Commentary
Donald Trump doesn’t officially take office until January 20, 2025, but it seems as though he’s already assumed the presidency again. Even the so-called mainstream media are referring to the lame duck President Biden as MIA as President-Elect Trump is making news.
At the same time, led by a major expose’ in the right-of-center Wall Street Journal, the left-leaning media, too, are beginning to fess up about their cover-up of Biden’s declining levels of acuity and engagement and disinterest in who was actually running the government.
We saw Biden fade with our own eyes. Not only in that disastrous debate, his inability to even read from a teleprompter, his halted speech, his confusion while leaving a stage, and his falls. All the while his staffers and the media shielded him.
Democrats complained about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s description of Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties in advancing age.”
Administrative insiders are now revealing that he had “good days and bad days” and that was during the time he was making his decision on the Afghan withdrawal. Staff turned down Cabinet member requests for discussion. He had just one cabinet meeting in 2024.
Now, with his unusually written pardon of his son, Hunter, Biden himself (the Big Guy) will likely escape an indictment for his role in Hunter’s widely exposed corruption.
Meanwhile, business leaders and international political leaders having been meeting with Trump, at Mar-a-Lago and during his trip to France as if he’s already president.
Of course, the Washington Post had to throw cold water on the fact that Trump won the election comfortably, prevailing in every battleground state as Republicans seized full control of Congress. The first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years, improving his 2016 performance. The Post insisted “the election results reflect a country that remains deeply divided.”
As for Trump’s support of smaller government that spends less, his engagement of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been met mostly with optimism. Big spending Democrats, who see their progressive pet projects facing trouble, need to think twice in blocking DOGE because their constituencies appear to favor the action.
Trump’s nominees for cabinet spots and other agency positions requiring Senate confirmation are meeting with Senators in preparation of the hearing sessions.
While I believe the president-elect should be able to have as his advisors the people he has nominated, Democrats and a few Republicans may block one or two, just because. Usually, after reading negative material in the leftist media.
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, however, recently wrote, “Senators would best show loyalty to Mr. Trump by voting down those who are unsuited to various roles and would cause harm. They would best serve him by operating in a way that shows they are people of stature, not vessels. If Mr. Trump is making a mistake, save him from it, as a friend would.”
They still don’t know Trump. He would not see it that way. He has named those who he wants to serve with him. Incidentally, I’d like Noonan to name the senators who she believes have stature other than the fact that they are senators.
Noonan advises Democrat senators not to be “obstructionists, vengeful and merely partisan. The country won’t be in the mood for it.
As for opinion columnists, like herself, she encourages them to “watch what’s good and say so, watch for what’s bad and say that, and be afraid of neither observation.
“If you are an American you wish America to prosper, and part of its prospering will involve successful presidential leadership, so you want Mr. Trump to be successful.” she wrote.
The 2024 Trump is decidedly different than the 2016 Trump. I recognize it and so does he. During his first post-election news conference, referred to as a lengthy cordial session, he noted “The first time everybody was fighting me. This time everyone wants to be my friend. I don’t know. My personality changed or something.”
Noonan asked her readers if they were optimistic about Trump 2.0. “Optimists tend to think the right, nice thing will happen, and I don’t necessarily. But I have faith, and I have hope.”
That’ll do.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
