The Enemies Trump Made, The Friends He Kept
By Joe Guzzardi
In 1924, Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster founded what is today America’s third largest publishing company. Simon & Schuster’s first foray into publishing was crossword puzzle books. Simon’s aunt was a crossword puzzle enthusiast, so the newly formed company wisely decided to fill the nation’s puzzle book void. Nearly a century later, Simon & Schuster made the curious, from a corporate perspective, woke decision to cancel Sen. Josh Hawley’s book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” for what the company described as “his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.” Stated more precisely, Simon & Schuster objects to Hawley’s support of President Trump, and indirectly charged him with inciting the Washington, D.C. riots.
Hawley is one of 75 million Americans who have well-founded doubts about the November election’s validity, and his book’s topic – Silicon Valley’s censorship of other-than-woke opinions that now include President Trump permanently – troubles Americans. Simon & Schuster, apparently, would rather silence Hawley than publish a book that would appeal to a large chunk of 75 million potential book-buyers. Above all, Congress, the media, Silicon Valley and corporate America’s goal is to relentlessly malign the not-so-suddenly friendless President Trump who, in his eyes, has been abandoned by Vice President Mike Pence, his three Supreme Court appointees, congressional Republicans, his Attorney General and others.
For all the preaching that the incoming Biden administration spouts about moving on and uniting America, its actions belie its rhetoric. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to impeach or use the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. The latter failed. If Congress’ impeachment also fails, the never-Trumpers’ wishful thinking goal then becomes to impeach the president after he leaves office, which the Constitution doesn’t permit, or perhaps to rely on the New York district attorney’s office to uncover financial crimes the Trump Organization committed.
In the meantime, President-elect Biden is ignoring the nation’s disaffected 75 million, a curious strategy for a candidate who won, perhaps fraudulently, key swing states by the narrowest margins. As for the reported 80 million that voted for the Biden-Harris ticket, most of them cast anti-Trump rather than pro-Biden ballots. With the mid-term 2022 election just 22 months away and with President Trump increasingly unlikely to make a Grover Cleveland-like bid to become the second president elected to nonconsecutive terms, a significant portion of the 80 million will have their eyes firmly focused on the incoming administration’s agenda.
Immediately facing the newly inaugurated President Biden will be his student debt and immigration pledges. During his campaign, Biden promised to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt, which exceeds $1.5 trillion outstanding, and to extend the COVID-related payment pause scheduled to expire this month. But Pelosi, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) want the debt forgiveness tab increased ‘‘with a pen” to $50,000, and thereby let taxpayers absorb the bill. Many Americans perceive waiving student loan obligations as abdicating individual responsibility and grossly unfair to students and parents who played by the rules and paid off their debt as it came due. A better solution: let the rolling-in-dough universities who encouraged student indebtedness take the hit.
On immigration, President-elect Biden already faces intense pressure to deliver on his vow to introduce an amnesty bill within his first 100 days in office. With Democrats controlling all three government branches, amnesty may look like a no-brainer, but history says differently. In 2008, President Obama had a Democratic-controlled Congress, but amnesty, toxic as always, went nowhere. And Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, was defeated legislatively countless times before President Obama issued an Executive Branch Memorandum to temporarily legalize the program. Passing any form of amnesty is a tough nut.
President Trump had many shortcomings, including his abrasive personality. Presidents Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama were smoother, but elitist. Voters wearied of the smooth talkers’ globalist agendas and – ergo – the Trump presidency. Democrats would love to remove President Trump so that he will be barred from a 2024 candidacy. If the Democrats have their way, President Trump will have no Cleveland-like second go-around!
Presidents Trump and Cleveland have character similarities; they’re both truculently honest. During his administration, President Cleveland was called “ugly-honest” and was admired for the enemies that he made, namely corrupt politicians. President Trump’s foes include career swamp dwellers, corporate America, Wall Street, Big Tech, China, America-last Democrats and RINOs. His friends, not in high places but 75 million strong, want to Make America Great Again. Evaluate President Trump by the enemies that he made, and the friends that he kept.
Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
