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“President Trump himself is a deterrent.”
That’s what North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum told me when we were discussing the threat. People’s Republic of China Taiwan is a threat to the United States and indeed to the entire West. I have already read to Governor Burgum the new essay for Foreign Affairs by Trump’s former National Security Advisor Ambassador O’Brien, “The Return of Peace Through Strength”, the article written in April for “War on the Rocks” by Admiral Mike Studeman (USN, Ret.) “China is Ready to Storm Taiwan”, and Sir Niall Ferguson’s essay for The Free Press: “We are all Soviets now.” Burgum fully understands what a deep abyss we stand on the edge of as a result of President Joe Biden’s pathetic weakness.
The United States has lost the ability to deter a coalition of rogue dictators around the world. Think about it: the Houthis have tied up the United States Navy and are unable to defeat them. The Houthis! There are many things we need to do to regain deterrence, all of which Ambassador O’Brien outlined in his important statement of America’s urgently needed new goals and changes to national security policy.
(It’s no wonder why Ambassador O’Brien is so widely praised across the political spectrum — he’s just as serious about the threats to America as Trump is. That’s why O’Brien worked so well with Trump: He listened to the former president and implemented his national security directives, just as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Directors of National Intelligence Ric Grenell and John Ratcliffe did.)
But before implementing O’Brien’s measures and enthusiastically embracing Trump, the skeptics in the country must understand the danger our nation is in, which Studeman and Ferguson have detailed.
The step on which all of O’Brien’s prescriptions depend – and they are excellent – is the re-election of the former (and I hope (future) President Trump,
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The second necessary step is to return the GOP majority to the House and regain a Republican majority in the Senate. We don’t need a red wave. We – the country – need a red tsunami.
We have to look at this election as if World War III is looming, because it might if Biden and his ridiculous “advisors” (read handlers) remain in power. Appeasement has not worked and Team Biden has worked hard to make it work. It did not work. It has failed as completely as the 1930s. There is no sign, not even the faintest hint, that the appeasers will change their ways after a defeat.
Top Biden aides worried about ‘scary’ situation of no serious plan to defeat Trump: report
Surveys suggest such an electoral wave could form, but there are still two debates to play out between Presidents Biden and Trump, and two party conventions and events beyond anyone’s control over the next five months.
This could all go well, just as it did in 1980. There are 11 Senate races where the seat is in Democratic hands right now and where Republicans are running credible campaigns. Trump is running a very good campaign to date, with the able support of strategists Susie Wills and Chris LaCivita. Speaker Mike Johnson has brought stability to a deeply divided House GOP caucus. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Steve Daines, who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have focused all resources on securing a GOP majority. That could be exactly what we desperately need as a country.
While Trump’s energy seems endless, President Biden is fizzling out in real time in a way that his staff can’t control or mitigate. We all see it. We all hear it. These aren’t “deep fake” videos or clips that fall into the White House’s new category of “cheap fakes,” a dog whistle to rally left-wing journalists to Biden’s side and denounce film or audio bits that the Biden campaign hates. It hasn’t worked. Everyone knows Biden is fading.
Having said that, I doubt President Biden will perform well enough in both debates and his convention speech to prevent a revolt from his party’s base. He will be rested and practiced, and entire organizations in the legacy media are very biased against him and this will show in the conduct of the debates and the coverage that follows.
Former President Donald Trump addresses members of the Club 47 group at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on June 14, 2024. Trump celebrated his 78th birthday during the event. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Never mind. Americans know how much they are paying for groceries and gas. Americans know that more than 10 million migrants have crossed the southern border into the U.S. during Biden’s tenure. Friends of Israel know what Biden’s inconsistency on Israel’s multi-front war has done to our closest ally in the region. Americans remember the collapse in Afghanistan. Americans also remember that Biden told first Russia and then Iran “don’t,” but both regimes ignored him, as the former invaded Ukraine and the latter attacked Israel directly.
Americans don’t want to be the second most powerful country in the world and not go any lower. We don’t want World War III. We certainly don’t want a President Harris.
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And we don’t want either a clearly weakening incumbent or a “switchero” candidate to switch to Biden at the convention or even later, as Democrats did with politically unsuccessful Senator Robert Torricelli, who was switched to former Senator Frank Lautenberg in 2002 35 days before the election that year. Lautenberg won despite the scandal of a last-minute switcheroo. That’s what Democrats do. They practice hard politics and play to win. Recall the CNN story from 2008: “In his first Running for officeSeeking a state Senate seat on Chicago’s south side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic opponent.”
Again, Team D plays to win. But so does Trump. More important than both of these facts is that so do Xi Jinping and the dictators within his circle, including Putin and Khamenei.
Read O’Brien, Studeman, and Ferguson. Read or listen to Burgum or the others on Trump’s vice presidential short list, including Senator Tom Cotton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Marco Rubio, and Governor Glenn Youngkin. What do all five of these men agree on? “President Trump himself is a deterrent.”
The United States needs to understand that this is the first step toward restoring the deterrence that we, and all Western nations, need.
Hugh Hewitt is the host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes America up on more than 400 affiliates nationwide and all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel’s News Roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6 p.m. ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches constitutional law. Hewitt began his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major U.S. newspaper, written a dozen books and moderated numerous Republican candidates’ debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and the Guardian. Hewitt has interviewed thousands of guests in his 40 years on the air, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and this column previews the main story that will drive his radio/TV show today.
