Donald Trump announced his run for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. The press, the pundits and all the swamp creatures laughed. They called him a clown. They called him a fool. A year and a half later they were calling him Mr. President. 

As president he demanded that NATO live up to their obligations and pay 2% of GDP for defense. The press, the pundits and the swamp creatures, all the usual suspects, shrieked. We’ve lost the respect of the European leaders they said. Trump is pulling out of NATO was a common refrain. Two years later with our position in NATO secure, defense spending in Europe increased by many billions, the European leaders understood Donald Trump was a man to be reckoned with, and the world was a safer place. Russia and China took his measure, and they rethought whatever mischief or evil deeds they had planned. 

President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, a suicidal deal made by an unaccomplished lame duck president who thought it would give him a legacy. He withdrew from the Paris accords, recognizing the it was an agreement to grow bureaucracies and merge governments around the world into one, destroying any sense of national sovereignty, national pride or cultural identity. He understood it had nothing to do with climate or preserving the planet. As usual the media competed for the most vulgar term to describe these well conceived, common sense decisions. And as usual, America prospered.

Donald Trump told Mexico if they didn’t stop the influx of migrants across our borders he would impose a 5% tariff on their goods and increase it 5% every month until the flow stopped. The press, the swamp, academia, and the entrenched bureaucracy all cried foul. He’s destroying our relationship with our neighbor they said. This is unprecedented they cried, and it was. A short time later Mexico deployed their army to the border stopping the flow of immigrants.

 Shortly after taking office President Trump approved the use of the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) against ISIS in Afghanistan. ISIS was destroyed and the Taliban heard him loud and clear. He approved the drone strike killing Qasem Soleimani, responsible for the death of dozens if not hundreds American troops. Iran’s eyes were opened to the new sheriff. Contrary to the swamps' prediction that under Trump America could no longer command the world's respect, the world snapped to attention when the United States spoke. US influence reached  heights not seen since Ronald Reagan.

 Some of the swamp creatures cried and some laughed at Trump's economic plan which included tax cuts and deregulation. American economic growth skyrocketed. Wages for women, every demographic and every region in America rose rapidly while unemployment took a dive. Times were good in America. 

Every president since Carter said they would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Trump did it. He recognized the Golan Heights, he told the Palestinians bad behavior would no longer be rewarded while suspending payments to Hamas and the United Nations Palestinian Relief Agency. The swamp was apoplectic. The European and American media said his policies were driving Israel and the United States closer to war. Trump answered them with the Abraham Accords, and for the first time in over 70 years the Middle East was closer to peace. Once again the naysayers, the media, the political class, the “experienced foreign policy experts'' and everyone else who doubted him were wrong. What was the Democrats response: impeachment. 

Trump said the pandemic virus came from a Chinese lab. The swamp was offended. They said it was ridiculous. Twitter, Google, Facebook and Instagram would not allow posts suggesting such a thing. Fast-forward a couple of years and it is all a bit certain the virus came from the Wuhan lab.

The swamp told us that a vaccine would take several years to develop. Trump incentivized the drug companies to develop one in a matter of months, and he got it pushed through the FDA for emergency use. During the development process he made sure that the manufacturing facilities were prepared so that the minute it was approved production hit the ground running.   Thousands of people gave a great deal to make this happen, but only one man was willing to break fingers when needed, cut through regulations and pare away bureaucratic CYA. The press called him a bull in a China shop. I call him my bull. He did what it takes and he saved millions of lives worldwide. 

The greatest irony here is what you read in the press and hear from the pundits and political class about Donald Trump. This is a man who accomplished more in the real world by the time he was 30 than any of them accomplished in their entire lives. When given a platform as president he did great things on a far grander scale than even his most ardent supporters could have imagined. And mind you, he did them all during unrelenting, repeated attempts to gang rape the presidency by Democrats, the new and old media and academia.

 George Washington was the one great president in the 18th century. Abraham Lincoln was the one great president in the 19th century. Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan were the great presidents of the 20th century. History will remember Donald Trump as the first and possibly the only great president of the 21st-century.