RUSH: One of the reasons that the Democrats hate Donald Trump so much is that he made promises and is keeping them. Now, you may pooh-pooh that, but I’m telling you, folks: I notice everything, and I can’t tell you the number of times in just the past two weeks that I have witnessed Drive-By Media people actually say how stupid, crazy, unusual it is for politicians to actually keep promises. They are acknowledging that promises are nothing more than campaign tricks. They are campaign lies.

They are designed to be sold. “Trump did a good job of selling them, but the problem is Trump actually is keeping them. You’re not supposed to keep your promises!” This, from the Drive-By Media. I’ve heard four different people either say it or ask other people questions about it. The bottom line is, the media in Washington is confused. “You’re not supposed to keep promises. That’s not what promises are for! Promises are (sputtering) efforts to fool people!” But Trump is keeping his promises. But in the process, it’s not just that. He is delivering improvements across the board.

That’s the thing they can’t abide. Folks, I cannot emphasize enough that the improving economic circumstances brought about by tariffs, brought about by all of Trump’s foreign policy and economic policy — the lowering of unemployment, the rising wages… The stock market is approaching record levels. These are real, tangible results results that people can touch, they can feel, they can live! There’s no denying them, and the Democrats are appalled and frightened as they can be by this because their job… If you get down to brass tacks, the Democrat Party, I’m convinced, is not really about improving America.

Go back and look at the Obama administration. What’d they tell us? America’s best days essentially are behind us. “The American dream where your kids do better than you? Eh, kind of iffy now.” Why? Well, because America’s greatness in the past was not really legitimate. We had stolen resources. We had cheated other countries, whatever we did, that Obama had to apologize for — and we were told that there’s a new decline and that Obama and the Democrats were the experts to manage that decline and make it as painless on people as possible.

But the idea that America was gonna grow, that America was gonna expand and American exceptionalism existed? That was pooh-poohed, and people’s expectations were lowered. And there’s a reason for this. The Democrats need people in dependency states. People who are self-reliant and productive don’t need Democrats. They don’t need government. Democrats want government to be needed. Democrats want government to be the first-place people look to find a better life. That is not an exaggeration.

Democrats, it means, want people to look to them for improvements and changes in life. They want people to think the deck is so stacked against them because of Republicans and conservatives, that there’s no way to improve your lot in life unless the Democrats make it happen for you. The problem is that the Democrats don’t want anybody doing well. Ask any Democrat constituency other than gay Hollywood leftists how partnering with Democrats has helped them. Go out and ask African-Americans.

Ask any minority how they’re doing economically under Democrats. They’ve been complaining about same stuff for 50 years. Now ask ’em how they’re a doing under Trump. It’s a marked change. This is panic time. Trump is keeping his promises. He is improving daily life in America. How? By allowing people to do that for themselves and by creating economic circumstances that permit it, rather than choking them off. Ask one of the owners of the over 28 million small businesses. There probably will be a woman or person of color or even a homosexual or gay person in there.

They’re all doing well. Small businesspeople are more optimistic today than they’ve been in years, according to the latest polling data just out today. Not good. This is another reason the Democrats hate Trump. This is tough to overcome! People doing well. Unemployment plummeting. Wages rising. America’s standing in the world, improving. How do you attack that? You don’t. You attack the guy doing it and then deny that it’s all happening, and you take the tariff deal with Mexico and say, “It’s no big deal. This was already done. This is done long ago. Obama did that! Obama made the economy good. This is the Obama economy.”

That’s how you do it. You don’t acknowledge it. You don’t credit Trump for anything. The left is fundamentally incapable of making anybody’s life better, because their power and their policies are not oriented toward making your life better. They’re actually oriented toward your life stagnating to the point that you need help — and that’s when they’re, supposedly, there for you. The left is fundamentally incapable of making anyone’s life better with their power and policy. You see it in the once great state of California.

By the way, I have been thinking. I made a brilliant observation yesterday about the Democrats in California. Democrats in LA are appalled that homelessness in their city is rising and so much of it, and they’re mad that the Democrat candidates for president are not talking about it. And I told the people of LA (and I’ll do it again today), “The Democrats are not gonna talk about your problems. They already own you! They don’t need to fix a damn thing in California.”

They’ve got every one of your electorally votes. The Republicans don’t exist. The Democrat candidates for president don’t even have to go to California — other than to raise money in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and that is it. They don’t need you. They don’t need to address your problem.

Where else are you gonna go? They know you’re not gonna vote Republican. Democrat candidates for president have got nothing to gain by going to California and pointing out what’s happening there. They’ve got nothing but anything to lose by doing that. If they go to California and start complaining, you can’t blame Republicans for it because the Republicans have nothing to do with what life is like in California now. That’s totally owned by the Democrats.

And so city government officials in LA, San Francisco, you can forget the Democrat presidential candidates talking about your problems, addressing your problems, visiting your state, ’cause they don’t have to. And it’s the age-old adage. It’s very simple. They cannot be hurt by ignoring California. They can only be harmed by calling attention to it.

So what I have been rethinking is, I think Trump ought to start going to California. I think he ought to go there once a month. I think the Republican National Committee ought to schedule a debate in California. I think the campaign should have ads showing and highlighting the homelessness in downtown Los Angeles and pointing out that this is what happens when Democrats run things with no opposition, no checks, no balances.

The Democrats have to ignore California. They already own it! And just like African-Americans, they can ignore you because they think they’ve got your vote no matter what they do. So they’re not gonna focus much on your complaints or problems. They don’t need to. And they don’t need to fix anything.

Now, they will focus on African-Americans. They’ll blame Republican racism for all of it. But they’re not gonna fix anything. It’s not in their interests to fix anything. If they fix things, then people are not gonna need Democrats. Democrats are not gonna get credit for fixing anything. They never do, because they don’t have to.

So there’s a downside to owning a state. And the downside is, the state has heap big problems, and the Democrats do not have to even care. The Democrats don’t dare go there. The Democrat presidential candidates don’t dare highlight problems in California. It can do nothing but hurt them.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Put simply and succinctly, the left is desperate to stop Donald Trump because he’s doing what they can never do. Donald Trump is doing what the left can never do. They can’t politically do it, and they couldn’t do it if they wanted to do it! They simply do not know how to raise economic circumstances for people. Not across the board. They can do it individually. They have their own share of the wealth, but they don’t believe in policies that make this happen. Government’s first, second, third, and last in their lives. Donald Trump shows the Democrat Party up every day. He puts them to shame every day on issues of substance that matter in people’s lives. Folks, what Trump did with Mexico is nothing short of amazing!

And the thing about that is that there isn’t a single person in the Washington swamp who would have even thought about going at the problem that way, much less succeeding in doing it! The minute Trump announces tariffs, even his own party begins to have conniption fits. (impression) “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. We can’t do. Milton Friedman would never do that. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, no. Oh, no. We can’t.” It’s amazing. With just the threat of imposing tariffs we finally force Mexico to abide by previous agreements to stop the flow from Central America through Mexico and eventually into the United States with caravans and people seeking asylum. It’s nothing short of amazing to make this happen inside of a week! When nobody else in Washington would have even thought about trying it because it’s not our role in the world to beat little countries like Mexico.

(impression) “That’s not what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to give the illusion that Mexico is equal to us. We’re supposed to give the impression that Mexico beats us now and then. That’s how we survive as a superpower. We can’t beat Mexico. It’s unseemly.” That’s their attitude. This was after Congress, his own party, and the judiciary had pulled the rug out from under him. Every time he’s tried to improve these circumstances, the judiciary, the Democrats, his own party has attempted to sabotage him. And he still persists and eventually prevails. They can’t stand it! They can’t stop him, and they can’t destroy him! That’s why they hate him.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let’s start with Kathryn in San Clemente, California. Hi. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Oh my gosh. I’m so proud to be on your show, Rush. I listen to you often, and you give me great hope and great encouragement for the future. But I love your comments about Trump coming to California. I’ve been sending tweets, I’ve been sending emails, I’ve been calling and asking Trump to come and make California great again! He can do it. Only he can do it. There are too many Republicans here in the state of California to ignore us. This is Reagan country. And as Reagan said, it can be done. We can turn this state red again. We just need Trump’s help.

RUSH: Well, it used to be blue. You know, California used to be solidly Republican. When I lived there in 1984, it was. The governor was always Republican. I don’t need to relive that history. The point is, again, that people in California, like in LA, the city council, San Francisco, you’ve gotta realize, the Democrat presidential candidates cannot pay you any attention. They cannot come visit. They cannot highlight what’s going on in California as a problem that has to be fixed because they and you own the problem.

It’s wide open for Trump. It’s wide open for the Republicans to do a debate out there, for Trump to go out there once a month and make a speech, because the Democrats have to ignore it. They can’t blame anybody else for it. Oh, they’ll try. They’ll blame Trump for this or that. But people that live in California know that Republicans don’t have anything to do with what’s gone on in that state. I’m glad you called, Kathryn. I’m glad you agree.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I just came across something from CNN that kind of dovetails with a point that I made earlier about California, that Trump ought to go there. He ought to go there once a month. He ought to go to California, start highlighting the problems in California, or at least do what he does: Make America Great Again. The Democrats can’t go. The Democrats can’t! They don’t have to go to California. The best thing the Democrats can do is ignore it.

If they go to California and start talking about the homeless problem, they’re gonna be criticizing an LA city council, an LA mayor. They’re gonna be criticizing a California governor. They can’t do it. It’s the same old adage: They cannot be hurt by what they don’t do in California. They can only be hurt by what they do because they’ve already done such great damage, that to go out there and start complaining about it would be to complain about themselves.

Therefore, California’s wide open. Trump should go. “Well, Rush, you think he’s gonna win California?” I’m not saying he’s gonna win California. Maybe. Who knows! But the point is, it’s ripe. It’s open territory. The Democrats can’t afford to go. Schedule a debate there! Now, along comes this story from CNN. “Exclusive: Trump Campaign Considering Putting Resources in Oregon — The Trump campaign is considering putting resources into Oregon, CNN has learned, a state where Hillary Clinton beat the president by 11 percentage points in 2016.

“In fact, Oregon is so blue that it has not voted for a Republican for president since 1984. That’d be Ronaldus Magnus. “But the Trump campaign is flush with cash and is looking for ways to spend its money and time wisely while Democrats duke it out for the chance to run against … Trump.” So here we have Dana Bash and who else here? Dana Bash… Well, all of CNN. They’re just confused. You can read the piece as I have done so you don’t have to, and you can read through the piece she’s confused.

(impression) “Why would Trump go? He has no prayer in California or Oregon! Why would he go to Oregon? Trump’s gonna be wasting money. He’s gonna be wasting time. Why? Hillary won Oregon by 11.” This is how they think inside the bubble, inside the Beltway, the Washington establishment. “Why? Oregon’s a write-off! You can’t win. Don’t waste any money there. Why is he going to Oregon?” They’re getting very worried. They’re getting very suspicious. They’re getting very curious.

“Why is Trump going to Oregon? Why would he spend any money in Oregon? Oregon is ours!” They’re saying, “Oregon’s our state! Doesn’t Trump know he has no business coming to Oregon?” Proving once again (and it’s amazing to me) they do not know Donald Trump. They do not get Donald Trump. Still! Brad Parscale, the campaign manager for Trump, responded to Dana Bash: “@TeamTrump knows that pushing against the grain can pay off. When we spent money in WI and MI in 2016 and sent @realDonaldTrump there, many thought it was foolish, until we turned those states RED for the first time in a GENERATION.'”

So now here’s Parscale saying (summarized), “Well, that’s what you said about Michigan and Wisconsin. Look what happened there!” The Democrats are gonna say, “Yeah, 77,000 votes. It’s a quirk of fate. You didn’t turn any states red.” But they’re gonna get worried. For all this talk about how dumb they think Trump is and how dumb Trump’s voters are and how everybody now thinks Trump’s dumb and a scumbag and an ogre, they’re still gonna get worried. “What’s he doing? What’s he doing going to Oregon?

“That’s a waste of time! It’s a waste. It’s our state. It’s our state! He can’t come here.” You just watch, folks. You just watch, while the Washington Democrats — the national Democrats — are stuck in their playbook. They are stuck in habits, they are stuck in conventional wisdom, they’re stuck in a noninnovative existence. They’re not gonna be able to figure this out. Trump operates outside their norms, outside their playbook, outside their conventional wisdom.

They’ve not taken one step to try to understand it.

They just do everything they can to condemn it.