Althouse: "It is often said that the fact that Trump was not seen to have won in 2020 was a blessing in disguise."

May 18, 2025

"It is often said that the fact that Trump was not seen to have won in 2020 was a blessing in disguise."

"Why? Because had he been allowed to take office in January 2021, he would have still been surrounded by swamp creatures. His great liability when he first took office was that he did not understand how Washington worked. ... how deeply embedded... the self-serving, globalist, neo-con mentality really was. It took his rustication in 2020 and the unhinged, unremitting tsunami of lawfare that washed over him for four years to school him in the ways of official Washington.... Impeachments, indictments, subpoenas, trials, convictions, and fines.... When none of that worked and he was on course to seal the GOP nomination, they tried to kill him—literally.... He learned how the octopus moved. He got to know what made the swamp habitable. He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons.... My main question at this point is when a large-scale Gestalt shift will take place.... I predict he will end his days as one of the most celebrated presidents in American history."

Writes Roger Kimball, in "Trump in Riyadh: A Rejection of the Globalist Gospel/Trump’s Riyadh speech rejected nation-building and globalist dogma, marking him as a bold champion of sovereignty over interventionism."

96 comments:

Jaq said...: I agree 100%. This new Trump is amazing to me, and every time I begin to lose a little faith in him, it turns out that the story that made me question him a little was fabricated by his enemies, if not out of whole cloth, then by twisting his words and misinterpreting to the point where he will have seemed to have knuckled under to their gamesmanship and pressure.; 5/18/25, 10:08 AM
Peachy said...: All True - except one horrible thing.

Biden and Soros let in 11-20 million illegals - and forced us to pay for them.
Illegals are now driving and killing people on our roads at alarming rates.; 5/18/25, 10:12 AM
Jaq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/18/25, 10:15 AM
Jaq said...: Strangely, those 20 million illegals didn't bring in a commensurate number of doctors and nurses with them, so now we are starting to get Canadian style waits for health care, never mind what emergency rooms are like now.

But they did manage to drive up rents and drive down wages, so the owning classes, you know, the Democratic Party base, are happy.; 5/18/25, 10:16 AM
Mason G said...: "He learned how the octopus moved. He got to know what made the swamp habitable. He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons."

How can that be? The leftists that post here regularly claim he has dementia.; 5/18/25, 10:18 AM
Kate said...: I agree. The Riyadh speech was bold. (Who wrote it?)

Also, Kimball is a columnist who uses words that surprise me. His vocabulary is extensive.; 5/18/25, 10:20 AM
tim maguire said...: Trump has already wrapped up one of the most extraordinary and one of the most consequential presidents. He has the potential to become of the most celebrated, but it’s still early days.; 5/18/25, 10:27 AM
Jupiter said...: "He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons....".
Well. He learned a lot about them. Whether he has mastered them remains to be seen. But he is certainly off to a good start.; 5/18/25, 10:33 AM
Earnest Prole said...: I’m sure we can all agree “they” is a word capable of heavy lifting.; 5/18/25, 10:39 AM
Chest Rockwell said...: Spot on.; 5/18/25, 10:40 AM
Peachy said...: A middle finger to the Clinton-Bush-Kerry-Cheney-war machine.; 5/18/25, 10:51 AM
narciso said...: except october 7th would not have happened, nor the Ukraine war, so the blood price of this fraud, was very high,; 5/18/25, 10:55 AM
narciso said...: hamas was able to mounr al aqsa flood because of the oil revenue that iran had been allowed, because of state funding of unwra, and other sources, similarly with the Ukraine war,; 5/18/25, 10:56 AM
Breezy said...: It may be that Trump’s experience in NYC real estate kicked in more vigorously as well, once the 2020 shenanigans played out.

I agree that the 4 yr hiatus, plus Biden’s demonstrable utter lack of care for the American people, paved the way for an excellent start to Trump 2.0.; 5/18/25, 10:57 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: I agree. Too bad Trump didn't understand that it 2017. The school of experience is a harsh master. At least he's learned not to surround himself with disloyal backstabbers, and stopped hiring people based on their resumes, or recommendations from jerks like chris Christie.

I went over the list of people who surrounded Trump in his first term and almost everyone of them betrayed him at some point, or were incompetent.

Another improvement - Ivanka is no longer in DC trying to get Trump to "reach across the aisle" and work with the Leftwing MSM. I doubt 2nd Term Trump would repeat the mistake of giving someone like Bob Woodward material for a book.; 5/18/25, 10:57 AM
narciso said...: the houthis would have been kept in check, the 2001 offensive mostly in the West bank wouldnt have happened,; 5/18/25, 11:01 AM
Kai Akker said...: Roger Kimball may be looking through rose-colored glasses. The nation's finances and its government need radical change. Trump is delivering. But radical change is usually painful before it finally takes root and grows. Leaving easy money behind is like kicking alcohol. Maybe Trump won't be able to do that; he hates the thought and is all over the Fed.
But the circumstances he puts into motion might make some of that change despite him. Trump could just as easily end up as one of the nation's most hated presidents.

Only time will tell. Meanwhile, good reading from a good writer. Roger Kimball.... American Greatness. Versus Michelle Goldberg and the New York Times. What a difference in discernment and expression.; 5/18/25, 11:01 AM
friscoda said...: Kate, he is also the editor and publisher of The New Criterion which is a fairly high-brow magazine. Kimball is fairly erudite. Read some of his non-political columns; they are quite illuminating.; 5/18/25, 11:03 AM
narciso said...: reducing the money supply is as important as rate cuts, which Powell has removed all doubt on since 2020,; 5/18/25, 11:03 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: The Democrats are now the party of open borders and illegals. Musk found out they were giving illegals SS numbers and then letting get medicare and welfare. And as shown by their actions, even gang members and criminals wont be deported by the Democrats.

Helping them are the using RINO Big Business Republicans. Tillis, Lankford, McConnell, etc. the list goes on and on.; 5/18/25, 11:10 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I agree. The Riyadh speech was bold. (Who wrote it?)"

It hasn't been officially reported but the name I'm seeing is Stephen Miller.; 5/18/25, 11:11 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: The problem with "Government finances" pales beside stopping illegal immigration and mass immigration. The problem with "Bean counters" is they can't look down the road or understand that if you have a permenant D majority based on demographic change and electoral fraud, you'll never "Get the finances in order".; 5/18/25, 11:14 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: I've noticed we never hear about Trump's current chief of staff. We were always hearing about Kelly. Another good change.; 5/18/25, 11:15 AM
narciso said...: I would say Gorka because of the foreign policy focus, but ymmv; 5/18/25, 11:19 AM
Tina Trent said...: Kimball is brilliant, and I am glad to see that he is no longer so blinkered by elitism. It took him stepping away from his own vocabulary to comprehend the argot of realpolitick.

Jaq, narciso, and Peachy are more to the point.; 5/18/25, 11:23 AM
Dude1394 said...: Miller may have written the Riyadh speech but it is completely aligned with trumps thoughts.

Also
“ narciso said...
except october 7th would not have happened, nor the Ukraine war, so the blood price of this fraud, was very high,”

The blood priced for j6 was the murder of two protestors. Nothing more. Comparing that to Ukraine seems quite a stretch. I understand it wouldn’t have happened ( maybe, who is to say the left wouldn’t have rooted like they always do ) but there was little to no blood. A lot of political prisoners and forever damage to our justice system, but little blood.; 5/18/25, 11:26 AM
Tina Trent said...: At least Bannon has been revealed for what he is: a lying turncoat who lost us the Senate.; 5/18/25, 11:26 AM
narciso said...: no it's much higher as i've spelled out,

its reasonable conjecture, but consider Russia did not start massing troops until after the '21 inaugural, of course the Kabul capitulation just encouraged this foolish exercise,

the Possum senate with Murkowski, Tillis, Romney Collins, suggests it would not have amounted to much,; 5/18/25, 11:38 AM
heyboom said...: His only liability is being saddled with a do nothing Congress. I don't see very many who are willing to step up with him and really do great things. He's almost on his own outside of his immediate cabinet.; 5/18/25, 11:38 AM
narciso said...: I look at the bigger picture, what happened and why it happened, policy players like Malley, and his ring in the NSC and the Defense department, of course, Mr Scream, Sullivan and Mr Smithers, Blinken were certainly cherry on the cake,; 5/18/25, 11:40 AM
Dave Begley said...: Agree, but Kimball left out the part how Trump and his team had four years to develop and plan the Executive Orders and other actions for the first 100 days. He also was able who to hire this team around. No more failed Cabinet members or FBI director.; 5/18/25, 11:45 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: The emphasis on sovereignty is what makes the speech so interesting. The first assumption is that it’s a slap at the neocons (which it no doubt is) but I wonder if it was not also a message to other actors. Putin, Xi, those that would threaten Israel. Not to mention the aspirations of the patriotic opposition in Iran.

What Trump’s United States will no longer do, will not be tolerated in others. You have to think the speech is being parsed in places that have little to do with the Middle East.; 5/18/25, 11:55 AM
Lance said...: "He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons"

Objection: assumes facts not in evidence.; 5/18/25, 11:58 AM
Jaq said...: I think that our withdrawal from Afghanistan was seen as a win-win by the Biden administration. Putin could easily have made things very hot for us there by arming up the Taliban, and by leaving, it would potentially embolden him to intervene in Ukraine militarily, and getting Russia to bear the odium of making the first move, even as we overthrew the Kiev democratically elected government, and kicked off the civil war in Ukraine ourselves, was a key point of the strategy.; 5/18/25, 12:00 PM
Drago said...: Mason G: "How can that be? The leftists that post here regularly claim he has dementia."

Irs not just the lefties. I believe it was "objective", straight-shootin', middle of the roader, just calling balls and atrikes here, above it all Earnest Prole that informed us Trump couldn't read.; 5/18/25, 12:03 PM
Jaq said...: "Objection: assumes facts not in evidence."

LOL, Macron, Starmer, Merz, and company are licking their wounds right now, trying to figure out why they keep gettin outfoxed. If you get your news solely from the corrupted and suborned press, you might have a different opinion, but you would also believe that Biden was not senile, and that COVID was not a leak from a lab of a virus, creation of which was approved by Dr Fauci.; 5/18/25, 12:04 PM
Wince said...: "Trump crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine...

"I'd like to think the last thing that went through their heads, other than that last election, was how the hell did Donald Trump ever get the better of them."; 5/18/25, 12:05 PM
Jersey Fled said...: Soros’ wealth is peanuts compared to your average Saudi prince.

Think about that for a minute.; 5/18/25, 12:05 PM
narciso said...: does any prince outside of Talal have the influence of Soros's organization,

the Andy Dufresne comparison did not occur to me,; 5/18/25, 12:09 PM
Jaq said...: There are so many lies printed in our media, that one's only hope at discerning any part of the truth is by abstracting events to the highest level possible, and examining facts which are immutable. One such fact is that Europe has a high population on a low resource continent, and Russia has a relatively low population and sits on huge resources. There is an iron law that says that the population is going to seek to control the resources.

China is also a high population, low resource country They have their own ways of seeking to control resources. For instance, they can use the Western threats against Russia to bind Russia to them and so gain access to Russia's resources themselves.

Russia is Layla in this scenario, and Europe is George Harrison, and China is Eric Clapton.; 5/18/25, 12:11 PM
Drago said...: "He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons"

Lance: "Objection: assumes facts not in evidence."

Objection to Lances objection.

There are no facts in evidence Lance is capable of rendering an accurate judgement re: Trump vs the Blob.; 5/18/25, 12:21 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Sometimes you don't get what you want, because you deserve better." And now we got it.; 5/18/25, 12:27 PM
n.n said...: A Diverse minority were not ready to handle the truth.; 5/18/25, 12:27 PM
Jaq said...: This has to be a hard pill for CNN to swallow.

Right out of the gate: "I think it's time for a bit of a reality check."

"He is RISING FROM THE DEAD like Methuselah!"

"He's up 7 points!"

Devastating.

Here is a fact you can put under the heading of "evidence."; 5/18/25, 12:30 PM
bagoh20 said...: What if China decided to take all of Mongolia and the eastern half of Russia right now? Which side are we on?; 5/18/25, 12:32 PM
Peachy said...: After 2016 - as it became clear, I often said that Trump did not drain the swamp... the swamp drained him.; 5/18/25, 12:33 PM
Peachy said...: btw - Mostly... I do not blame Trump.
People who used to like him, turned on him. A-holes who work for MicroSoft NBC (D-take your jab) named Scarborough - coddled up to Trump and then turned on him with rabid lie-filled vengeance.; 5/18/25, 12:39 PM
narciso said...: just one example, all those that touted the 'afghan bounties' but when HKIA came to pass, they were silent about ISIS K; 5/18/25, 12:43 PM
West TX Intermediate Crude said...: Jaq at 1211 correctly notes that China has a lot to gain from taking over Russian resources in Siberia. We worry about China attacking Taiwan, but what is keeping them from going after Siberia instead? Russia's defenses are depleted by the Ukraine disaster, and China has had opportunity to watch how they fight and make appropriate adjustments. Their interest in Taiwan is sentimental (if they attack, there will not be much of practical value left once the fight is over), the fight over Siberia is over stuff that China desperately needs and will by theirs for the taking.
Would this be a fight that the US just sits out? We have good reason to hope that the CCP does not get its paws on Siberia, but we also are not exactly Russophilic these days. Maybe covertly help both sides so they both can lose?; 5/18/25, 1:02 PM
narciso said...: because taiwan is like yavin, if you paint xi in imperial garb,
the Russians did move too many forces from their eastern flank, and that may be as foolish as port arthur in 1904; 5/18/25, 1:06 PM
Deep State Reformer said...: If true, this analysis explodes the folk-wisdom narrative that a Washington "outsider" will be more effective than a career politician at being president. Mr Smith Goes to Washingtonor Dave!were just movies after all, and it really doesn't work that way. Can you imagine if Ross Perot would have won in 1992? Egads!; 5/18/25, 1:11 PM
William50 said...: "He is rising from the dead like Methuselah."

I think he meant Lazarus.; 5/18/25, 1:20 PM
Jaq said...: "Their interest in Taiwan is sentimental"

Imperial Japan used Formosa as a springboard to conquer the mainland, which China remembers all too well; analogously, we used Britain to take Western Europe from Nazi Germany.

"Maybe covertly help both sides so they both can lose?"

That ship has sailed. The whole world understands the games we play now. Without Russia's help, China would be easy pickings for the US, China knows this. This "maybe the crocodile will eat me last" strategy is played out.

"China has had opportunity to watch how they fight and make appropriate adjustments." As long as by "they" you mean the West.

"What if China decided to take all of Mongolia and the eastern half of Russia right now? Which side are we on?"

Why would they do that, when Russia is the one thing standing between them and complete domination by the US.

You guys should read up on this conflict, which is ancient, a previous avatar of which was the British Empire's conflicts with China and Russia, and the most recent of which is Ukraine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History

This war has not been a "disaster" for Russia, unless you take Ukrainian propaganda seriously. It's been an economic disaster for Europe, that's for sure, and now Merz wants to re-arm Germany with a population of zoomers who want nothing to do with fighting wars, and the UK is on its knees, with its government at 15% approval, and France is reduced to arresting opposition leaders over what are at worst technical violations that under normal circumstances would have resulted in fines, at worst.; 5/18/25, 1:38 PM
Jaq said...: BTW, Russia has 6,000 nukes. They probably all work, like the Oreshnik did a few months back.; 5/18/25, 1:42 PM
Lazarus said...: I hope posterity will remember Trump as a good, maybe even a great president, but I'm not going to make a prediction. You have to have much confidence to do that or to write about politics for a large readership. Roger Kimball certainly has that much confidence.

Posterity, though, is likely to be influenced by events and circumstances in its own recent past (our distant future). Take care that future Americans don't go overboard on sovereignty and isolationism as we did with nation building, interventionism, globalism, and the "borderless world." The lesson is to get back to sanity, not to follow some idea to extremes.

One reason for not making predictions: 25 years ago, would anyone have expected Roger Kimball to celebrate the end of neocon nation building? He R.I.P.ed Michael Ledeen who passed away this weekend. It's unfortunate when anyone dies, but the coincidence of rejoicing at the end of neoconservatism and mourning one of its promoters calls attention to some things that would otherwise remain forgotten.; 5/18/25, 1:42 PM
Zavier Onasses said...: Yes - let us celebrate and be thankful that our Feral Gummit is infested with self serving thieves who shamelessly and arrogantly tell any lie and use any fraud to retain "their" elected or appointed office. Let us be thankful also for our Fourth Estate - or is that our Fifth Column.; 5/18/25, 1:52 PM
gadfly said...: Polemicist Roger Kimball starts every defense of Donald Trump from the misguided standpoint that “every honest person knows that the 2020 election was tainted.” No evidence has ever been presented to prove the statement true, so Kimball's mendacity runs to the forefront. More than 60 judges (many of them Trump appointed) dismissed dishonest court filings on the issue.

In Kimball's assessment of Trump's speech to his Arab monetary supporters, Kimball cites all these high-sounding "quotes" written by a speech writer and read aloud by our gangster president. Trump believes none of this bullshit because he is has exhibited traits of narcissistic personality disorder, characterized by a fragile ego, grandiosity, and a lack of empathy for others. This has led to behavior that places self-interest, dishonest schemes, and personal control over accountability and compassion for others.; 5/18/25, 2:01 PM
Qwinn said...: "No evidence has ever been presented to prove the statement true" about voter fraud.

This statement brought to you by the same people who told you there was no evidence that Biden was anything less than sharp as a tack for 4 years.

No evidence that COVID came from a lab.

No evidence that Hunter's laptop was genuine.

You can go on for hours with this. But when they gaslit you on all those things in order to maintain power, you are obligated to believe that they wouldn't lie to you about how they got their hands on that power in the first place.; 5/18/25, 2:06 PM
narciso said...: a lab funded by our own nih, so literally fireman fauci was searching for himself in the mirror,

yes 24 years ago this fall was the greatest calamity we had faced to a major city, and we initially responded with some alacrity, but very quickly we found out we didn't know what we were doing,

certainly the evidence of the support network for the hijackers was buried, as recently as that fall,; 5/18/25, 2:13 PM
Earnest Prole said...: above it all Earnest Prole that informed us Trump couldn't read

I believe my contention was that Trump can’t count. I base that on his inability to keep his casinos afloat and his blithe endorsement of Paul Ryan’s tax schemes for corporations and blue-city millionaires. But who knows, maybe Trump counts just fine but gets rolled from time to time.; 5/18/25, 2:23 PM
Iman said...: “What if China decided to take all of Mongolia and the eastern half of Russia right now? Which side are we on?”

I’m on the side of Mongolian BBQ, cuz I loves it.; 5/18/25, 2:25 PM
Big Mike said...: Polemicist Roger Kimball starts every defense of Donald Trump from the misguided standpoint that “every honest person knows that the 2020 election was tainted.” No evidence has ever been presented to prove the statement true …

Ample evidence has been presented; polemicist gadfly finds it convenient to ignore that evidence.; 5/18/25, 2:27 PM
narciso said...: in 25 years of election denialism that I was witness to, in 2000, 2004 and 2016, there was never any attempt to criminalize it,
because it would be a very big prison,
the marginal tax cut was balanced out by the closing of the SALT loopholes, which the possums are still laser focused on,; 5/18/25, 2:38 PM
Josephbleau said...: "Sometimes you don't get what you want, because you deserve better."

That was my conclusion after the first divorce.; 5/18/25, 2:40 PM
Achilles said...: I pointed out years ago that Biden being elected would be the end of the Democrat party for a generation.

Here we are.

Photo ID requirements are the nail in the coffin.; 5/18/25, 2:42 PM
Readering said...: Hopefully the praise for this speech in favor of sovereignty will translate into respect for Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Denmark. I omit Venezuela as I would applaud Trump taking action to respond to military aggression against Guyana.; 5/18/25, 3:01 PM
Jamie said...: There are so many lies printed in our media, that one's only hope at discerning any part of the truth is by abstracting events to the highest level possible, and examining facts which are immutable.

And now we know, indisputably, that some of those lies (including some gigantic, multi-year, scurrilous and scandalous ones) are actual, willful lies... but we also should remember the journalistic flip side of Gell-Mann amnesia: sometimes they just don't know what they're talking about.

But like doctors (with apologies to the shade of Michael K and to any other doctor hereon), they often act as if they think they're authorities on every subject, and (it's my opinion that) they don't know what they don't know.

Put it all together and the reader or listener should take nothing that purports to be news at face value. Which leaves the very tough nut of "where do we go for those 'immutable facts'?" Surely we've all noticed that the sides can't even agree on what's factual.; 5/18/25, 3:05 PM
Gunner said...: They would have just impeached him 13 more times between 2021 and 2025.; 5/18/25, 3:08 PM
Aggie said...: @Gadfly sez:...Polemicist Roger Kimball starts every defense of Donald Trump from the misguided standpoint..."

Q: What is a polemicist? A: 'A polemicist is a person who attacks someone else with written or spoken words.'

Who is Roger Kimball 'attacking', with this complimentary piece on Trump?

I leave it to the reader: Is it Gadfly's precious TDS umbrage that's under attack, or is Gadfly simply reacting the way many progressives do - by projecting onto his target what he really is doing himself?; 5/18/25, 3:11 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: "I predict he will end his days as one of the most celebrated presidents in American history."

No, he'll go down as one of the great missed opportunities in history.

Hillary Clinton isn't in prison. That's all the proof you need.; 5/18/25, 3:13 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: And they're not done trying to murder Donald J. Trump.; 5/18/25, 3:14 PM
Peachy said...: Aggie 3:11 -
yep.; 5/18/25, 3:18 PM
Jamie said...: gadfly can't actually believe that an election held during a year in which a pandemic (or, by election time at any rate, the reaction to a pandemic) was raging, allowing certain states to "modify" their voting rules dramatically in ways such as wide to universal expansion of mail-in balloting, loosening of signature requirements on ballots, and ignoring decades-old deadlines for acceptable ballots, was a normal election.

Nor can gadfly actually believe that suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, deplatforming so-called "COVID deniers" who questioned the origin, severity, and Standards of Care™ for COVID, and government-requested (or "-requested," and "requested by the same areas of government that, we later learned, were the foundations of The Resistance") strictures on social media access based on subject matter had no effect of voting behavior.

So it kinda beggars belief that gadfly can say s/he knows of "no evidence" that the 2020 election was "tainted." What we don't, and can't, know, because there's no way to observe the parallel universe in which none of these things happened, is what the effects of these... irregularities... were.

Then again, I did just post about the lack of agreement on what constitute facts these days.; 5/18/25, 3:26 PM
Aggie said...: Newsflash: Joe Biden diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, Gleason score of 9, with metastasis to the bone. The cynic in me wonders whether this will deflate efforts by the democrats to make Joe the source of all their problems, or re-double them.; 5/18/25, 3:26 PM
Jamie said...: Oh dear - I'm sorry to hear this. Poor man.; 5/18/25, 3:36 PM
Clyde said...: Roger Kimball is spot on.; 5/18/25, 3:46 PM
Achilles said...: gadfly said...
Polemicist Roger Kimball starts every defense of Donald Trump from the misguided standpoint that “every honest person knows that the 2020 election was tainted.”

Gadfly makes 2 things clear.

1. He doesn't know what polemicist means or how to use it.

2. He has zero self awareness and doesn't realize his post was that of a polemicist.; 5/18/25, 3:50 PM
Achilles said...: Tina Trent said...
At least Bannon has been revealed for what he is: a lying turncoat who lost us the Senate.

The senate was lost in Georgia because Kemp and Raffensburger conspired with Fulton County Democrats to maintain a globalist controlled Regime in a deep red state.; 5/18/25, 3:57 PM
Eva Marie said...: The report also said “ While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”
Is this wishful thinking or a real possibility; 5/18/25, 3:58 PM
Achilles said...: Readering said...
Hopefully the praise for this speech in favor of sovereignty will translate into respect for Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Denmark. I omit Venezuela as I would applaud Trump taking action to respond to military aggression against Guyana.

Canada, Mexico, Panama and Denmark are run by globalist regimes that are selling their people out to the globalist enterprise.

Trump should respect the people, but not the Regimes.; 5/18/25, 3:59 PM
Jim at said...: I'm not the only one to say this, but I've said it before: If you fuckers hadn't stolen it in 2020, Trump would be in your rearview mirror and you'd probably have the White House, if not both chambers.

Instead, you've got more than three years of Trump left and everything that comes with it.

And you've earned every bit.; 5/18/25, 4:04 PM
Drago said...: Earnest: "I believe my contention was that Trump can’t count. I base that on his inability to keep his casinos afloat and his blithe endorsement of Paul Ryan’s tax schemes for corporations and blue-city millionaires. But who knows, maybe Trump counts just fine but gets rolled from time to time."

Your contention was Trump couldn't read, which no doubt keeps you in good stead with your dem pals.; 5/18/25, 4:13 PM
Lucien said...: Iman: if China takes Mongolia, then there will be a wave of Mongolian refugees opening restaurants.; 5/18/25, 4:15 PM
mongo said...: The last sentence of the Wapo website article about Biden’s cancer says “ Biden, who left office four months ago, has dedicated the later part of his political career to cancer research after losing his son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.”

My Recollection is that he devoted the latter part of his political career to making as much money as possible. I guess I’m not surprised that the Post sees it differently.; 5/18/25, 4:23 PM
Jaq said...: Gadfly believes a lot of nonsense, that's for sure, but maybe the biggest one is that an election which decides control of the world's most extensive military and comprehensive global surveillance capability, trillions of dollars in spending, and vetoes on deals all over the planet, which may or may not be used depending on whether the big guy gets his ten percent, can be decided on elections run on the "honor system" with voter ID rigorously suppressed, with all safeguards for mail in ballots, like actually matching signatures to applications, rather than just "validating" that there is a squiggle in the box, and ignoring errors in DOB, etc, will produce an honest outcome. You would have to be a child to believe this.; 5/18/25, 4:26 PM
Deep State Reformer said...: A "blessing in disguise" for who Mr Kimble? That son of a b**** Joe Biden did every single thing he could to damage, injure, and weaken the American polity and it's people. Or perhaps more accurately the people acting in FJB's name did. And I don't just mean the massive unchecked immigration and the pardons at the end either.; 5/18/25, 4:31 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Your contention was Trump couldn't read

Distinctions not cost-effective.; 5/18/25, 4:32 PM
Big Mike said...: ”He learned how the octopus moved. He got to know what made the swamp habitable. He mastered its strategies, its tactics, and its weapons....

So far. He’s mastered its current strategies, tactics, and weapons. They may devise something new and unforeseen.

My main question at this point is when a large-scale Gestalt shift will take place....

Not soon. Not so long as the news media are dead set against him, not so long as liberals remain willfully gullible as the media lurch from one lie to the next and convenient amnesia about failed predicts continues.

I predict he will end his days as one ofthe most celebrated presidents in American history."

He’ll be lucky to live that long. It will take decades and he’s coming up on his 79th birthday.; 5/18/25, 4:36 PM
Original Mike said...: "You would have to be a child to believe this."

He doesn't believe that. What he believes is that in elections run under loose rules, his side wins. At least for the moment, he's right.; 5/18/25, 8:43 PM
Mason G said...: "What he believes is that in elections run under loose rules, his side wins."

If Republicans were winning under such rules, Democrats would be insisting on voter ID laws.; 5/18/25, 9:10 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: What changed between the 2020 and 2024 elections so that all 7 swing states lost by Trump in 2020 were won by him in 2024? It was one of the untold stories of the election. Two women, in particular, Harmeet Dhillion (newly sworn in as AAG for Civil Rights) and Lara Trump (Trump’s DIL), ran an effective anti-cheating program in those states. They put together a team of lawyers who brought multiple lawsuits in advance of the election, enforcing election laws, and cutting off Dems’ attempts to cheat, and had sympathetic judges on speed dial Election Day and night to overcome the type of last minute shenanigans used by Dems in 2020 and 2022. It worked. It was masterfully done.; 5/18/25, 11:25 PM
Ralph L said...: Yet Trump narrowly won against two of the most unappealing and radical candidates ever put forward and "lost" to a brain-damaged man who had difficulty completing a sentence.; 5/19/25, 5:44 AM
Tina Trent said...: Achilles, you could not be more wrong. Bannon went on WDUN every day and told conservative voters their votes would be "stolen" if they voted. They stayed home. Jenny Beth Martin helped Bannon do this. I know Bannon slightly. I know Jenny Beth's exploitation of TEA Party members. I analyzed all the post-election data: it was clear conservatives stayed home and lost us the Senate. I interviewed people who stayed home and why. That was my frigging job. They were dupes and duped themselves. I've been doing this for decades. You are completely ignorant of what happened in that Georgia race. I worked with many of the main players. Kemp busted his ass to GOTV, get out the Republican vote, in case you're ignorant of that term too.; 5/19/25, 6:08 AM
Rusty said...: bagoh @ 12:32
Nothing. We do nothing and have both of our enemies battle each other. China needs resources. Siberia has a lot of resources.
Here's a thought. What if all this commotion about Taiwan is just a feint. Something to distract the world while China makes plans to invade Siberia.; 5/19/25, 7:36 AM
Hassayamper said...: For all his flaws, I already consider him the best President of my lifetime, surpassing even Reagan.; 5/19/25, 10:44 AM
Hassayamper said...: If you get your news solely from the corrupted and suborned press, you might have a different opinion, but you would also believe that Biden was not senile, and that COVID was not a leak from a lab of a virus, creation of which was approved by Dr Fauci.

Bingo.

Except I would modify that to "creation of which was FINANCED by Dr Fauci IN DIRECT CONTRAVENTION OF FEDERAL LAW."; 5/19/25, 10:48 AM