President Donald J. Trump disembarks Air Force One at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, to begin his visit to Paradise, Calif., which was devastated by wildfires. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
After two years of solid achievements, Donald Trump’s future seems uncertain, in part, as Victor Davis Hanson points out in American Greatness. Even as Trump’s economic policies and foreign affairs bring results, “the more the hatred of him grows, both inside and outside his own party.”
Trump’s Signature Long Term Agendas Hang in the Balance
- Checking China’s often ruthless rise to global commercial and eventual military supremacy.
- Growing an economy that includes preeminent American manufacturing, energy production, and industrial output.
- Ending the idea of a bicoastal elite adjudicating politics and culture for a supposedly backward and declining traditional interior.
How to Fathom the Trump Paradox
(Trump’s) extraordinary powers of resilience and retaliation stave off the constant assaults from progressives and the media, and such defiance inspires a red-state America. Yet so far Trump’s caustic retorts also stymie winning over enough swing and minority voters to achieve a 51 percent ruling majority to ensure his ideas of restored greatness.
For now, Trump’s fate may be in the hands of others—as it was in 2016 when what put him over the top was wide scale repugnance at the thought of a corrupt President Clinton and all that her victory would entail. The final take-over of the Democratic Party by progressive extremists might well empower Trump to reelection.
Yet it is a scary idea that the fate of making America great again might hinge on the nihilism of the Democratic Party.
Read more from VDH here.
