I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable.
Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them — until I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.”
It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump’s character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect.
I need to man up in my defense of the former President’s virtues. The speech was among the most pointed I have heard and deserves some exposure. Klingenstein says:
Other Republicans say some version of: “I like Trump policies but I don’t like the rest of him.”
This gets it almost backwards. Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the ‘rest of him’ that contains the virtue that inspires the movement… Trump was born for the current crisis, a life and death struggle against a totalitarian enemy I call woke communism… that controls all the cultural and economic powers in America…
Trump revealed, not caused, the divide in this country.
In war, you must make a stand…
Trump is a manly man… traditional manhood, even when flawed, is absolutely essential… Trump plays to win… There are no clean hands in a fistfight…Trump is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-America… Trump is a refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that marks our age…
It is [the left’s] anti-Americanism that makes so many of us very angry: The Left have trashed America’s Founding and her history to the point where some believe it virtuous to hate America. Rather than advocating forgiveness for sins, the Left are advocating hair shirts, self-flagellation, and perpetual guilt. It is un-American and certainly un-Christian.
Trump thinks we can vanquish all comers if we just put our minds to it, and he’s right… Courage never demands perfection… Trump over and over said exactly what political correctness prohibits one from saying…
Trump said Haiti is a shithole and that representative Maxine Waters has a low IQ. These were not racist lies. They were uncouth, politically incorrect observations that most of us would agree with but would not dare say.
In 2016, we loved Trump for his outspokenness. But many seem to have changed their minds without cause; Trump is the same today as he was before he was elected. The very things we disdain today are the things that made him the man for our time.
From morning to night, we were told that Trump is a racist. But endless repetition does not make it true. It isn’t.
Trump’s contempt for political correctness showed patriotic Americans that its ever-tightening grip could be loosened… It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Trump’s fight against political correctness, a fight which most Republicans are reluctant to engage…
Trump treated the woke media with the same contempt he treated political correctness, provoking their outrage and revealing their utter corruption… it must be defeated.
I take back my unwillingness to engage Trump on his own terms. It is the Left, not we, who are politically correct. They are the ones restricting speech, cancelling and censoring, not we on the Right.
Unlike most politicians, when Trump sees a problem, he goes out and fixes it. He fixed our porous borders. He moved our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem after decades of inaction. He eliminated hate-America critical race theory in his administrative agency. He developed a vaccine in record time. He achieved energy independence and much, much more.
His accomplishments far outweigh his personality quirks. No other president did so much in so little time.
Trump smoked rats out of hiding places. Because of Trump we know our intelligence agencies are corrupt. We know also that the mainstream media is not just biased, that it is the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.
Had it not been for the vehement and irrational hatred of Trump, we never would have discovered that our own security and intelligence structures are compromised.
I blame Never Trumpers for corrupting these Agencies. This unprecedented breach of the very security of this nation is unprecedented and deeply dangerous, leaving us open to the espionage of courtesans who prey on politicians who think with their private parts.
A large part of Trump’s appeal was that he was a bona fide outsider. He distrusted the experts who believe they knew better than the average American how to run the country. This distrust was appealing to Trump’s base who believed, and with good reason, that is the experts who created the despotic mess in which we find ourselves.
We always knew but never had anyone champion that we, not the Swamp, knew better how to manage our money, our time, our personal lives, our resources and our families. In their authoritarian mindsets, the Left wanted to take over all these very personal, uniquely American functions and replace it with governmental overreach. They nearly got their wish, had it not been for COVID’s home zoom classes where we found out that very young children are being sexualized, perverted, deliberately alienated from their parents and taught to hate America and white people.
…They know that Republicans will lose all further elections until they get to the bottom of the last one.
This most sensitive area of politics is a disaster. I believe the election was stolen and millions of others do. We now have evidence from many quarters that this is so. It cannot be permitted a repeat or there will be severe repercussions that will dwarf the current ones.
Some will say that Trump is a bad man and that disqualifies him. I do not think Trump is a bad man, but for those who do I remind them that a bad man in some circumstances can be a good president. If you’re dying of thirst and there is only one person offering you water, you accept the water gratefully without much concern for the character of your rescuer.
We wanted Trump not only to fix things; we wanted him to be perfect while doing it. That is unrealistic in the average family, the average relationship, the average business and the average political or cultural milieu. Yet some of us wanted Trump to be perfect enough to invite to tea. He is not that man. But he is the man for our tumultuous times.
This enumeration of Trump’s virtues does not fully capture his uncommon courage and firmness of purpose. Trump is the most towering political figure in living memory… Trump inspired a movement. If properly deployed this movement might challenge the woke-comms, and God willing, save the country.
These very things are what the Left hate, yet it is not their favor we need to care about. They will not embrace anyone on the Republican ticket and certainly not one they cannot bully. We need to stop worrying about acceptance of our candidates by the Left or they will have won.
Republicans, however, should not forget that it is his support and the spirit they embrace that have become the life force of the Republican party. Among the talked-about alternatives to Trump I have not yet seen anyone who possesses or even understands Trump’s virtues. Nor have I seen anyone with his backbone and fortitude. One does not appreciate the strength of relentless gale-force winds until one is in the eye of the storm.
…which is exactly where Trump and we are at this moment. We have to prepare for the gale-force winds we will encounter. To not do this is to ignore the lessons of the recent past and it will be forever to our sorrow to ignore them.
His virtue must be the standard by which we judge other candidates.
Amen and amen. We don’t have to like his personality but his virtues far outweigh it. I humbly stand corrected and offer my mea culpa.
How did President Trump respond?
“Wow! What a great honor to have this written about me. We must Save America, and will! Thank you, M.B.”
That’s my President!
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@Felix
Umm, sorry to break it to you chum, but you only gets 2 choices for your ticket, one from column a or one from column b on the lunch special.
The good news is it comes rice and your choice of soup, egg roll, or pork fried rice.
The bad news is I think fortune cookies are extra now and anyway they only ever tell you what you want to hear. 😀
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_of_Time_(The_Twilight_Zone)
When Guiliani said “trial by combat” he was obviously talking about a court trial. America has an adversarial system of justice as opposed to say France, in which, very often, a prosecutor will simply adjudicate both sides.
https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/organized-crime/module-9/key-issues/adversarial-vs-inquisitorial-legal-systems.html
@Reader
There is no indication of nor call for insurrection in either of the speeches you posted. Rather they each called for the constitution to be enforced and that the will of the people implemented.
@Reader
So, what’s wrong with that? That’s your idea of insurrection? The Constitution provided the remedy for a rigged election. Congress decides the election. The Constitution is the law of the land.
It was a completely different demonstration from the agent provacateur organized civil disobedience in the Capitol, which was a lot more peaceful than the rioters in the Supreme Court who threatened Kavenaugh or who harassed Republicans in restaurants and in their homes or who publicly called for Trump’s assasination. Remember somebody holding up the manequin of presumably guillotied head of Trump? Kamala Harris raising bail money for the rioters? The Antifa and Black Lives Matter insurrectionists who attacked police stations and took over entire city blocks? For starters. Now, that was an insurrection. This is all projection.
@Sebastien Zorn
This is the transcript of his speech on January 6:
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial
This is about the participants asking for pardons from him (which were never given to the best of my knowledge):
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/16/us-capitol-rioters-donald-trump-pardons
Giuliani’s speech transcript:
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/rudy-giuliani-speech-transcript-at-trumps-washington-d-c-rally-wants-trial-by-combat
@Felix Here’s something to warm the cockles of your heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopdD9Cu-So
I do not think Mathews mentioned the great and confusing issue of Trump and Global Warming once, not once.
@Peloni @Innna1 So, “The devil is in the details.” as the saying goes.
@Reader I never heard of the speech to which you refer. The speech that made me support the war and vote to re-elect him, the first time I ever voted Republican, was this one which I heard on the radio in one of those, “where were you when you heard…” moments. I was in a Twin Donuts Diner.
And specifically these words Israel should have heeded, as well:
“We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign non-proliferation treaties, and then systemically break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long. (Applause.)
Well, I thought it was this speech. I also remember the line, which I can’t find, of how we are now facing shadowy transnational terror organizations so the old doctrine of deterrence applied to states is outdated. It called for pre-emptive war in the face of 9/11.
And that was my understanding of the main actual reason for attacking Iraq, that it was, like E. Germany in the 70s and 80s, serving as a haven and training base for terrorist groups with access to weapons of mass destruction though he, elsewhere, invoked the 18 UN resolutions Saddam Hussein had violated after the armistice that left his regime intact after the first Gulf War.
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020601-3.html
@Inna1
An important comment to notice. Thank you Inna.
@Edgar G.
I didn’t make a judgement on who and how many worship Trump.
I merely answered the question :
[in case such a thing exists theoretically].
However, your statement that:
shows that you DO worship him blindly, otherwise you wouldn’t discount something that may be really important and will be magnified many times over once he becomes President of the United States which is, arguably, the most powerful position in the world to have.
So the creation of a second Palestinian State was at the centre of the Iraq war to remove Saddam.
That removed the main enemy to Iran which was the secular Iraq.
How revealing!
As a result of this exchange, Pres Bush made his vision As a result of this exchange, Pres Bush made his vision speech in June ’02 in which he supported a Palestinian state subject to many preconditions. Ten months later, the U.S. invaded Iraq with Saudi blessing, and one week later, the Roadmap was announced, which included the Saudi Plan calling for a Palestinian state with ’67 borders subject to minor changes and East Jerusalem as its capital. in June ’02 in which he supported a Palestinian state subject to many preconditions. Ten months later, the U.S. invaded Iraq with Saudi blessing, and one week later, the Roadmap was announced, which included the Saudi Plan calling for a Palestinian state with ’67 borders subject to minor changes and East Jerusalem as its capital.
TRUMP I reckon on being the leader who can cause the world a huge degree of harm.
I am talking of course about his claim that global warming of the planet was a sham.
He is so dangerous because he did not argue against it but used his populism to assert the claim.
That is the most dangerous thing to do in politics.
But just to ban him on false charges as Biden does…that is the end of democracy.
Could we recover from that? Impossible to recover.
But Biden can be defeated. It is not necessary to be a fan of Trump to oppose Biden. Some people do not get this. They react to politics personally.
BIDEN is desperate
Aleksandar Vucic thanked the foreign intelligence services who warned the Serbian leadership and provided him with information that an attempt at a “color revolution” was being prepared in the country.
There are about 1,200 people with those trying to break into the Belgrade City Assembly, Serbian President Vucic said.
“The rioters and thugs will be detained, and a reaction from the competent government authorities will follow,” Vucic said.
Ted
A post of mine before Edgar did not go through
But once again I oppose Trump on vital issues totally.
But he has a total right to stand.
Biden is behind this just as surely as he blew up the pipeline.
The issue of Global Warming is extreme for the world.
Yet Biden is the biggest danger because he is now as we speak smashing apart the democratic system.
If that succeeds we will have nothing left to fight WITH!
@Laura
I am a Floridian. It seems that you do not read bills and executive orders signed by DeSantis. They are not good. I mean, they are on the surface, but not in depth. I advise you to read them. I have been following DeSantis since he was in Congress. He is a RINO, a buddy of Paul Ryan, Mike Pence. All the counties in FL have voting machines – Dominions, ES&S. Until recently FL was a member of the Soros’ ERIC system which created fraudulent voter rolls. DeSantis did not mind the membership and even allocated more than $500,000 to support it. It’s a long story, but you seem to be uninformed. Sad.
I have every cause to fight against Trump being elected. I oppose him totally.
But Biden in mobilisation to stop him standing is to block the democratic rights of every single American voter to elect whosoever they want.
It hits right at the heart of democracy.
BIDEN races to dictatorship in two ways
1. The NATO wars especially against Russia
2. On blocking Trump
And use of Antisemitism is connected
READER-
I am surprised at you. Nobody blindly worships Trump. Your comment is Hyperbole of the most extreme kind, foolish as it is, I don’t know if you even believe it yourself.
I say plainly I don’t give a damn about his less than admirable traits.
He is the greatest President in my lifetime, and you should be quoting him and not that cunning weakling Roosevelt, who handed over Europe to Stalin for Bupkas, and whose administrarion was riddled with secret Communist advisors. You should read Whittaker Chambers’ “WITNESS”.
Especially what he did for Israel and the world in general that Biden has being ruining in his senile decadence. (I should have said “decay” but “decadence suits the Biden family so well.)
Why doesn’t anyone talk about the Clintons and their Mafia enemy disposal teams, and Clinton’s bulbous nosed satyriasis.
If you do…you’ve got problems.
Interesting info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
I have nothing but hostility for Trump who claimed that Global Warming is a sham.
Having said that though consider this from Cruz:
And this is the biggest issue which a Trotskyist can never ignore because it tears at the heart of democracy.
The forces of socialism even if only small in number must oppose Biden totally on this destruction.
And it isn’t separate from Biden and his NATO making warfare on Russia.
On arms to the Banderites Trump initiated that. So the same. In principle not extent.
But Trump here has to be defended without condition.
@Michael S.
@Laura
@peloni
I apologize for interrupting your conversation – I will repost my answer (12-19-23 Israel time) to this question:
The above formula works for any politician with cult of personality followers.
Peloni and Sebastien, Good comments!
Laura, if DeSantis were the only Republican on the ballot, and if Donald Trump had gone the way of JFK and Lincoln, I might vote for him, just might. Otherwise, he’s off my radar screen. It’s far to early to say. We may or may not have any say-so in choosing our next head of state.
@Laura Are you going to sing?
Peloni, the reality is that the GOP has been losing elections since 2018 with pro-Trump candidates.
As for DeSantis, he hasn’t changed any of his policy positions whatsoever. He has remained a solid conservative throughout. The reason maga turned on him is simply because he challenged Trump for the nomination. That is the reason why DeSantis could not get any traction. That and Trump hogging the media spotlight with his various dramas and playing the victim/martyr to rally the base around him. DeSantis is the most successful conservative politician in America and if he loses, it’s really OUR loss, not his.
@Laura
I know I fail to grasp it. I really don’t see what’s so offensive about him especially compared to Biden, Ugh. Or Obama.
You know, in 2008, I supported McCain and especially Palin since she was such a staunch supporter of Israel. I was a regular reader, and possibly poster, I don’t remember, of a blog called, “Jews for Sarah” but for the first and last time, I humored my mother and voted for Obama, knowing he was going to win by an 80 percent margin in New York anyway.
But, you know, When Obama dissed Israel three ways to Sunday his first week in office, I marched down to the Board of Elections, which nobody does, it’s a hole in the wall at the tip of Manhattan, and changed my party affiliation to Independent, I was so furious.
@Laura
I think anyone who worships politicians, Desantis or Trump or anyother, would be misguided. That being said, as false idols go, Trump provided a great deal of miraculous victories for his supporters. In fact, I disagree with your repeated derogatory that most of Trump’s supporters are cultists. Honestly, not to put too fine a point on this, I would suggest that someone who might pen in the name of a candidate who has zero chance of winning in an election as important as the 2024 presidential election might be seen as the best form of evidence of cultist activity, with all due respect.
Trump did what no other president has done in recent memory, he followed thru on most of his campaign promises while the country was dragged into a death spiral due to, not his personality as you claim, but due to his political agenda to reset America and make it a great and powerful nation again. In fact, Trump’s pre-political celebrity was based upon his personality. People of all walks of life were quite fond of him, til he moved into politics. He can not be bought, and he can not be manipulated. He defeated every member of the Bush-Cheney wing in 2016 and he will do so again, because the policies he espouses represent the will of the people, while the policies of the Bush-Cheney crowd do not represent the will of the people.
As far as him alienating people, those politicos who were at his side were there to serve him, to enact his agenda, to do as they were instructed. When they are alienated by Trump, as you describe it, and attack his agenda, they are attacking the agenda of the most powerful, most numerous and most philo-semitic movement in history. Trump was not without his vulnerabilities, but he needed to be attacked, not from the Bush-Cheney side of the aisle, but from the MAGA side of the aisle. When Desantis, for instance, moved towards the RINO billionaires, he showed his colors, and it was a great mistake. Whereas you charge Trump with defeating Desantis, I would argue that he defeated himself, and quite spectacularly.
Peloni, you fail to grasp the ways in which Trump alienates people, even those who were previously on his side. I ask again, what would you call the syndrome for people who blindly worship him?
@Peloni I am aware of that. Nonetheless, Huckabee was the only candidate who ever expressly endorsed Israeli sovereignty over Yesha and even though he didn’t force it, it put the ball in the Pirhanastinians’ court and it had a 4 year loophole that no successor would ever enforce, Trump’s plan was a TSS. And the Abraham Accords required shelving it applying sovereignty.
@Laura
Glad you told us previously that you don’t suffer from TDS because your most recent comment does little to support this conclusion
@Sebastien
Trump always said he would not force his plan on the parties and he didn’t. He agreed to shelve the plan in preference of the AA, which was coincident with Gantz’ move to prevent the sovereignty portion of the deal from going thru. So there was no need for him to renounced his plan which he has not done to my knowledge.
Based on Maga’s attempt to destroy the best governor in America, Ron DeSantis, I will be writing in DeSantis name in the general election should the GOP be stupid enough to nominate this selfish prick. No one can convince me that MAGA is anything other than a cult. We are passing up a chance to put a truly conservative candidate in the WH and maybe the only Republican in the country who has successfully fought and defeated the left. And if that isn’t bad enough, the Maga cult intends to make sure Ron is prevented from even a future shot at the WH all out of spite because he dared to challenge dear leader for the GOP nomination which he thinks he’s entitled to without earning it. It’s the country they are really going to hurt, not Ron. Not surprising coming from a narcissist who easily turned against Bibi just for making a phone call to Biden. Imagine if his followers actually thought for themselves instead of doing whatever he tells them to.
@Peloni Has Trump renounced his version of the TSS? The only politician I know who opposed it was Huckabee who I temporarily switched to Republican to vote for in 2016 before he dropped out.
@Sebastien
Haley left her position in the UN back in 2018 to begin a run for the White House in 2024. Beginning with a speaking tour, she ingratiated herself (read as ‘sold herself’) to the establishment which came to bankroll her election hopes. This Establishment support was solidified when she came out post Jan 6, 2021 to castigate Trump as having led the nation on a wrong path, following which she promptly edged out Pence for the support of the Bush-Cheney wing of the party. Make no mistake here – the Bush-Cheney positions are Haley’s positions. Haley, like Desantis, like W, won’t fold as instructed because they want to do so, as what they want is irrelevant to what policy is enacted. In fact, such establishment-led leadership will fold because they have no choice but to do so. Haley has already signaled this with her recent comment that the TSS was not off the table unless Israel says so, even as it is clear to all that the TSS is incompatible with Israel’s survival. Ironically, Haley claims that Israel did not oppose the TSS but rather it was the Pals who did, which is a clear indication of where her policies would likely lead. The TSS is not an Israeli policy forced on the US but rather the opposite, and Haley is far too well informed to believe any differently.
None of the neocon advocates are independently minded actors, and all are captured by those who actually run the govt. They will act as needed to support the power elites who placed them in power, and respond accordingly. Importantly, Trump is not the only possible candidate for the job of president, but he is currently the only independent candidate applying for it.
The distinction between those who backed Haley (RINO billionaire donors) and those who backed Trump (small dollar donors) provides each with a master to whom they will each respond. This is why Haley, despite all her rhetoric in support of Israel, will continue the TSS policies which she is not
@Reader President Trump did not incite the crowd to enter the Capitol. He spoke at a demonstration a mile away and urged people to demonstrate “peacefully and patriotically.” The other one was a false flag incident organized and led by agents provacateurs. It was civil disobedience not insurrection. Nobody was armed except the cop who shot Ashley Babbett. They police let them in and they just roamed around. All the footage was released. It was a hoax. And excuse for a witch hunt. You are just parroting Dem propaganda.
@peloni
But you don’t ruin the program first and then reform it to find out whether you will get solvency, you keep the program going while implementing reforms and making sure that your reforms don’t hurt people.
American politicians do not need or use Medicare – they have their own “platinum” insurance, benefits, big salaries, and bribes from the corporations, they hate and want to destroy both Social Security and Medicare.
I suspect they are planning another Great Depression – in the last one 6-7 million people died of hunger which was then euphemistically called “malnutrition”, now it will be far worse (of course, the politicians will consider it a great success).
And specifically about Trump – neither he nor Giuliani got even a slap on the wrist for inciting the crowd to enter the Capitol and interfere with the government after which a few of these people got sentences which were out of all proportion to their alleged “crimes”.
@Peloni I see. Thank you. And Haley?
@Sebastien
Regarding W’s capitulation to the Saudi’s and Prince Bandar, here is an excerpt from Ted’s excellent article Saudi Arabia and the Peace Process
The Saudis are master manipulators and excellent at negotiating from a point of strength.
@Sebastien
Desantis passed a bill which rolled back the ability for anyone in his state to investigate election fraud who was not in the employment of the State or State agency. So True The Vote, which found revealed the ballot harvesting could not investigate what was going on in Florida, but could only bring it to the attention of the relative state agency which would or would not investigate. The canvassing which demonstrated large numbers of ghost votes in Florida in 2020 would be illegal as of this year due to the legislation which Desantis signed into law last May. This took place after Florida, of all the states in the US was seen to be the lone center of where the expected Red Wave did take place (70% victories in both the State House and State Senate), and the result was that in their first legislative session, a bill was passed with the above provisions. They also made it illegal for any precinct to vote using paper ballots, ie they must use machines.
I have explained this a few times, so here are the links with sources and more information than provided here, but feel free to followup if anything is not clear:
https://www.israpundit.org/desantis-says-of-course-trump-lost-the-2020-election/#comment-63356000264328
https://www.israpundit.org/desantis-us-should-butt-out-of-israels-affairs/#comment-63356000261672
https://www.israpundit.org/the-gop-is-losing-the-vote-fraud-war/#comment-63356000263006
https://www.israpundit.org/republicans-cannot-afford-the-opportunity-cost-of-ballot-harvesting/#comment-63356000263636
@Peloni
Unaware of any of this. Please explain.
@John Galt III
Since you specifically cite economics, lets look at what Trump was able to accomplish, with an insurrection built against him from within his own party and a seditious opposition. He built the greatest economy the US has ever known. Massive increases in wages across the board, with increases in manufacturing (though modest to be honest) and decreased the China trade deficit prior the WuFlu bio agent being used to decimate the nation and the world, which of course saw things fall apart, both in the economy and the trade deficits.
What Trump was able to do in such a short period of time was revolutionary, empowering Americans and which made America Great Again, which is why a bio warfare agent was deployed against him just as his reelection campaign was beginning.
Also there were any number of successes beyond the economy, and not the least was his moves to render the Deep State vulnerable with Schedule F.
So regarding the financial mess, and the insurrection aimed against him, I think you are selling him far shorter than a fair reckoning, and an encompassing fair reckoning would cast him in an even more admirable light as Sebastien provides only a small fraction of the innumerable victories Trump was able to achieve.
Do recall that it was the RINOs who prevented Trump’s policies from becoming law, and left Trump with only being able to EO his policies as best he could thru the networked judiciary/regulatory roadblocks used to delay many of his ventures til his last year in office.
Regarding Haley and Desantis, I would caution against finding any form of reform from these Establishment supporting RINOs who have no interest in supporting any agenda which addresses the greatest threat to the American people and the world, which of course is the lack of government chosen by the consent of the governed. You seem content with what Desantis did in Florida, but it should be noted that he has acted to PREVENT any election transparency in his state, something which did not exist prior to his signing the legislation securing his own state govt as the only body which might investigate or query any election irregularities as did exist in 2020 in the state of Florida, and which were brought to Desantis’ attention, to which Desantis did absolutely nothing.
In fact, Desantis and Haley each give a good indication of support for Israel, but they each folded like a deck of cards at different times to appease the powers of the establishment, something which would argue against the idea that they would support Israel if the establishment ordered them to do otherwise. Think of George W, who also gave a good lip service in support of Israel during the election, but when the chips were down, he posited the notion that there were two types of terrorism and chose the Arabs over Israel more than once – recall his capitulation to the Saudi’s and Prince Bandar for one.
As with Trump’s choices for appointees, we should be looking for someone not tied to the establishment, for all of these reasons and many many more. As you note, Trump was not invulnerable due to his part played with the vax, but no serious candidate chose to actually challenge him which was not in fact tied to the RINOs, their RINO policies, and their RINO tactics. So it will be Trump who takes the windfall for this lack of real opposition, and in fact, I would argue, this will not be seen to be a bad outcome in any event.
@Sebastien
The manner in which he reformed the VA was a test pilot format for how he was to reform Medicare. The graft, mismanagement and paperwork expenses are excessive along with the regulations which add unnecessary costs and inefficiency to the program. His plan does not require changing any one thing, but nearly the entire program. It was to be tied to the four executive orders related to Pharma which include eliminating the middlemen and most-favored-nation pricing in the US which would force drug prices to a fraction of their current costs. These were the plans he ran on in 2020 in any event.
So the solvency of the program was to be a byproduct of better management of costs and management of healthcare/medicare. We will have to wait to see how it comes to fruition when (hopefully) he is elected and wins the election, but he certainly did wonders with the VA.
@Sebastien Zorn
I already posted 22 times that Trump suspended the tax that finances Social Security and Medicare (it is illegal to abolish the tax) and he vowed to continue suspending it when reelected.
Suspending the tax means that it is not deducted from employees paychecks, and employers do not need to contribute their part to it.
THIS MEANS DEFUNDING THESE PRORAMS because they no longer get any money coming in.
He hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent because he has found the way to keep them insolvent, and this is not something you explain to your constituency in your election campaign.
That poor idealist! They already stole the money from the Social Security fund and replaced it with IOUs, and now they found a way to kill it.
@Reader “[Trump] says he wouldn’t cut the programs but hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent.
‘Former President Donald J. Trump has said he would not make any cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits. However, he has also opposed raising taxes to bring in more funding for them, which means his plans would not keep the programs solvent for the long term. A spokesman for his campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security to help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social, in January. The funding gap for the programs predates the Biden administration and is connected to long-term demographic trends, including life expectancy and the retirement of the huge baby boomer generation.
Mr. Trump’s opposition to modifying the programs is a shift from earlier in his career, when he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and said it should be privatized. He dropped that position, as well as his previous support for raising the retirement age to 70, in his first presidential campaign. (The Social Security retirement age is currently 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.)”
“Exact projections have fluctuated based on overall economic conditions, but the most recent estimates show Social Security running out of money to cover full benefits by 2033, and part of Medicare by 2031.
The candidates are split on whether to call for changes to the programs, but those who say they would leave them untouched generally have not explained how they would keep them solvent.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/19/us/politics/republican-candidates-2024-social-security-medicare.html
@Reader
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/19/us/politics/republican-candidates-2024-social-security-medicare.html
Just euthanize the 40 or so million oldsters who live on Social Security as soon as he gets elected, and then it will be PERFECT!
@John Galt III
You can’t be serious. His presidency was a golden age. Just for starters: Energy independence, Secured our borders, renegotiated bad trade deals, Remain in Mexico, Taylor Force Act, enforced Jerusalem Embassy Act, recognized the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria was no illegal per se, recognized Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights, allowed Israeli engineers to fix the bugs in the F35, brought back industries from abroad by threatening to tax them as foreign corporations, extended Title VI protections to Jewish and pro-Israel college students, enforced the law where he was able to despite Dem governors and mayors who collaborated with the rioters/actual insurrectionists, stood unconditionally with Israel militarily, Abraham Accords, recognized the International Holocaust Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism and told the state department to abide by it. I can’t think of everything in one sitting. No new wars. Defeated Isis, assassinated Soleimani. Invited the dog who tracked down Bin Laden to the White House and pinned a medal of honor on him (I just love that one.) Peloni can tell you more if you haven’t been keeping up.
Sure Haley and De Santis are on the same page with regard to Israel in principle but they have not been tested under fire. I’d vote for them in the general election against Biden but Trump is a tested product. And the very fact that the globalist establishment went to the lengths of rigging the election and persecuting his supporters as political prisoners, makes him someone to defend.
Trump cut off funding to Iran, UNRWA, the PA, the antisemitic UN Human Rights Committee he withdrew from. He’s the only president we ever had who supported Israel without simultaneously funding her enemies. Except maybe LBJ. I’ve read conflicting things there.
Peggy Tierney also posted this same article, “I was wrong about Trump” on her website.
Another post she wrote here:
https://tierneyrealnewsnetwork.substack.com/p/like-bill-clinton-said-its-the-economy?publication_id=728707&post_id=140037226&isFreemail=true&r=hevwr
is about the Black population of Chicago up in arms about the massive numbers of illegal immigrants that have been bused to Chicago.
She wrote, “A well-known Democrat and Chicago activist, George Blakemore, called for Donald Trump to “come in here and clean up this mess!”
“He said that he wants Democrats in Chicago to remove the illegal aliens that Biden has been flooding into Chicago and other places and ‘send them all back.’ Then, he wants President Trump to come to Chicago and fix Biden’s mess!”
“You’ll notice that George didn’t call for Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley to come to Chicago and fix their problems. He called specifically for Donald Trump! Blakemore, who is black, said the situation was untenable.”
The same thing is happening in cities all over America. Black people are turning to Trump as they are finally starting to realize they’ve been abandoned by the democrat party and no longer have anything in common with a party dedicated to normalizing transvestites, pedophiles, gender mutilating surgeries, men competing against women, and putting their constituents dead last.
I prefer DeSantis. The governor picks good people to work for the state of Florida. He retains them.
Trump in 4 years picked one useless person after another and they have almost turned on him. Sessions, Barr, Pence, McMaster, Mattis and on and on. he totally screwed up the CCP Wuhan Flu and still thinks the “vaccines” are great. He has no problem with the groomers at Disney and his loud mouthed son has no problem with the Trans groomers.
I will vote for him over any Democrat but I expect absolutely nothing useful from him. If he is elected I believe his four year term will be a disaster because in the end it is all about him and not the country. He talks the talk and then punts about 90% of the time. He is NOT a leader. We face a huge financial mess later this decade and Trump will be blamed for it while accomplishing zero.
I hope I am wrong in all this but I doubt it.
Excellent article. The managerial technocracy that has made our federal bureaucracy the middle man, is hoping to maintain its stranglehold on America by a censorship-industrial complex and increasing surveillance of the internet and public spaces.
We have many dangers to face before the election: We have a Department of Homeland Security that doesn’t secure the homeland, a Department of Justice that doesn’t do justice, an FBI that’s supposed to fight organized crime but IS organized crime and a Department of Defense that doesn’t defend.
The current administration’s goal in relation to Israel is to pressure Israel to stop destroying Hamas, and to install an Iranian asset in Gaza. In addition they want to pressure Israel to give up her sovereign territory to Hezbollah in exchange for nothing.
With every passing day of the Biden-globalist agenda, people are realizing how insane the globalist agenda is and how dangerous they are to the hope of regaining our liberty.
This is a government that appears to be lurching from one failed foreign policy blunder after another while the world is becoming a more dangerous place all the time.
Most Biden supporters don’t seem to want to admit openly what a foolish mistake they made in voting for him. They hang onto their diminishing sense of virtue only by besmirching Donald Trump, as if that justifies having voted for a demented life long crook.
I am hopeful that people like the author of this article are able to start recognizing all the many lies they formerly agreed with, about which Trump’s “horrible” character was just one.
Outstanding article, and every word the tiruth I would add the following:
“His accomplishments far outweigh his personality quirks. No other president did so much in so little time.” — and with so many working so hard against him, including many in his own administration and behind the scenes.