Trump’s continued strength vs. Biden’s malaise

OPINION:

It’s been 18 months since the end of President Donald Trump’s remarkable term in the White House. A year and a half is an eternity in politics and by this point in most post-presidencies, former chief executives are no longer commanding any significant national attention and their agendas are largely set aside for the next set of ideas. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush — even the anointed one Barack Obama — all followed the traditional path of opening a library or starting a foundation and headlining the occasional party fundraiser, but by and large, all exited center stage.

Not so with the 45th president. To this day, Mr. Trump — the ultimate political outsider and change agent — remains at the forefront of American politics. Mr. Trump’s tremendous impact on government coupled with the establishment and biased mainstream media’s unhinged reaction to his rise to the presidency still dominates the political scene today. It’s something we’ve never witnessed as a country.

Mr. Trump’s commonsense “America First” agenda remains the agenda of the Republican Party and Republican candidates for office at all levels of government. You simply can’t find a Republican candidate who isn’t for building the border wall, law and order, getting tough on China, energy independence and strong adherence to the Constitution. Mr. Trump’s agenda remains so popular because it worked for four years.

For the Democrats, investigating Mr. Trump and trying to deny him another run for the presidency in 2024 remains their top priority. The Democrats are so hopelessly incompetent and out of touch that they would rather destroy Mr. Trump than attempt to solve our nation’s crippling inflation, crime and border crises. And the liberal media is more than happy to aid and abet their political allies on the left because Mr. Trump sells. The former president helps them with clicks and to survive another day in the midst of their slow-moving death spiral.

The left’s most recent coordinated effort to suggest that Mr. Trump is losing his grip on power in the GOP according to phony corporate polls is fake news. The truth is that Mr. Trump and his agenda remain wildly popular and greatly missed among wide swaths of Republican primary voters. Let’s face it, if any other politician considering a run for the presidency was sitting in the position Mr. Trump is right now, they would be labeled “strong” and “tough to beat.” But that’s Trump Derangement Syndrome for you.

GOP voters are overwhelmingly receptive to the idea that if Mr. Trump chose to seek another term in office, he has every right to do so. President Biden won a razor-thin election by about 42,000 votes in three battleground states during the fog and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic with untested universal mail-in voting, drop boxes, ballot harvesting and so-called “Zuck Bucks” carrying the day.

The same goes for “Crooked H” herself, Hillary Clinton. Former Secretary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 and if she decided to make another run for the presidency in 2024, she could easily make the case that she earned it. No one on the Democrat side could compete with a Clinton reboot at this point — including the rapidly fading current president of the United States.

On Mr. Biden’s watch — under complete Democrat control — America is heading in the wrong direction at a historic level. One recent poll found that only 10% of the American people believe we’re on the right track while an astonishing 87% said we’re going down the wrong track. Coincidentally, this month marks the 43rd anniversary of former President Jimmy Carter’s infamous “malaise” speech. Mr. Biden could deliver the same speech today nearly word for word and the American people wouldn’t blink. To be certain, clueless Mr. Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s horrible policies have driven us into a ditch just like the incompetent Mr. Carter did with his own Democrat majority in Congress in the late 1970s.

The abject failure of the Biden agenda along with the radicalization of the Democrat Party has paved the way for a Trump encore. The contrast Mr. Trump could draw on the campaign trail would be extraordinarily convincing. It would be so strong in fact that it would cause other Republican presidential hopefuls to recede into the ether due to the lack of oxygen.

On the campaign trail, candidate Trump would ask his huge crowds very straightforward questions: Do you support my border security plan or open borders and more fentanyl? Do you support my low tax and pro-growth economic policies or inflation and high gas prices? Do you support the heroic police and safe neighborhoods like me or defunding police and violent crime? Do you support American energy independence — which was achieved on my watch — or begging Saudi Arabia to drill more oil? You get the picture.

If there were ever a reason for a Trump rubber match, this is it. In 2024, the American people can decide if they like the hugely successful Trump American first agenda or the disastrous radical left’s agenda more because now they’ve seen both in action.

• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.