Here we are: 2020, with Election Day just 11 months off and President Trump looking like an ever better bet for reelection.
Trump’s strength has three main sources: the success of his economic policies, his record of doing (or at least trying to do) exactly what he promised back in 2016, and the unhinged nature of his opposition.
The president’s economic impact can’t be doubted: After years of slow Obama-era growth, the United States was looking at a likely recession when Trump took office. But his immediate reversal of his predecessor’s job-killing policies, starting with a major deregulation drive, was transformative: Businesses no longer had to assume that Washington would keep the hits coming in the form of ever-rising taxes, energy costs, legal risks, workforce mandates and so on. Then came the Trump tax cuts, encouraging employers to invest and expand.
Sure, the president’s trade wars have made for major uncertainty in a few sectors — but, especially when it comes to China, Americans recognize that Washington needed to stand up for basic fairness and the rule of law. Beijing’s incessant cheating has to end, or the rest of the world will suffer — especially the working classes.
Trump’s stated priority from the moment he came down that escalator has been jobs, jobs, jobs. And how he has delivered: The lowest unemployment rate in decades, month after month, with solid growth in median wages and ever-more Americans who had given up on even looking for work now returning to the labor force.
Working-class voters, especially in swing states, know what a difference Trump has made. Crucially, polls also suggest that Hispanic and African Americans, groups seeing especially strong employment gains, appreciate the Trump economy. They may not vote for him in huge numbers come November — but they’re less likely to vote for Democrats who promise to reverse his policies.
Trump’s approach to immigration plays in here, too: As no less than The New York Times recently reported, ICE crackdowns on undocumented workers have meant new job opportunities for US citizens, particularly African Americans.
Time and again, this president has stuck to his guns despite established “wisdom”: playing it his way on border policy, trade and such misbegotten global agreements as the Iran nuclear deal. Past presidents had vowed to move America’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem but blinked in the face of establishment predictions of doom: Trump actually kept his promise and proved the fears were just fuss.
Yes, Trump’s manner rubs countless Americans the wrong way, particularly if they make the mistake of following him on Twitter. But it’s hard to argue with his results.
Especially when Democrats have fallen off the deep end: Rather than focus on opposing him where they have the public on their side, they’ve embraced open borders — even insisting that illegal immigrants should have the same rights as US citizens.
The 2020 candidates are calling for enormous tax hikes — even “moderate” Joe Biden is on record demanding increases three times what Hillary Clinton proposed in 2016. Yet their plans for greater federal spending hikes are even more ambitious.
Meanwhile, Dems began pushing for impeachment even before Trump’s inauguration. Actually, insiders launched the now-plainly ridiculous “collusion” probe before Election Day — and partisan leakers, with the help of the anti-Trump media, used it to distract, delegitimize and besiege Trump for most of his time in office.
Trump’s Ukraine dealings were ill-conceived, but Nancy Pelosi’s rushed, partisan hearings — and sudden shyness to send the articles to the Senate — shows the impeachment was simply political. No matter that most voters see this drive as ridiculous: Democrats don’t dare defy their Trump-deranged base, so they’re making the president a martyr and sidelining several of their top contenders during the early primaries.
Despite his achievements, President Trump remains vulnerable in November thanks to near-universal elite opposition and his own shortcomings. But the left’s lunacy is pushing moderate Americans into his corner — all but handing him a second term.