ANALYSIS – Hyperbole clearly runs in the Trump family. And Donald Trump Jr. throws it out there just as well as his dad. In a recent opinion piece in Newsweek, Don Jr., reminiscing about his dad’s book Our Journey Together, claims “Donald J. Trump was right about everything.”
He then goes on to describe a litany of things his dad got right, and the media got wrong.
And guess what? He isn’t really wrong.
Now, clearly Don Jr. focuses on the key areas he believes, rightly so in most cases, that his father got right. And ignores anything he may have gotten wrong. And Trump’s temperament, wild tweets and the whole ‘stolen election’ thing don’t get any play either.
But on the bigger policy issues, foreign and domestic, I would agree with Don Jr. – President Trump was clearly right far more than he was wrong.
As Don Jr. correctly notes: “From intelligence agencies spying on his campaign, to Hunter Biden‘s laptop being real, to COVID-19 very likely coming from a Chinese lab, he got so many things right that the media got wrong.”
He adds:
Most importantly, he was right on all of the biggest issues facing America today. While Joe Biden flounders on Russia, on gas prices, on the economy and on the world stage at large, remember that the Trump administration showed America, and indeed the world, how to deal with threats.
And there is a lot of truth to that.
In terms of policy, the often concerning Putin-fawning notwithstanding, Trump was especially right about Russia. As Don Jr. notes:
Democrats dragged America through years of a ridiculous Russia hoax in an effort to destroy his presidency. Not only was the “collusion” lie totally debunked, but Trump was tougher on Russia than any president since the end of the Cold War. There is a reason Vladimir Putin didn’t invade other nations during the Trump presidency—he saw real leadership in Trump’s White House.
The current administration has been unwilling to confront reality. It was President Trump’s administration that sent Javelins and anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to aid its defense against Russia after President Obama sent blankets. Donald Trump also understood that for alliances like NATO to work, everyone has to pay their fair share. He worked hard to push other NATO allies to pay up and succeeded.
As I explained last November in my opinion piece, Why President Trump Is Best for U.S. National Security (Russia Threat), much of this is very true. And many (including some prominent liberals) are asking – why did Putin invade Ukraine in 2014 under Obama-Biden, and now under Biden- Harris but not invade anywhere under Trump?
Putin even attacked the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the final months of GW Bush’s second term without much pushback.
Don Jr. moves on to discuss oil and energy, which Trump also got right, but fails to note another key point Trump got right – loudly berating Europe for its energy dependence on Russia, and his sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline set to provide even more gas to Europe.
Biden immediately removed those sanctions, only to be forced to reinstate them after Putin’s Ukraine invasion.
While I will leave Trump’s successful policies which helped make the U.S. energy independent for the first time in decades for another piece, suffice it to say, being energy independent under Trump made the U.S. far less vulnerable to Russian oil and gas pressures, than we are now after a year of Biden’s self-destructive anti-fossil fuels ‘climate change’ agenda.
So, yes, Don. Jr. is correct, for the most part Trump was right, especially on Russia.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Republican Standard.