The word ‘psychotic’ comes with multiple synonyms, and related choices of ‘unbalanced’, ‘unhinged’, ‘frenzied’, ‘raving’, ‘hysterical’ describe how the media – particularly the North American variety – dealt with the maverick presidency of Donald John Trump in year 2017.

President Trump is a unique phenomenon of our times. He is a blunt instrument, an abrasive character but a genius for accomplishing what he sets out to achieve. Unbiased media professionals would have accurately reported his unprecedented presidency – a debutant politician successfully leading the world’s most powerful democracy in his very first electoral attempt.

But vested interests own or influence most major media houses that present a distorted picture of the 45th President of the USA. From when he announced running for US president, Trump has declared open war against the corrupt forces ruining his country’s economy. As expected, endangered vested interests wage their vicious war against him. I am not a fan but well-wisher of Trump, as I clarified to colleagues surprised at my supposedly ‘pro-Trump’ articles that are actually pro-facts and pro-fair play. I support Trump’s volition to serve his country, just as I wish Prime Minister Narendra Modi success in his developmental agenda for India. Trump and Modi may not always make the right decisions, or not always correctly execute their right decisions, but there is no doubting their sincerity of working very hard for their people.

President Trump faces deadlier challenges since he fights dangerous forces within his own Republican Party. But he has shown steely courage and determination. More President Trump rocks the corrupt establishment more vicious will be the attacks against him, and more dirty tricks to sabotage his presidency.

Take the ‘Russia collusion’ allegations, as instance. The multi-billionaire Trump being a Russian stooge obviously remains unproven after months of expensive ‘investigations’, simply because a blatant, ridiculous falsehood can never be dressed up as truth. The truth prevails sooner or later, but the media is on the wrong side.

In year 2017 – as during the 2016 presidential election campaign – Trump was victim of some of the most incompetent, unfair, biased, inaccurate, negativity-dripping and immature media coverage in my lifetime, and probably in all media history in democracies.

The continuing unbalanced nature of the anti-Trump attacks becomes more obvious in the mainstream media ignoring his impressive success after a year in the White House. He is turning around the US economy, has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs, got billions of dollars of investment, cut strangling regulatory mechanisms, ripped out lopsided trade deals, hit hard at lucrative illegal immigration rackets.

Ignored too is how Trump is delivering his pre-election promise to destroy terrorists. He has routed the maniacal ISIS in the Middle East, and is implementing a reality-based strategy to deal with the deceit-driven, terrorist-criminal state of Pakistan.

Yet unwary victims continue being brainwashed by the anti-Truth ‘media’ outlets. Common sense dictates not being fooled. Think for yourself, and never blindly believe what the media says. Cross-check facts, and look for the original source of a news report. Then you see how much the media ignores the positives of the Trump presidency and highlights real or imaginary negatives.

Trump being no shy violet, effectively counter-attacks what he calls the ‘Fake Media’ through social media. His Twitter account – with nearly 47 million followers and possibly hundreds of millions who daily track it – is presumably the most read media writing source currently in the planet. Media sections dismiss Trump’s tweets as ‘rants’, but the real rants are the motivated anti-Trump attacks that include buffoonizing and demonizing him. Ridicule is an effective weapon, and failed Hollywood actors like Alec Baldwin are part of the army of media puppets hired to mock a leader whose prickly, egoistic personality presents a ready target for ridicule.

Credit to Trump for not succumbing to the relentless pressure, and never giving up. That’s where the corrupt forces failed in their Trump-calculus: many other victims of orchestrated media attacks have backed out or resigned. But ‘quitting’ is not in the Trump vocabulary, and is key reason for his quality levels of success – whether in developing his real-estate business or his country’s seriously damaged economy. Never quit before the goal is reached.

I first took serious notice of Trump when, early in his campaign to be Republican presidential nominee, he called the media as “70 per cent dishonest”. For a presidential or prime ministerial contender to attack the media is rare, when the usual norm is to legally or illegally woo it as the Clinton campaign did. Only non-corrupt leaders with direct electorate support take on the corrupt media as Trump does.

Like fellow billionaire and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos who bought the Washington Post, Trump could have purchased a major media mouthpiece and hired publicity puppets. But he did not, and Trump’s open fight against the media actually is his biggest credibility badge.

The falsehood-spinners are losing. In their motivated anti-Trump tirade, the mainstream media further loses credibility when it badly needs credibility to survive. The truth has a force, and those on the side of honesty win – as Trump is in his work to ‘Make America Great Again’, in one of the most unique leadership tenures in modern history.

(The writer is a senior, Mumbai-based journalist.)