As I sit here in my library, with the sun streaming again, I cannot help but think that it is once again morning in America. My chair is under the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, which his son, Robert Todd Lincoln, gave to my great-great grandfather, a Secret Service officer, in gratitude for his foiling a serious plot to steal the body of Old Abe. I have no doubt that Donald Trump is capable of upholding the high standards that our Republic demands. Trump had four years to reflect on how his first term went, and now he has been shown the path to a tarnish-free future. Over the last months, it is obvious that Trump made a decision to model his future presidency on Ronald Reagan, from the Lee Greenwood anthem to the theme of “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
This is not news to me. I had known it all along, as I most recently wrote in these pages a few weeks ago. There, I predicted a massive Trump surge sweeping him back into power. I had spotted this talent, predicting his victory long before he clinched it in his surprising 2016 win, back when he was the greenhorn Republican who had never run for anything before. In 2013, when I met Donald for the first time, he showed me that he would be a successful politician. Having known seven presidents, I was sure that he would win. He was not like any politician I have ever known — smart, aggressive, and a true iconoclastic showman plus a strategist — my kind of guy.
Polls have shown that Trump’s qualities as a strong leader won him many votes, especially among men, particularly African Americans and Hispanics. In terms of tactics, what made the difference? Two things. First, his genius in donning a McDonald’s apron to flip burgers, encored by his brilliant parade in a gleaming white garbage truck emblazoned with the name TRUMP on its side. He wore a safety vest! Symbols of serving the people! Second, he got to the core of the economy issue by mirroring Reagan’s insightful query about whether “you are better off than you were four years before.”
Trump is now aspiring to take us back toward “the shining city upon a hill,” as Ronald Reagan said often, most notably in his farewell address to the nation in 1989. An early freedom seeker and pilgrim, John Winthrop, wrote that phrase to describe the America he imagined. Like most of us, Winthrop was looking for a home that would be free. In Ronald Reagan’s mind, the shining city was “a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.”
Donald Trump is for freedom, that most dear of American values. So was Ronald Reagan. Trump has more gifts to deploy to propel America to greater glory, through his boundless energy and resonant voice, both being gifts from God, who surely had a hand in this landslide we are witnessing. Here’s to Donald! It is morning in America again.
