Media blames Trump for drop in foreigners visiting the U.S.

Oh no! It sounds awful! Foreign visits to the United States dropped by 4 percent in 2017, resulting in $3.6 billion less being spent here by foreigners. (Then again, Apple is bringing home 100 times that much because of the tax cut, but who's counting?) What might have caused this? Well, if you're USA Today, you already know the take you want: Blame Donald Trump. So you run and find people you know will say it's Trump's fault and you quote them prominently in the story. The only problem is that their attempts to blame Trump actually point the figure at false media narratives about Trump, not Trump himself:

Many tourism officials are also asking for an end to the political rhetoric by President Donald Trump that they say is causing many travelers to choose destinations elsewhere. Trump has called for the building of a wall between Mexico and the United States and a travel ban on people from certain countries. “All the messages the administration has put out in the world is the closure of markets, the closure of access to certain demographics,” says Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company, the official tourism organization for New York City. “That is not the kind of message we want to be sending out to the world.” According to the National Travel and Tourism Office, which works with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the steepest declines in inbound travelers have been from countries in the Middle East and Africa, two regions the Trump administration has targeted most in its goal to limit visas.

Except that there is a difference between Trump's rhetoric and policies, and what you're told they are. Remember when Trump said Mexicans are rapists? Sure you do. During the campaign. There was a huge outcry about it. The only problem is that Trump didn't say that. He accused the Mexican government of taking convicted rapists and sending them across the border rather than dealing with them via the Mexican criminal justice system. The media and the Clinton campaign completely misrepresented the statement, and many people believed Trump has roundly insulted all Mexicans. He hadn't.

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Trump-hating media determined to make you see the president in the worst possible light

Remember when Trump said we need a wall to keep Mexicans out of America? Sure you remember it. Except that he didn't say that either. He wants Mexicans who choose to come to the United States to do so legally, and whether you agree with the idea of building the wall or not, its purpose is to ensure that entries into the U.S. happen via the established, legal methods. Remember when Trump said he wanted to keep all Muslims out of the United States, and put in place a "Muslim ban"? Yep. It was the talk of the entire nation for weeks on end. Except that there never was a "Muslim ban." Trump put in place a temporary travel ban from countries identified by the Obama Administration as sources of terrorism, to give the U.S. time to improve its vetting procedures. Most of what you hear that Trump said is different from what he actually said, but it's presented to you by a Trump-hating media determined to make you see the president in the worst possible light. So if people around the world are refusing to come here because of horrible things they've heard that Donald Trump said, then it's USA Today and other media outlets who are really to blame. Because if they weren't repackaging Trump's actual words and policies to make them sound abominable, then people wouldn't be so upset. I'm not sure it's such a bad thing that fewer people are visiting here from the Middle East, but if you think it is and you're looking for someone to "blame," then blame the people who are peddling these Ugly American fictions. In their efforts to make all of America hate the president, they're hooking the rest of the world as well.