OPINION:
Donald Trump took the fateful escalator ride that changed the course of the world 10 years ago. As he descended with his wife, Melania, a supportive crowd lined the Trump Tower lobby and offered encouragement as he announced his presidential ambition.
“Well, you need somebody, because politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing’s going to get done. They will not bring us, believe me, to the promised land,” he said on June 16, 2015. “They will never make America great again. They don’t even have a chance. They’re controlled fully — they’re controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors and by the special interests, fully.”
For the first time in recent memory, a true outsider was making a viable bid for the nation’s highest elected office. As a billionaire, he wasn’t beholden to anyone for financial support. He bankrolled his primary campaign, freeing him to challenge the establishment.
The timing was perfect. After eight years of President Obama, the nation was desperate for a lot of change and a glimmer of hope. Establishment figures didn’t recognize the threat this entrepreneur posed. Hillary Clinton, the Beltway’s choice to secure the White House, initially plotted to boost Mr. Trump in the Republican primary.
As laid out in leaked internal emails, Mrs. Clinton thought Mr. Trump would be the easiest candidate to defeat, a pushover compared with powerhouses such as Jeb Bush and John Kasich. A campaign memo outlined her “Pied Piper” tactic to encourage Republicans to nominate someone “unpalatable to the majority of the electorate.”
This demonstrates just how incompetent Democrats are at strategic thinking, but they make up for the shortfall through dirty tricks and underhanded scheming. Once Mr. Trump received his party’s nod, liberal minions began planting fake stories in the media to undermine Mr. Trump, and they have yet to stop doing so.
Political strategists, talking heads and pollsters all agreed that Mrs. Clinton would easily win in 2016, but the public had a better thought. It would give the Manhattan business tycoon a chance to run the country, and it was a wise decision. The economy surged under Mr. Trump’s low-tax, low-regulation approach to governing until COVID-19 emerged from a Chinese lab.
Democrats exploited the viral chaos to claw their way back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They fielded a candidate, Joseph R. Biden, who spent the entire election season cowering in his basement. After four years of this empty suit, voters craved normalcy. They granted Mr. Trump a second, nonconsecutive term with a mandate to turn his policy proposals into reality.
During his time in the wilderness, Mr. Trump kept busy fashioning a blueprint for an unprecedented Washington shake-up. He shocked the entrenched bureaucracy when he was ready to go on Inauguration Day with directives that exposed waste and fraud in government. Illegal entries at the border stopped nearly overnight. This city has never seen a politician follow through on campaign vows like this.
Mr. Trump has already accomplished more in five months than other presidents have in eight years, but now his real test begins. He is surrounded by forces intent on breaking his resolve to end the perpetual foreign wars, rebalance American trade and return those illegally present in the country.
Should he hold firm to the cornerstone ideas he laid out 10 years ago, he will make America great again, and Mr. Trump’s best decade could be the one ahead.
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