It’s beginning to look a lot like an election year. Lots of political talk, increasing candidate ads, primary elections in states across the nation, and endless “Hello Patriot” text messages from people and lists you never signed up for. Yet rather than thoughtful bi-partisan political analysis discussing the issues, the mainstream media is reflexively returning to the 2020 playbook of covering up for Biden’s absence and incompetence while doubling down on Trump accusations and hysteria. It’s all they have. When the left can’t win by compelling voters to agree with and support their ideas, they just criticize and demonize the other side and create fear in the American electorate. We’ve read this script before.
Yet it seems that the more we are seeing Trump, the less we are seeing Biden. Donald Trump appears to be everywhere – in court in New York, on the campaign trail in South Carolina and Michigan, at the southern border, and recently has given several significant speeches and interviews. By contrast Biden is most often seen shuffling along a sidewalk, licking an ice cream cone while on vacation in Delaware.
And the more voters see Trump, the more they are seeing of him as well, and voters appear to be responding positively to these engagements.
During remarks for the National Religious Broadcasters conference, Trump was the most transparent we have seen him as he talked about his own faith saying that he was a fellow believer who would fight hard for Christians and uphold religious freedom when he returns to the White House. He said he wanted to “protect God in the public square,” and appoint a task force to fight anti-Christian censorship and bias. He continued, “We have to bring back our religion. We have to bring back Christianity,” Trump said, “I really believe it’s the biggest thing missing from this country.”
At the annual CPAC gathering in National Harbor, Maryland, Donald Trump said to the party faithful that, “Your liberty will be our ultimate reward, and the unprecedented success of the United States of America will be my ultimate and absolute revenge,” he said. “That’s what I want. Success will be our revenge.”
And at a recent town hall we saw once again a glimpse into Donald Trump’s heart and his thinking. The host of the program said to Trump that a lot of people worry about the former president – specifically about his safety. His immediate and instinctive reply was that they shouldn’t worry about HIM, but that he was worried about THEM and their safety. He said he is worried about the America Joe Biden has created in which the nation’s cities are unsafe, the schools and government agencies have been weaponized against their own citizens, where food and housing are unaffordable, and where open borders have negatively affected every city and state by flooding them with illegal immigrants. He said he loves America and the American people and wants them to be safe and free to prosper and succeed.
Are we seeing a different Trump? Perhaps to a degree, but more likely we are beginning to see a fuller picture of the true man and his heart – not the monster the media has continuously tried to portray.
Equally importantly, we are seeing the left, the Democrats, and Joe Biden more fully too – both in what they are trying to highlight on the right, and what they are hiding from the American people about themselves.
Biden’s poll numbers continue to drop, and as primary season progresses, we are seeing increased fractures in the Democrat party – causing concern in the ranks on the left with falling support from the African American population, Muslims, Jewish communities, and even young people. The party is in free fall and regardless of how hard progressives try to expose more of Trump and demonize the right, they wind up exposing themselves for their empty promises, vile loathing of conservatives, and hatred for America, its history, and its values.
America is on the verge of a historic political rematch – Trump v. Biden 2.0. This potential matchup is also historically unpopular, with more than half of the electorate not wanting either candidate.
Yet while the names on the ballot may be the same, there are many differences in the 2024 election cycle vs. the 2020 campaign.
In 2020 Joe Biden could string two coherent sentences together, this time he cannot. He hid in his basement last time and this time his staff is hiding him from the media as much as possible.
In 2020 Joe Biden promised to be the great unifier, yet the nation is more divided than ever. There is one thing that the left and the right are unifying on though, which is thinking that Joe Biden’s presidency has been a dangerous disaster and needs to end as soon as possible.
In 2020 Joe Biden promised to be the adult in the room who would tamp down chaos. Instead, he has thrown the US into a downward spiral of decline and led the world to the brink of WWIII.
In 2020 Joe Biden was promoted as the moderate candidate – not extreme like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, yet he has proven to deliver more wins for the progressive left than the other two combined ever imagined would be possible in three years.
And remember when Biden promised to be a 1-term president? Well, that was a lie too. Apparently, Jill Biden likes living in the White House and the Biden family syndicate isn’t done making money off of poor old senile Joe. So, they will continue to prop him up, allow him to embarrass himself publicly, and perpetuate their influence peddling, money making schemes and crimes.
Whereas in 2020 Joe Biden touted himself as a candidate of promise for the nation, in 2024 he now has a record of progressive “accomplishments”. And this ledger of “wins” for the far left have made life more dangerous, more expensive, and more difficult for the majority of Americans.
Nothing in Joe Biden’s America is better. No one is better off. No one wanted what Joe Biden has delivered. Yet he doesn’t seem to care. He continues to ruin the nation, endanger the world, go on vacation, and lick another ice cream cone.
As for Donald Trump, love him or hate him, he tells you precisely what he is going to do. Then does it. And based on his record. We should believe him.
When he says he will close the border immediately and build a wall – he will.
When Trump says the fighting between Russia and Ukraine will stop overnight – it will. Lasting peace will be negotiated and prosperity and opportunity for Ukraine will be reestablished.
When he says he will work with Israel to get hostages released and restore calm again in the middle east – he will. He’s done it before and will do it again.
When he says he will renew our big cities and make them safe, prosperous, and livable again we should take him at his word.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden both now have records to be analyzed and evaluated. And there is no comparison. One put America on the right track – the other has derailed American exceptionalism and lit the world on fire. The contrast is a clear one.
In November it will be up to the American voters to determine whether Bidenomics “it’s working” (as Biden likes to whisper into the microphone), or if MAGAnomics is the way forward. For many the choice will be as simple as choosing between crazy and common sense. And despite how the media and the deep state have tried to demonize Trump as the crazy one, Americans are looking with new eyes at how much truth and common-sense Donald Trump represents.
Peggy Grande was executive assistant to Ronald Reagan and is author of “The President Will See You Now.” She is an international television commentator and columnist and served in the Trump Administration.