Destroying Iran’s military threat to the world bounced President Trump’s approval back to 49% in the latest Rasmussen Poll. That’s his maximum just as it was for Lincoln. While the media claims the world has turned against him, the fact is he and America are on the top of the world, looking down on creation.
His Shield of the Americas group (officially known as Americas Counter Cartel Coalition) designed to battle drug cartels now has 17 members: the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Colombia elected a new president who says he’ll join. Trump likely will pressure Venezuela to join.
In recent decades, the banana republics became drug cartel republics. Bukele’s election changed that by putting the soldiers of the drug cartels in prison—a very hard and harsh prison worthy of their terrorism. Other countries are following and we are giving him some of our trash that Biden brought in.
Trump taking out Maduro sent a strong message to the world and the Western Hemisphere. (If, as I believe he is doing, Maduro starts singing that will explain the presence of 32 Cuban guards protecting him; they were prison guards, not bodyguards.)
The Donroe Doctrine means Latin America will stop abusing the United States and that extends to Red China. In January, the Panama Supreme Court ruled that Red China’s control of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional. The USA does not control it (thanks a pantsload, Jimmy Carter) but now neither does the Chinese Communist Party.
As for Carter, sure our lease would have been up in 2006 but certainly Clinton or Bush could have gotten an extension.
Trump has changed the world’s attitude toward the USA—for the better.
Don’t take my word for it. Victor Davis Hanson said:
The world that we’re looking at today is radically different than that of just five years ago, radically different in the sense that it is much more in the interest of the United States. And I know that seems controversial because Trump is written off as someone who is too fluid and volatile.
His tweets, his verbiage, can put people off, but that’s the art-of-the-deal unpredictability of his nature. Some of it can be a drawback, some of it an advantage, but overall, it doesn’t help analysis to just look at what he says. It’s more important to see what he’s done.
I’m not a professor so I will just say action speaks louder than words.
What about Canada and Europe, you may ask.
Both are a mess.
If we adopted Canada as our 51st state, it would rank 50th in GDP per capita behind West Virginia. We would have to update the saying to, “Thank God for Mississippi and Canada.”
Basically, Canada is a mooch with most Canadians living along the American border. Their vaunted universal health care now includes killing patients in the name of medically assisted suicide. Its acronym is MAiD in Canadianese.
5% of the deaths in Canada are courtesy of MAiD. Killing people with severe depression is humane but executing murderers is barbarian.
The average wait to see a cardiologist is 18 days in the USA and 18 weeks (126 days) in Canada.
Oops. That 18 weeks is in the UK. Canada’s average wait is 28 weeks. 196 days? May as well make the wait until Canada wins another Stanley Cup.
The wait for MAiD is zero for people except the mentally ill. They have to wait 8 months.
As for Europe, VDH said, “Five years ago, Europe had been jawboned by Donald Trump in his first term to at least spend 2% [on defense]. Only six nations did so. He jawboned them, he threatened them. Six [more] nations did so.
“Now, almost 30 of 32 nations have agreed to spend 2% of GDP. But more importantly, they have now all agreed to spend 5%.”
Canada and Spain are the NATO holdouts.
What about Red China, you may ask.
Well, it is sitting on a $1.2 trillion annual trade surplus so it is doing all right. We narrowed our trade deficit considerably last year but the rest of the world is hooked on cheap labor.
But boy is Red China taking it in the cheeks when it comes to oil. Last year, it imported 11.6 million barrels per day. It paid $73 to $89 a barrel.
This year imports are down to 11.1 million BPD at $96 to $116 per barrel.
Iran, Iraq and Venezuela supplied 17% to 19% of the oil Red China used last year. Trump now controls two of them and Iraq’s new prime minister dropped by the White House to discuss having American companies invest in Iraq’s oil.
Why not just have Russia make up the difference, you may ask.
The answer is because Chairman Xi is dealing with Russia, which is not the most efficient oil producer in the world. More importantly, its pipelines and freight railways to Red China are maxxed out.
Ontop of that, its production has fallen by 30% as Ukrainian drones take out its refineries.
So while some complain that the Strait of Hormuz problems help Russia by raising prices (and shame on Europe for becoming dependent on Russia), the situation is hurting Red China.
Actually, the U.S. military is taking care of the problem.
VDH pointed out that the CCP’s Belt and Road plan to turn Latin America into a dependent has failed as voters elect more Trump friendly leaders. He also pointed out Operation Absolute Resolve and Operation Epic Fury proved the worthlessness of Red China’s and Russia’s air defenses, which does not bode well for an invasion of Taiwan.
Hanson also picked up on something I have mentioned since Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017 (back when I was blogging). Trump brought the Arabs and Israel together. Both bombed Iran this time! Israel is selling the Arabs air defense systems.
VDH said:
Did anybody ever believe that Israel would be supplying missile defense to Arab countries in the Gulf?
Did any person ever believe that the supposedly indomitable, scary, terrifying, formidable Iran—93 million people with an unpredictable theocratic terrorist regime that had killed more Americans through terrorism than anyone since 9/11—would be dealt with and that its military, nuclear, and industrial complex would be neutered?
And that’s where it is today. After it broke many of its protocols, I think we now are seeing the correct U.S. policy. What Trump is going to do is, the first time they continue to hit us, he hits them back disproportionately—10 times more damage on them than they inflict.
The time is running out for them.
Kissinger said, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
America is flexing and using its power.
Yep, Trump is on top of the world, but I caution readers that the gangster movie White Heat ended with Jimmy Cagney saying, “Made it, ma! Top of the world.”
Then they gunned him down.
But I prefer the optimism of The Carpenters who were on top of the world, looking down on creation.
Praise the Lord.
Donald Trump certainly has.
We need to stop importing people from where we send the military to “save” them. They need to stay and make their countries better, whatever that takes.
Trump is crazy like a fox because unpredictability is part of the deterrent. The foreign-policy clerisy wants process, communiqués, managed decline, and polite surrender wrapped in expert language. Trump gives adversaries a simpler calculation: America may actually hit back. That changes behavior. The Shield of the Americas tells cartels the hemisphere is no longer open range. Pressure on Panama tells China the canal is not a Communist tollbooth. NATO spending tells Europe the free ride is ending. Iran’s losses tell the mullahs that paperwork does not protect them after betrayal. The old crowd mistakes bluntness for stupidity and manners for strategy. Trump understands what they forgot: power, used wisely, makes diplomacy possible. America is great again because America is acting like it believes in itself.