“You know, Joe. I ran because of you.”
On June 16, 2015, after decades of being fed up with what was happening to our country, President Trump decided to come down that golden escalator and do something about it.
He spoke plain truths. America didn’t have victories anymore. Our economy was in shambles, GDP was shrinking into negative territory. We weren’t beating China. All Americans were getting was rhetoric from politicians, when they just wanted a job.
President Trump didn’t need the job or money. He wasn’t beholden to any big donors or foreign nations. He lived the American Dream. He wanted it for others, but he saw it slipping away. Politicians for years made promises, but never followed through. America was losing its strength, while the political class in Washington got stronger, setting rules for others that they themselves never followed.
Government was failing at its most basic obligations. Borders were left unsecured while bureaucrats were regulating shower heads and spying on political opponents. America – we were told – had to be apologized for. Gun-toting, Bible-believing, energy-producing Americans were always to blame, but never the swamp dwellers unaccountable for their own failures. They became so disconnected from America’s founding principles they didn’t even recognize that a billionaire from Queens becoming president was exactly what the Founders had in mind.
The Founders didn’t envision a ruling class unattached from the people they were supposed to serve. That’s precisely what they rebelled against. We’re doing it again, defying a phony corrupt political class so eager to sell out our interests for their own. It’s all Joe Biden’s done for half a century. Selling his public office to the highest bidder, attacking energy development at home while he and his family profited off shady energy deals in China and Ukraine.
“Our country needs a truly great leader,” Trump said at his Trump Tower launch. “We need a leader that can bring back our jobs, can bring back our manufacturing, can bring back our military, can take care of our vets. And we also need a cheerleader…We need somebody that literally will take this country and make it great again. We can do that.”
We can and we did. Tax cuts and deregulation brought an economic boom, and the greatest income gains in history for Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans. ISIS was decimated after President Trump changed the rules of engagement. He negotiated and signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, eliminating NAFTA and getting fair footing for our workers. He brought China to its worst economy in decades and labeled them a currency manipulator. Instead of millions dropping out of the labor force during the Obama-Biden years, under President Trump for the first time in history there were more job openings than the unemployed. Hiring hit records, and lower wage earners reaped the most benefit.
Donald Trump promised to be the most pro-life president in history. This year he became the first sitting president ever to address the March for Life in person. He restored America’s standing through peace through strength, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He established the Space Force, and relaunched Americans into orbit. He strengthened NATO by getting our allies to pay more. He delivered three Supreme Court justices, and three peace deals in the Middle East.
In short: President Trump did what he said he was going to do, and then some. How is it possible he can do so much, while Joe Biden, who’s been in office over four decades longer, has done so little?
Because it’s what Donald Trump – a dreamer, builder, doer, risk taker, outsider, street fighter, and deal maker – has done his entire life.
President Trump’s 2016 victory was foretold by none other than the Clinton campaign – in 1992. Strategists recognized Bill Clinton’s problem with voters was his “essential ‘political’ nature.” Clinton’s trust and honesty were suspect, and Hillary was worse. “People think of her as being in the race ‘for herself’ and as ‘going for the power.’ They weren’t wrong.
Their solution? Be like Trump. "People believe change can only be brought about by a leader who lacks strings and who is strong enough to challenge powerful interests.” They wanted Clinton to take a page from Trump’s Wharton days, to challenge people, engage them, and be “unafraid and willing to brave the fire.”
President Trump is that leader. He lacks strings and is strong enough to challenge powerful interests. He fights for the common man with common sense.
We have a choice. A choice to keep America the land of the free, with great respect for the brave. A nation of free thinkers, inventors, pioneers with boundless opportunity, and future triumphs ahead. Or will we throw it all away? Will we use central planning in Communist China as an excuse to throw out our Constitution and inalienable rights? Will we cave to a destructive ideology that seeks to steal and destroy, one that only tears down, and never builds up? Will we cower to intimidation and threats from Marxists, Big Tech censors, and those who practice group think?
Or we can take personal responsibility. We can chart our own paths. We can seize on the tremendous potential made possible by the gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We can make America great again, again.