Donald Trump: The president thinks Rush Limbaugh 'gets it' - but the evidence says otherwise

Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh is one of the most powerful talking heads in the United States.

It's estimated that The Rush Limbaugh Show, which is broadcast on the EIB Network, has around 13.25 million unique listeners, making it the most listened to radio show in America.

His show has been nationally syndicated since 1988 and, in that time, he has been involved in several controversies and made inaccurate reports on several issues.

However, that hasn't diminished his listener base and just this week he received an endorsement from Donald Trump who labelled him a "great guy who truly gets it@.

There are dozens of incidents where his judgement hasn't exactly been perfect or indeed "great" - and sometimes it doesn't appear that he "gets it" at all.

So, after receiving Trump's backing let's take a look back at some of his most notorious moments.

Women and feminism.

One of the biggest groups that Limbaugh takes umbrage with are women, especially those who identify as feminists.

He is believed to be the person who popularised the term 'feminazi' and branded the 2017 Women's March, which was a protest against Donald Trump's inauguration, a "deranged feminazi march."

In a 1992 interview with Time Magazine, he claimed:

Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.

He also wrote in his book The Way Things Ought To Be that the most important thing for feminists was "ensuring that as many abortions as possible occur".

When it comes to abortions as well, he considered the Roe v. Wade legislation to a "bad law" and is in favour of having it overturned in the US.

Sexual consent.

Limbaugh has been dismissive of consent during sexual relations and has said that the 'left' cares too much about consent.

In a rant on his radio show in October 2016 he used phrases like the "rape police" and "the magic word" when debating the topic:

You know what the magic word, the only thing that matters in American sexual mores today is?

One thing. You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element.

Do you know what it is? Consent.

If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it's perfectly fine.

Whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there's no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police. But consent is the magic key to the left.

African-Americans.

On numerous occasions, Limbaugh has made comments about African-Americans which could be interpreted as racist.

In an article on his website from January 2007, he likened an NFL game between to a conflict between the two notorious LA gangs the Bloods and the Crips.

In March 2010, when discussing the resignation of Rep. Eric Massa, he used the slavery-era pronunciation of master ('masa') to make a pun about Gov. David Paterson, a black governor, possibly picking his replacement.

He said:

So, David Paterson will become the massa who gets to appoint whoever gets to take massa's place.

So, for the first time in his life, Paterson's gonna be a massa. Interesting, interesting

The environment.

Limbaugh is sceptical of any involvement of science when assessing the climate and has disputed the evidence of global warming and it's relationship to the depletion of the ozone layer and CFCs.

He argued that the scientists are leaning towards left-wing advocates on the environment and also described them as "environmentalist wackos".

In his 1993 book, See, I Told You So, Limbaugh falsely wrote:

There are more acres of forestland in America today than when Columbus discovered the continent in 1492.

In fact, there are only 737 million acres of forestland in America, where there was 1 billion acres before the European settlement.

Michael J. Fox.

Limbaugh sought to criticise actor Michael J. Fox after he appeared in an advert for stem cell research funding.

In the advert, Limbaugh claimed that Fox had exaggerated his Parkinson's disease and that it looked like an "act."

On his radio show in October 2006, Limbaugh stated, as per the Washington Post:

He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act...

This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting.

This is the only time I've ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has.

He can barely control himself.

After receiving criticism for his comments, Limbaugh backed down only to adjust his attack on Fox, claiming he was being exploited by Democrats.

Now people are telling me they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial

All right then, I stand corrected... So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologise to Michael J. Fox if I am wrong in characterizing his behaviour on this commercial as an act.

Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democratic politician.

Sandra Fluke.

The Sandra Fluke controversy originated on February 29 2012. Fluke, a student at Georgetown University Law Centre, had given a speech to the House Democrats about supporting a mandate to introduce insurance coverage for contraceptives.

His comment in full was:

What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right?

It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.

What does that make us? We're the pimps. (interruption) The johns? We would be the johns? No! We're not the johns. (interruption) Yeah, that's right. Pimp's not the right word.

OK, so she's not a slut. She's 'round heeled.' I take it back

Following this, Limbaugh called Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" and continued to make statements about her over the course of the next two days.

His comments caused an uproar and generated a negative response so big that up to 45 advertisers decided to withdraw or suspend their funding for his show.

Two radio stations, in Hawaii and Massachusetts respectively, also announced that they would no longer be broadcasting his show.

By March. he had offered an apology.

Hurricane Irma.

It may not shock you to learn that amongst his rap sheet of offences, that Limbaugh is prone to carelessly using the term 'fake news'.

The most recent incident involving the 67-year-old and the subject was during the Hurricane Irma crisis in September 2017.

Limbaugh had been forced to evacuate his home during the storm but just days before had said that media had concocted the story in order to create panic and drive sales of supplies.

CNN quotes him as saying:

The local media... reports in such a way as to create the panic way far out, which sends people into these stores to fill up with water and to fill up with batteries, and it becomes a never-ending repeated cycle

And the two coexist.

So the media benefits with the panic with increased eyeballs, and the retailers benefit from the panic with increased sales, and the TV companies benefit because they're getting advertising dollars from the businesses that are seeing all this attention from customers.

I'm not accusing anybody of anything illegal here, it's just the way the world works.

'Phony soldiers'.

Another huge incident involving inaccurate reports occurred on September 26 2007.

When discussing critics of the Iraq war, he used the term 'phony soldiers' when talking about soldiers who appear in the media.

A caller who had contacted his show said:

What's really funny is, they [Iraq war critics] never talk to real soldiers.

They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

To which Limbaugh replied:

The phony soldiers.

His comment was quickly condemned by Democrats who demanded that he apologise.

He later tried to say that he had been talking about Jesse MacBeth, a disgraced soldier who had said that he been decorated for valour but have never seen a second of combat.

Following the outcry, just two days later. Limbaugh opted to publish an edited version of the transcript which completely removed this exchange.

A letter was then signed by 41 leading Democrats demanding that the CEO of Clear Channel, who produce Limbaugh's show, denounce the host.

The letter was instead given to Limbaugh who auctioned it for $2 million with the funds going to the Marine-Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.

Barack Obama.

While Obama was in office he was a major target for Limbaugh.

Even prior to his first election victory in 2008, Limbaugh had said in 2007 that Obama was playing the "magic negro" role, which is why he was appealing to voters.

On the same show, he also played a song by Paul Shanklin called 'Barack the Magic Negro' to the tune of 'Puff the Magic Dragon'.

After Obama's election victory, he was asked by a national newspaper to give 400 words on what he hopes for from the Obama presidency.

His response was short:

I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.

He added:

[I don't want] absorption of as much of the private sector by the US government as possible, from the banking business to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care.

I do not want the government in charge of all of these things. I don't want this to work.

"What is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here.

He later clarified that he had nothing personal against Obama but was firmly against his policies.

On January 16 2009 he said:

He's my president, he's a human being, and his ideas and policies are what count for me.

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