I want to invite your attention to a very interesting piece in the New York Times late last week. That’s right, the Times called the case for President Trump — by someone who wants him to lose — written by a former Wall Street Journal editorialist, Bret Stephens, who is in fact a conservative and a never-Trumper. Mr. Stephens opens by saying that “too many people, especially progressives, fail to think deeply about the enduring sources” of the 45th president’s “appeal.” And he goes on to outline three of Mr. Trump’s most important and effective issues. First, closing the border to stop illegal immigration, as he did in the first term. Second, to restore middle-class affordability with rising real wages, as he did in his first term. And third, to make another stab at draining the swamp to right the wrongs of the Center for Disease Control, the FBI, the CIA, and the justice system. So, Mr. Stephens says: “Americans have reasons to remember the Trump years as good ones… Wages outpaced inflation. Unemployment fell to 50-year lows, stocks boomed, inflation and interest rates were low. ” Mr. Stephens also gives Mr. Trump a lot of credit for a strong foreign policy. And he asks, “does the world feel safer under Biden — with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s assault on Israel, Houthi attacks on shipping, the Chinese open threat to invade Taiwan — than it did under Trump?” And Mr. Stephens noted that Mr. Trump kept our adversaries on their guard and off balance. With all that in his fair-minded column, Mr. Stephens shouldn’t be a never-Trumper. I’m not going to convince him, though, at least not today. Meanwhile, I’m going to argue that these important issues are exactly why Mr. Trump is so far ahead in Republican primary polling, including tonight’s Iowa caucuses. Grow the economy, close the border, drain the swamp, stand up to our world enemies — the 45th President did so much of it in his first term, he has so much experience now to take on the rest of it in a second term, and no one has messaged it better than he has. The other night in the Fox News town hall, he showed presidential temperament as he skillfully launched what is likely to be a major turning point with this message. “I’m not going to have time for retribution,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to make this country so successful again. I’m not going to have time for retribution. And remember this, our ultimate retribution is success.” In other words, success is the best revenge. And tonight’s Iowa caucus vote is likely to launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history.From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.
