The vile media mischaracterization of Trump's July 4 speech is extraordinary gaslighting. The speech wasn't dark. And it wasn't "out of nowhere" or "aggressive." It was prompted by weeks of rioting, looting, tearing down monuments, and lying about Americans both dead and alive.

Trump did not mention the Confederacy in his speech; he praised Lincoln, and mentioned Union soldiers singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. He paid tribute by name to Frederick Douglass, MLK, Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens, the Tuskegee Airmen, Louis Armstrong, and Mohammed Ali.

The media's takeaway: he was defending Confederate monuments (even though he specifically only mentioned monuments of non-Confederates) and his speech was implicitly racist. The bare-faced dishonesty boggles the mind.

Sen. Duckworth spends the weekend talking about considering tearing down Washington statues. Trump says that there are many on the radical Left who want to tear down our history. The media tut-tut and suggest that Trump is talking about a figment of his imagination.