By Conrad Black
Hyper-predictably, the anti-Trump hyenas who should be nameless, such as Senator Chuck Schumer, who predicted that President Trump would be fleeced out of his under-clothing on his visit to Beijing, have observed on his return
that the visit was a complete fiasco because he was unable to swindle the Communist Chinese government into concessions that there is no chance they would make.
Yet the New York Times announced “a weaker America” although Mr. Trump effectively controls half of China’s oil supply and the People’s Republic has little economic growth, a financial crisis, declining population, all the ailments of a corrupt totalitarian state, and its last two defense ministers have just been sentenced to life in prison.
This is the same rabidly partisan neurosis that accused Mr. Trump of treason with Russia, threatening to cancel all aid to Ukraine if it did not indict members of the Biden family, of attempting to conduct an insurrection, of attempting to bring back racial segregation in agreeing with the more than 80 percent of Americans who think that voter identification should be required to vote in federal elections, and who claim that deporting convicted, violent criminals who entered the country illegally is an assault on the civil rights of every American.
It will be interesting to see the Trump-haters’ gradual attempt to return to a sustainable level of mental health after this president has retired. It is long past the time when the atmosphere should have started to improve.The president, for his part, should stop making contradictory statements in adjoining sentences. He has plenty of reasons to go back to war with Iran and says that the United States Navy can open the Strait of Hormuz at any time and without anyone else’s assistance; we should get on with it. Not even the administration seems to have figured out that the American public doesn’t really care how long this war goes on, as long as America is not taking significant casualties and appears to be accomplishing something. Yet taking the time to strangle Iran seems unnecessary.
This problem of administration incoherence is fairly widespread. It is a simple thing to explain why this is a just and necessary war as well as an overwhelmingly victorious one. The president has not utilized the credibility of his office as almost all presidents in the electronic age have done at times, to explain why this war is in the national interest, is not costly in lives nor especially costly financially and is being won. Nor will it do to say that only the “worst of the worst” are being deported amongst those who entered the country illegally, while other administration spokesmen say that quotas have been laid down, and that anyone who entered the country illegally even if 20 years ago, and without having been convicted even of jaywalking since, and has been gainfully employed and fully integrated into American society, requires expulsion as urgently as convicted murderers or rapists.
There is no excuse for allowing the Democrats to get away with outrageous falsehoods on this point. No one really still claims that Mr. Trump is an illegitimate or even an unsuccessful president. There has been too much fussing about the midterm elections. America need not treat the world oil prices as inflexible since it is a net energy exporter. The president has already hinted that he might reduce gas taxes which make up most of the cost.
As mentioned, there is a fast track for clearing the Hormuz Strait which would reduce prices. And Mr. Trump has won the redistricting battle. Finally, every two-term president since Theodore Roosevelt, except for his cousin Franklin, had a hostile Congress in his last two years: the president just vetoes what he doesn’t like and focuses on foreign policy; it need not happen and isn’t the end of the world if it does.This has been a very successful administration, and the president only needs to get his election reform legislation through and complete the defeat of Iran and the deportation of authentic undesirables, without unjust treatment of deserving migrants.
Mr. Trump has defeated those who perverted the justice system and the intelligence agencies to try to stop him in 2016 and again in the Biden years. Secretary Hillary Clinton; and the director of national intelligence, James Clapper; and the director of central intelligence, John Brennan; and the FBI director, James Comey; and Presidents Biden and Obama have all been at least partially disgraced themselves. Barring something completely unforeseeable, it will be impossible for them and their followers to maintain any of their farrago of lies and defamations about Mr. Trump. As of today, he is one of the ten best presidents in the country’s history. That is unlikely to change.
First published in the New York Sun
