We should be watching your second inauguration ceremony today, and toasting the continuation of a presidency that is aligned in underlying competence, stated policy, and actual deed with the interests of the United States, the prosperity of the American people, and the continued defense of freedom and democracy, not only in the United States, but also around the world.
Instead, we say thank you for all that you have done for the United States and the world as president during your first term, for the superhuman perseverance you have continuously demonstrated in the face of relentless and irrational opposition, and for answering the call to serve when you knew that the time to do so had arrived.
You didn’t set out to become President of the United States, but it seems to have been your destiny. You possessed the keen intellect, innate drive, and family support to confidently pursue fortune, fame, and an outsized American dream that has captured the world’s imagination. And, where so many others with similar qualities have failed, you succeeded.
You could have chosen to be content with your success and ride off comfortably into the sunset. But, as the decades passed, you could no longer countenance standing by as the hard-earned foundations of America’s wealth and power were continuously chipped away for the unaligned benefit of special interests and an ossifying political class.
You were born in 1946, just as the United States had become a global superpower following our victory in World War II. You had a dynamic upbringing in New York City, where you honed your ability to interact with and relate to people from a variety of backgrounds, from captains of industry to construction workers, and you moved comfortably among them all. To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” you have walked with kings, but have never lost the common touch.
As a new graduate of the New York Military Academy and the University of Pennsylvania, you saw the United States drafting our young people into the military to serve as fodder for foreign adventurism in Vietnam, where they were cut down in their prime and severely wounded, both physically and psychologically. These young people, many your own age, had hopes, dreams, and talent that went unfulfilled as a result. You never forgot them, and when you became Commander in Chief, you were judicious in your deployment of our armed forces, not entangling the United States in new wars, and drawing down our once staggering military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan to less than 6,000 total troops in the wake of costly and misguided intervention spanning well over a decade.
As an up-and-coming entrepreneur, you saw your older brother, whom you had looked up to and admired, slide into alcoholism, which slowly took away his looks and his life. You never forgot him, or what substance addiction does to someone, and have worked tirelessly to secure our borders and stop the flow of drugs that have ruined the once bright futures of so many young Americans and killed so many who were once so full of life.
As a bona fide business mogul and television star who had become an international household name, you saw authoritarian China allowed into the World Trade Organization, despite prescient warnings from many against this, and observed the decades of deceit and systematic abuses of good faith and free trade that China has continuously perpetrated upon the United States to the detriment of our economy and our workers. You stood up to these blatant abuses with the principle of reciprocal trade, by raising tariffs on Chinese goods, and by actively working to repatriate factories back to the United States.
You had already made billions and won international fame, and chose to donate your presidential salary back to the U.S. government with the same nonchalance as an average American adding tips for the baristas at their local coffee shop over the course of a year.
You didn’t need the presidency. But, for the sake of its future success, the United States needed your leadership.
You spoke and acted on common sense and noble principle in a way that others wished that they had the strength to, and you stood firm against endless clouds of slings and arrows that others would have retreated from long ago. When accepting the nomination as the Republican presidential candidate in 2016, you told the American people, “I am your voice.” You made good on these words by showing us—through your actions—your unwavering allegiance to the interests of the United States and American citizens.
In your speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention you said, “Every day, I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation that have been ignored, neglected, and abandoned. I have visited the laid-off factory workers, communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. And they are forgotten. But they’re not going to be forgotten long. These are people who work hard, but no longer have a voice. I am your voice.”
How will we continue the renewed trajectory of national ascent that you initiated during your first term? How long can the United States withstand continued plunder by a corrupt political class that too often doesn’t take the country’s best interests as its top priority? And, given the possible fraud that we have witnessed in the 2020 presidential election, how can we be certain that future elections will be held with integrity and result in fair outcomes?
These are issues that we will all be grappling with in the coming months and years but, for now, basic guidance can be taken from the title of one of your books, which reads simply, “Never Give Up.” We know that you have never given up on our country and its future, and have full confidence that you never will. The American people won’t give up either and, today, after all that you have done for us these past four years, we again want to say something that should have been said more often during your first term: thank you, President Trump.
