When French President Emmanuel Macron denounced populist nationalism this week and called on world leaders to support institutions such as the United Nations that defend "the common good of the world," liberal elites cheered. The speech was seen as a rebuke of President Trump, whose opposition to "globalism" and embrace of "nationalism" are held up as signs of the decay of American conservatism and U.S. global leadership.
Brett Kavanaugh must have been smiling as the returns came in on Election Day, because it is now clear that the Democrats' campaign to destroy him will go down as a massive blunder. It failed to keep Kavanaugh off the court. It cost Democrats their chance to regain control of the Senate. And it gave Republicans an expanded Senate majority that will allow them to confirm an even more conservative justice next time around.
When the president announced that he was sending the U.S. military to help secure our southern border, he received bipartisan praise from members of Congress. The Washington Post reported that the move was seen as "smart politics." The year was 2011, and the president was Barack Obama. The National Guard troops Obama sent to the border as part of "Operation Phalanx" helped apprehend nearly 18,000 illegal immigrants and seized more than 56,000 pounds of illegal drugs.
Next week marks the 50th anniversary of the election of President Richard Nixon. It is a chance for some perspective. While many seem convinced that the United States will never recover from the Donald Trump presidency, the truth is conservatism, the Republican Party and our nation survived Nixon -- and we will survive Trump.
In announcing his decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, President Trump cited Russia's repeated violations and the fact that the treaty does not bind China, which is engaged in the world's most ambitious ballistic missile development program. But Trump's withdrawal may also be designed for another purpose. It sends a subtle but unmistakable message to North Korea: If you refuse to denuclearize, we can now surround your country with short- and medium-range missiles that will allow us to strike your regime without warning.
Just a few weeks ago, analysts thought that control of the U.S. Senate was in play this November and that momentum was shifting to the Democrats. Thanks to their brutal campaign of character assassination against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, those chances appear to be slipping away.
Donald Trump may be remembered as the most honest president in modern American history.
When Barack Obama took the oath of office as president in 2009, George W. Bush wished him well and left the political stage, determined to never publicly criticize his successor. It is a vow he kept for the entire eight years of Obama's presidency. Indeed, Bush has given only one political speech since leaving office -- and that was for his brother Jeb in 2016.
The "deep state" exists after all. But it turns out that deep state is not made up of the permanent bureaucracy, shadowy intelligence officials, or even Obama administration holdovers; rather it is made up of President Trump's own senior appointees.
Michael Cohen's decision to plead guilty for making hush-money payments on Donald Trump's behalf has raised the prospect that if Democrats take control of Congress, they might try to impeach the president over a matter completely unrelated to a perceived criminal conspiracy with Russia. Good luck with that: Even if Democrats win back both the House and Senate, there is zero chance a two-thirds majority of senators will convict President Trump for paying off an adult-film star.
