. It can’t be Trump! “Are you kidding me?” they say. “It can’t be Trump. Something’s happened to the North Koreans, and they realize it’s time to give it up, and it just happened to happen — they just happened to get sane — when Trump became president. They just happened to realize they can’t keep this up when Trump became president.

“It’s just an accident. It’s a coincidence. Kim Jong-un is the transformational figure.” I’m telling you, they’re gobsmacked. They haven’t slightest idea what’s hit them yet. And they’re further insane ’cause they haven’t been able to destroy him. They’ve thrown everything they’ve got. Everything that they have successfully used to destroy any Republican they wanted in the last 50 years, they’ve launched it at Trump. It hadn’t worked. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re getting very frustrated and confused at the same time.

I’ll tell you, folks, it’s actually fun to watch this.