The Great Pretender

“Pretend I’m on the ballot,” President Trump enjoined voters. So they did. The result was a Democratic victory that flipped both houses of Congress, cashiered some of the most powerful Republican senators in history, and set the stage for at least two years of divided government — Democrats controlling Congress and Republicans the White House — and for, we hope, an epic policy battle ahead of the presidential campaign two years hence.That will be a race in which there’s no pretending. Mr. Trump is precluded from running by the 22nd Amendment, which ordains that no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. And that no person who has held the office of president, or acted as president, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected president shall be elected to the office of the president more than once.Mr. Trump has on occasion teased that he might attempt it, but it’s impossible to see how he — or anyone else — could get around the 22nd. So the next two years are likely to see a battle over who will lead the GOP into the next generation. We look forward to it, favoring an end to such lawfare as has been levied by both parties trying to put their political opponents in jail. And a beginning of an contest over war and peace, the economy, and social issues.“Going into 2028,” the Wall Street Journal reckons in an important editorial, “the GOP needs a debate about what it stands for after Donald Trump.” That debate, in our view, starts with foreign policy, on which the Republicans are on far better ground. That is thanks, in part, to Mr. Trump’s secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio, who has, in a remarkable set of speeches, been outlining a foreign policy vision that is long held and distinguished. Mr. Trump has been heroic on Israel. He bowed to Congress and moved the America’s embassy to Jerusalem. He has enforced America’s own red lines, attacking the enemy’s underground facilities for pursuing an atomic bomb. It will be hard, though, to rally Americans for more war in Iran without going to Congress for some kind of mandate, as, say, President George H.W. Bush did before going to war in Kuwait.Meantime at home, a battle over social issues is underway on matters as diverse as Second Amendment rights to bear arms, First Amendment rights for religious schools, and transgender rights. All against a battle over the presidency itself, one in which a shocking number of openly political United States district judges have been opposing Mr. Trump’s agenda on seemingly partisan grounds and weakening the presidency.Most importantly awaits the economy. We’re in an economic boom — growth is strong, inflation has slowed, and employment is nigh full. So it took some doing on Mr. Trump’s part to lose this election. At the root of it all, is the problem of the dollar, which currently can’t buy a 4,000th of an ounce of gold. Therein lies the discouragement over gas and groceries. So bring on the last quarter of the Trump presidency.

The Great Pretender

The Great Pretender

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