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Let’s admit it: Donald Trump’s second term so far has been a wild success.
I’m surprised to find myself standing up as a Trump defender — and more surprised still that so few others seem motivated to do it.
After all, I still don’t own a MAGA hat, and my vote for him in 2024 was my first.
I spent years as a Trump skeptic, voting third party in 2016 and not casting a presidential ballot at all in 2020.
Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit I was one of those “what’s the difference, man” dummies.
Then I saw what happened through four damaging years of President Joe Biden’s misbegotten administration.
Millions of people came in unchecked at our southern border, and Biden pretended he couldn’t do anything about it.
Cities deteriorated, Sen. Chuck Schumer said they should all get a path to citizenship, and every Democrat running for president in 2020 raised their hand to give them free health care.
Inflation hit over 9% because of unchecked government spending.
The Biden administration extended Title IX, the federal civil rights law protecting women, to include men pretending to be women.
His toadies and their media friends spent four years pretending Biden was just fine before finally having to admit he wasn’t.
And so on.
All this came before the far-left Democratic Socialists of America took over the Democratic Party.
What happens when a party run by people who want to close prisons, end capitalism and open borders gets into power?
I’m not looking forward to finding out.
But beyond the Democrats’ proven awfulness, the second Trump administration has had a run of achievements that too many take for granted.
This president basically solved our border crisis overnight — and did it so quickly that many Americans have already forgotten how bad things were.
He’s eliminated nearly $1 billion in spending on DEI and illegal-immigrant programs — and new evidence shows Elon Musk’s DOGE cut 12% of the wasteful federal workforce without the country missing a beat.
A Trump executive order began reining in biological boys’ encroachment in girls’ sports.
He cleaned up Washington, DC, making its monuments sparkle and its fountains flow again, while achieving a 28% drop in homicides.
Some wins get almost no attention: Trump’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has won a record $528 million for victims of DEI-driven employment discrimination.
When Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey posted a job listing this week asking for “BIPOC, LGBTQ+ . . . and other underrepresented candidates,” he was roundly mocked for the blatant discrimination.
Trump turned the tables on DEI.
On the world stage, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends western civilization, and America’s role in maintaining it, as well as anyone ever has.
With Pete Hegseth at the helm, Trump has redirected our military, making it a lean, merit-based warfighting machine.
Our troops captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and were home in time for supper, a success like we hadn’t seen in decades.
The war in Iran, despite the naysayers, is largely won: We’ve taken out Tehran’s top military brass and shown the regime to be a regional paper tiger, while exposing China and Russia as weak allies.
And yes, Trump on the campaign trail was absolutely open about his intentions toward Iran; those saying they were lied to about foreign entanglements weren’t paying attention.
Trump promised again and again that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon, and under his administration it won’t.
Then there are the culture wars.
The left now jokes about “Woke 1” — haha, hoho, what a craaazy time — as if we didn’t all live through an era of intense policed conformity that meted out social punishment on those who resisted falling in line and declaring fealty to delusional beliefs.
Trump’s reelection brought a vibe shift: It was OK to be normal again, and what a relief.
The insane attack on Shane Gillis’ mild “Saturday Night Live” jokes this week was a preview of coming “Woke 2” attractions if Democrats get power back.
Despite all this, we’re being told, only one issue matters in these midterm elections: gas prices.
No question, that’s a real problem for so many Americans — but Democrats are in no position to fix it.
Gas prices are extra high in blue states, thanks to their absurd taxes and regulations.
Twelve of the 15 states with the cheapest gas are run by Republicans.
When voting on your No. 1 issue, shouldn’t you choose the candidate that’s actually better on it?
Make it make sense.
There are no perfect politicians, and any reasonable voter can find grounds to disagree with Trump on his policies or his rhetoric.
But with a big picture this rosy, it’s unwise in the extreme to punish a competent administration by electing wannabe communists.
Let’s remember where we were two years ago — and not go back there again.
Karol Markowicz is the host of the “Karol Markowicz Show” and “Normally” podcasts.