One way to summarize Donald Trump’s first business day in office is to say he followed through on many, many campaign promises. Another way to look at it is that Trump slaughtered NeverTrump. Both explanations are accurate, but one is the cause, the other the effect.
First, you know I pay very little attention to Facebook. Too much craziness over there. But friends of mine do occasionally send me screen shots of things they find outrageous. So I know what a lot of NeverTrumpers were posting last year, even after the election. None of those NeverTrumpers expected Trump to do what he said he’d do.
Boy, does NeverTrump look like a bunch of fools today? By doint what he said he’d do, Trump drove the last nail in NeverTrump’s coffin.
[Read how Trump Meant It All]
Here’s a brief summary of what Donald Trump has done since November 8:
** Saved or created 1.3 million American jobs ** Appointed the most conservative, most qualified Cabinet in US history ** Affirmed his commitment to drain the swamp and serve only the people of the United States ** Bombed the hell out of ISIS on Day One ** Placed a hiring freeze on the US government (except for military) ** Ordered government agencies to resolve disputes with citizens in the best interest of the citizen* ** Met with CIA rank-and-file, receiving numerous standing ovations ** Signed Executive Order halting further implementations of Obamacare ** Signed Executive Order banning use of US tax dollars for abortions overseas ** Signed Executive Order pulling US out of TPP ** Restored bust of Winston Churchill to Oval Office ** Called Benjamin Netanyahu ** Met with business executives, promising 75% cut in regulations, huge cuts in taxes, and warning that they will be severely punished for moving US jobs overseas ** Met with union leaders, receiving long round of applause ** Received accolades from Teamsters Union for pulling out of TPP ** Reaffirmed his commitment to Scalia-like appointment to Supreme Court
That’s an amazing list of accomplishments that NeverTrumpers said would never happen. And in just one working day as President!
These actions are completely consistent with everything Trump said he’d do. And they’re completely consistent with his broad philosophy of government: the government is there to serve the people, not the other way around.
But I’ll go futher: Trump is already shaping up to be the ultimate movement-conservative president in US history. In other words, he’s running ahead of Reagan at this point.
[Find out Sean Spicer exposed the press’s psychosis.]
NeverTrumpers ought to read Ken Masugi’s fantastic article on American Greatness. Masugi points out that Trump’s inaugural address was the strongest defense of the Constitution in more than a century:
In truth, no inaugural address has defended the Constitution so vigorously since Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural, because none so directly confronted the foundational threat to the Constitution in Franklin Roosevelt’s First Inaugural.
Because Masugi’s piece is so important, I’m going to include an extended quote for you. It’s very important. But I really want you to go read the whole piece.
Masugi argues that Trump’s speech surpassed Reagan’s when it comes to rolling back the intrusive power of government bureaucracy. Please read this carefully:
Since 1933, all presidents, Republican as well as Democrat, have accepted this willfulness, which destroys the rule of law and even the pretense of constitutional government. Only Ronald Reagan forthrightly resisted this temptation:
From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?
Thus, Reagan argued that ordinary Americans are heroes, who can live quite well without a bureaucracy over them. But President Reagan had insufficient powers, forcing him to compromise with a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats.
Yet President Trump never even mentioned the Constitution, his critics whine, so why accept a campaign rally speech on this solemn occasion as a defense of the Constitution?
The short answer is that since Reagan, 16 years of Democratic presidents plus 12 years of Bush Republican presidents have solidified the hold of the administrative state over America. This coup against republican government is the subject of Trump’s ire and the popular anger that propelled his unlikely election.
Look, I know how NeverTrumpers became misguided and mistrustful of Trump. I was, too, for a time in 2015. I wrote a book about it.
But it’s time for all people of the right to recognize the opportunity before us now. Donald Trump is the conservative savior we’ve been asking for. He’s the only one we’re going to get for many, many decades to come. If you don’t make the most of this golden, God-given opportunity, you will take it to your grave. And, if you take this to your grave, those of us who warned you to open your damn eyes will dance on it.
*In his Obamacare EO, Trump made history according to Judge Napolitano. Via Fox News:
Napolitano said that the order directs agencies to “dial back the severity of the enforcement and [not] to punish a person or a state for what you think is their non-compliance because it might not be non-compliance in a couple of months.”
Napolitano added that he’s never before seen a president say “you will exercise your judgment against the government and in favor of the individual. That is truly revolutionary and is exactly what [Trump] promised he would do.”