Donald Trump is barely over a week into his presidency and is taking flak from the commentariat that his statements about Egypt and Jordan taking in displaced Arabs from Gaza and about releasing arms to Israel it paid for.

Some have claimed he’s pouring fuel on the fires of the wars he was expected to quell. This is all wrong. When Trump put maximum pressure on Iran and made clear the US would stand with Israel in his first term, there was peace. It was Biden’s presidency that gave militancy its gas and a green light—by softening on and enriching Iran, by expressing weakness toward Russia, through callousness toward Americans being killed in Afghanistan and allowing the Taliban to take it over and—finally—by sending mixed messages regarding the US and our relationship with Israel.

Strongly siding with allies (like Israel), and pressuring those who have long lived in the shadows of safe harbors for militancy (like Egypt and Jordan), is a big difference from the last four years—and it was the last four years that brought war.

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Every president describes their first days in office as historic. Donald Trump has a legitimate claim, and not just for being the second former president to return in a non-consecutive term. Trump prepared well to transform the federal government, and in doing so reset the Overton Window of possibilities. Or did he?

In one of his boldest actions, Trump reversed a sixty-year-old executive order by Lyndon Baines Johnson to end affirmative action in all phases of the federal government. Trump had pledged to end DEI and restore merit as the sole value in hiring, but few predicted this move—or had even debated it.

Some observers were shocked at the drastic action, but they shouldn’t be surprised. Americans had long ago concluded that the policy had at best outlived any usefulness it had, and more opposed it now than ever before. Trump didn’t shift the Overton Window of debate; he defeated the Democrats who refused to recognize that the window had already shifted.

That’s a hard lesson on the danger of staying in an Academia bubble.

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The Second Inaugural Address of President Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States, was superb—and ought to be remembered as the “Golden Age of America” speech.

It had at its core the crucial promise: “We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based.” This is what the Constitution has demanded since the 14th Amendment was ratified and has too often in recent years been a commitment honored in its breach.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” is how Chief Justice Roberts phrased it more than a decade ago in a crucial Supreme Court decision.

It was fitting, then, that Chief Justice Roberts administered the Oath of Office to President Trump. The Chief Justice has long championed this "weight-bearing wall" of our Republic and that President Trump took up this cause should cheer every American.

All those who wish the Republic well ought applaud the unapologetically proud tenor of Trump’s Second Inaugural.

American patriotism is back on full display.

Bravo.

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Joe Biden’s political adversaries have long referred to the “Biden crime family” – and the former president has now engraved that title into the history books.

Just fifteen minutes before his term in office ended, he issued sweeping preemptive pardons to his brothers and sister-in-law, and to his sister and brother-in-law. These bookend the pardon he previously provided to his son, Hunter.

Remarkably, the pardons excuse all conduct from 2014 to the present. That covers the time that investigators allege the family collected tens of millions by selling Joe Biden’s influence in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan.

Biden wants people to believe Donald Trump was going to pursue his family the way his Justice Department went after Trump. Instead, his conduct simply validates the existing evidence of his family’s corrupt dealings.

Joe Biden’s final act is a gross abuse of power and a fitting end to a failed presidency.

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At his inauguration on Monday, Donald Trump pledged to create the next Golden Age for America. In a hard-hitting speech in front of some of his fiercest opponents, Trump declared that the nation had taken a wrong turn over the last few years and pledged to restore America’s strength and standing in the world.

Any effort to restore American strength and standing must be rooted in reality, and Trump warned that he intended to restore reality immediately. In his speech, Trump vowed an end to social engineering in government and the military, a return to merit-based advancement, and declared that “it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

Quite literally, this fulfills the promise to restore sanity to the federal government. It means the end of government compulsion that forces people to participate in the delusions of others. And more importantly, it stops the pressure on children to maim themselves for the virtue-signaling benefit of the adults around them.

The era of make-believe is over. The adults are back in charge.

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It’s hard to choose, but the part of Trump’s second inauguration that brought a tear to my eye was Carrie Underwood's rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

There was a glitch in the audio, and her musical accompaniment cut out. After a period of awkward silence, she did something quintessentially American—she improvised. Where an older, more tired, and more fatalistic society might have just said, “Oh well, the sound isn't working,” she turned to the assembled citizens and said, “Y'all know the words,” and then belted out a beautiful rendition of the classic hymn a cappella, inviting all those present to join her.

Alexis de Tocqueville remarked that when a problem occurs in Europe, the people turn to the central authority to fix it, whereas when a problem occurs in America, the people turn to each other to form a voluntary association to fix it. Carrie Underwood did just that.

… asking God on behalf of America to “shed His grace on thee.”

What a beautiful moment.

May God, indeed, shed His grace on us.

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President Trump: “The golden age of America begins right now. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.”

The 47th President of the United States was superb.

It should be remembered as the golden age of America's speech, but it will probably just be referenced as Trump's second inaugural.

It was Abraham Lincoln who borrowed from the book of Proverbs when he described the American commitment to individual liberty as the “apple of gold” protected by the Constitution's “frame of silver.”

Donald Trump hearkened back to that when he guaranteed everyone that we will forge a policy that is colorblind and merit-based. That's what the Constitution has demanded since the 14th Amendment was ratified and has too often been, in recent years, honored in its breach.

Bravo, President Trump, and Godspeed.

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Forty-four years ago, Ronald Reagan prepared to take office after a shockingly strong victory over Jimmy Carter. Just six years after Watergate, Americans had turned to an outsider, someone who promised “Morning in America” by making a massive course correction following a generation of anger, division, and bitterness.

Reagan delivered on that promise.

Now America has chosen again to break away from a generation of partisanship and establishment failures at home and abroad. Donald Trump returns to the White House with the clearest mandate for change from voters in more than a decade—and in many ways, a change back from the “fundamental transformation” that Democrats pledged in 2008.

And this time, Trump is clearly prepared for that transformation. His support from voters has never been higher. The Senate needs to deliver Trump’s nominees to serve that mandate and give him the opportunity for a fresh start and—let’s hope—a fresh start for us all.

Let’s hope Congress will get behind Trump to deliver what voters clearly demand. It could be Morning in America again.

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