Why We Needed Trump – and Still Do

With the specter of a Biden presidency looming, it is about to become crystal clear why we needed Donald Trump to be our President for the last four years. Trump exposed a lot of the hidden activities of unelected bureaucrats, the media, lobbyists, and campaign donors that unduly influence federal government operations. He managed to stop or at least curtail some of this, but only the tip of the iceberg has been uncovered so far.

This “shadow” government has been expanding for some time. Call it the “establishment” or “deep state”, both terms essentially mean the same thing: unelected bureaucrats wielding big power from positions buried within the government apparatus. The extreme size of the federal workforce¹ mostly conceals this stealth operation. While such an “establishment” exists on both sides of the political spectrum, the power and reach of the liberal establishment strengthened dramatically under President Obama beginning in 2008. Obama’s dearth of experience as an executive leader allowed him to be seduced by these government careerists and party veterans, and open to their suggestions. Their behind the scenes operations aided greatly in creating and pushing through socialist style legislation like the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

Reacting in part to the increasing power of the liberal establishment, conservatives voted to take away control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. It wasn’t enough. The establishment continued operating unchecked by subtly altering a myriad of existing federal government programs and services from within to reflect more progressive values and beliefs. The most costly examples of this were a slew of environmental regulations put in place by unelected department heads ostensibly to combat man-made, or in the politically correct vernacular “human-caused”, climate change.² To counter this, conservatives nominated a presidential candidate for the 2012 election who they thought was the perfect antidote to Obama and the liberal establishment, and who would slow the march toward socialism.

In traditional fashion, Republicans chose a candidate who was polite, smart, dignified, respectful of the opposing party and the media, and soft spoken enough not to ruffle anyone’s feathers. He was a “comfortable” candidate. He lost big. Mitt Romney was exactly the wrong choice to combat the growing deep state power in 2012. His mild temperament, kindly personality, and soft touch were among all the desirable qualities claimed to be missing in Donald Trump. While reassuring to some, those qualities were wholly inadequate for street fighting with a socialist leaning liberal establishment and a progressively biased media. The political rubber band in the country needed to be snapped back hard from left to right, not just “eased” a little bit.

In the ensuing four years, things got even worse for conservatism, and it looked as though we were on the threshold of progressivism being so deeply embedded in the federal bureaucracy that it would be impossible to extract. Despite the fact that Republicans took over control of the Senate in 2014, the liberal establishment continued enacting progressive policy in the shadows and now controlled many parts of government. This was the strongest and most enduring aspect of Obama’s legacy. Conservatives needed not just to win the Presidency in 2016, but to obliterate the liberal establishment’s ruinous grip on the federal government and social norms.

Hillary Clinton’s blatant disregard for protecting national security information and her cavalier attitude towards her own negligent behavior was the final straw. It was uncanny how American voters were able to sense that a tipping point had been reached where a disruptive confrontation (but not a civil war) was necessary. Likewise, they had a good idea of what kind of person would be needed to bring the hammer down. It was time to eradicate, or at least tame, the politically correct liberal mindset that now suffused the federal government.

On the campaign trail and in the debates, Donald Trump was reckless, fearless, loud, tireless, rude, and direct. But it was his remarkable ability to personally connect with working class people, and his rhetorical unpredictability that kept everyone’s attention. These are his two greatest attributes as a politician and have allowed him to dominate the news cycle. Trump presented himself as a sledgehammer-wielding destroyer of the status quo. His voting base accepted that he might swing and miss every so often, but that he would keep swinging on their behalf to break up the massively powerful establishment, defy maniacal political correctness, and beat back socialism. Additionally, unlike most politicians, he would ultimately keep his promises.

Trump took office with just about every weapon in the liberal establishment armory firing at him (as well as some guns pointed at him by fellow Republicans). In the face of that, he accomplished the following:

• Over 400 miles of new southern border fence, and vastly reduced illegal immigration
• 220 confirmed Federal Judges and 3 Supreme Court Justices
• Criminal Justice Reform legislation (2018)
• Greater international responsibility for the funding of NATO and the UN
• Rebuilding the military and transferring peace keeping missions in Afghanistan and Iraq away from the US military and back to those governments.
• Aggressively attacking the unfair trade practices of China.
• Withdrawing from the economically destructive Paris Climate Agreement
• Withdrawing from an Iran nuclear deal that the Iranians had violated multiple times
• Withdrawing from the World Health Organization who acted as an agent of the Chinese government at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
• Forging a Middle East peace deal for the first time in over 40 years
• Repeatedly calling out extreme bias and false reporting in the major news media
• Counterpunching malignant political correctness regarding race, illegal immigration, and, most of all, American history.
• Removing insubordinate and disloyal “deep state” government employees. The impeachment hearings featured the best examples of these kind of people – Lt. Col. Vindman, Ambassador Yovanovitch, and Nation Security Council Deputy Fiona Hill.
• Bringing into government superb professionals who have served for most or all of the Trump’s four years in office (Pompeo, Carson, Devos, Mnuchin, Haley, Purdue, Ross, Azar, Chao, Barr).

As impressive as these accomplishments are, the job of breaking apart the liberal establishment is far from over. If Biden is sworn in on January 20^th, there will be backsliding on that front over the next four years. Significantly so if the Democrats also take control of the US Senate.

The biggest mistake the Republican party could possibly make for 2024 is to go back to supporting another Romney-like candidate in the interests of restoring dignity and respect for political opponents. Those are laudable goals for a different time. They are the precisely wrong priorities at the wrong time for solving the problem at hand. Socialism is not a respectable opponent. Disloyal saboteurs deep inside the federal bureaucracy are not “misguided” employees who just need re-training. These people undermine government and must be removed without appeal. Socialism must be utterly defeated, not negotiated. “Woke” revisions to our nation’s history in our education system that teach a hateful view of our founding must be stopped. A leader without the aggressiveness and force of will of Donald Trump on these fronts won’t do. Conservative voters now have a taste of just how powerful they can be with the right choice of leader. We still need Trump himself, or a near clone, to finish the job. Milquetoasts need not apply in 2024.

¹ The total federal government workforce is just over 9 million people. Of that total, 2.1 million are civilian employees and the rest include the military, contractors, grant employees, and postal carriers.

² These include: Greatly increased vehicle fuel economy and emissions standards that raised car prices. Minimum quotas for the production of renewable fuels. The repurposing of farmland to grow biofuel crops (corn) instead of food, leading to higher food prices. New efficiency standards for home heating equipment (water heaters, furnaces, pool heaters, etc.) that raised the cost of those appliances.