PURELY POLITICAL Plans

He was stopped in his tracks by a recalcitrant Congress and Covid-19, but President Trump can now try to finish what he started in 2017.

Putting Together the Trump 2.0 Team

Watching President-elect Donald J. Trump assemble his official and un-official cabinet with choices from logical (Tom Homan as border czar) to inspired (Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense!), to curious (Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security), has been a exhilarating experience.

I – as have many of us who voted for Mr. Trump – am spending way too much time watching TV, flipping from Newsmax to Fox, to Fox Business, to keep up with the latest picks, and then to  CNN and MSNBC to enjoy a laugh or two as low-IQ (excuse me for borrowing Mr. Trump’s expression… but it’s useful… and true) talking heads either weep in sorrow (“How could they [choose your favorite minority here] vote against their best self-interest?!”) or rant in anger (“We’ll resist!” “We’ll fight!”) at what just happened on November 5^th.

All President Trump’s choices are solid, though I do worry about Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Not that I don’t believe he’d do an adequate job at that post, but giving up a safe senate seat in Florida seems risky.

However, it's all been fun, almost a fantasy come true.

Taking On the Deep State

The joy of watching and listening to the myriad Democrat hand wringing and panty twisting should carry us through a bountiful Thanksgiving celebration and a very Merry Christmas indeed.

Then, after a raucous Republican New Year’s gathering in the fifty now nearly United States (just look at the electoral map), it’ll get serious as President Trump’s inauguration takes place in the nation’s capital.

Trump’s first inaugural speech was a doozy that angered and put fear into assembled Washington as he pointed out that “For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.

“Washington flourished,” he noted, “but the people did not share in its wealth.

“Politicians prospered, but the jobs left.

“And the factories closed.”

Everyone in Washington knew who he was talking about.

He was talking about them.

Trump went on:

“The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families across our land.”

Yup, he was talking about them alright.

“Rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation,” he continued, “an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential…

Putting America First

“For many decades,” he pointed out, “we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own. And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

“We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.

“One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind.

“The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.”

Who could or would argue that wasn’t true and isn’t true today, nearly eight years later?

Who could argue that those assembled around the Capitol building that day weren’t responsible for the degradation of America’s infrastructure or its $36-trillion public debt?

He continued.

“Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs [in his administration] will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection,” he promised, “will lead to great prosperity and strength.”

The new president gave a nod to his religious supporters before wrapping it up: “Whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska,” he said, “they look up at the same night sky; they fill their hearts with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same Almighty Creator.”

President Trump’s big plans were waylaid by Deep State actors across party lines. Instead of working on infrastructure, for example – something he, as a developer and builder, would know a lot about – he became preoccupied with impeachments (two of them), intelligence leaks, disloyalty from his selected staff and cabinet members, and “resistance” from embedded bureaucrats.

Goals he set for his first term were rudely interrupted by Covid-19 and a recalcitrant Congress. (I have many questions about the 2020 election, for example, how is it that all those votes for basement-dwelling Biden vanished in 2024?), so let’s just say that President Trump’s re-election underwent a four-year postponement.

Many of his objectives for this term remain the same:

Secure the border;

Dismantle the Deep State;

Restore the president’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats;

Overhaul the national security and intelligence apparatus;

Reform the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance) Court;

Declassify and publish Deep State documents, embarrassing or not;

Move some of the bureaucracy out of the Washington swamp;

Revamp the entire federal education establishment, possibly even do away with it.

Radically alter the tax structure to benefit small businesses and middle-class earners;

Destroy the entire DEI (Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!) industry;

Remove all the radical left-wing emphasis in the military to enhance recruitment.

There’s more, much more, such as tackling the accumulated debt of previous presidents and congresses, so let’s conclude that he’s back.

With a vengeance.

And I for one welcome President Trump with high hopes and open arms.

I pray you will too.