President Donald Trump gave his “farewell address” to the nation on Tuesday, which was amazingly conciliatory, considering his usual aggressive style combined with all of the controversies surrounding the allegations of election fraud. Despite his contention that the election was stolen from him in several of the “swing states,” Trump said that on Wednesday, the nation will “inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous.”
Most of the 75 million Americans who voted for him probably hold out little hope that a President Joe Biden will do either one.
“We are — and must always be — a land of hope, of light, and of glory to all the world,” Trump said. “We restored the idea that in America, no one is forgotten — because everyone matters and everyone has a voice. I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices — because that’s what you elected me to do.”
Trump added, “Our agenda was not about Right or Left, it wasn’t about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of the nation, and that means the whole nation.”
Some rumors indicate that Trump might launch a new political movement. “Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning.” Speculation has it that Trump might even launch a new political party, with some of his supporters suggesting a “Patriot Party.” If that were to happen, the most likely outcome would be, not his election on a third-party ticket, but simply a huge Democratic Party victory, unless the Republican party simply disintegrates from infighting in the meantime. One thing that could throw gasoline on the fire of a new political party movement would be if a significant number of Republican senators abandon Trump to vote to convict him in any impeachment trial. Although it is difficult to imagine how trying a former president — a private citizen — could be dubbed constitutional, it would hardly be unique for Congress to do something that is unconstitutional.
Still, Trump spent most of his talk touting his accomplishments in office, citing his efforts to bring peaceful relations to the Middle East. “As a result of our bold diplomacy and principled realism, we achieved a series of historic peace deals in the Middle East. It is the dawn of a new Middle East and we are bringing our soldiers home. I am especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars.”
Trump can certainly point to many accomplishments during his four-year tenure in the White House. While Trump occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the economy created four million new jobs — 400,000 in manufacturing. Real wages for American workers shattered records. Blacks and Hispanics had the lowest unemployment rates ever seen.
During Trump’s time in the White House, he removed eight and one-half regulations for every new rule promulgated. According to the libertarian think tank, Cato Institute, these efforts “slashed regulatory costs by nearly $50 billion, with savings reaching $220 billion once major actions are fully implemented.”
Despite Trump’s many accomplishments, he faced more intense opposition from the beginning of his administration than perhaps any other U.S. president since the Civil War. There were calls for his impeachment before he even took office. A charge that he had conspired with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to — in the words of Hillary Clinton — “hack the election” dogged him throughout most of his time in office, a charge that his enemies produced no evidence for.
An independent counsel spent more about three years pursuing evidence that simply did not exist. Even after Robert Mueller produced a report that no evidence had been found to confirm the charge that Putin colluded with Trump to get him elected, leading Democrats — and even some Republicans — have refused to let it go. And all the aforementioned happened though it has always been known by U.S. intelligence sources, including the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey, as well as former President Barack Obama, that the claims were false. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe made that clear in late September of 2020, and even redacted notes of Brennan’s show clearly that he briefed Obama on Hillary Clinton’s plans to falsely accuse Trump of working with Russia to take attention away from her e-mail scandal, in which she used personal e-mail for classified purposes, which is against the law. Yet Democrats are still pushing that conspiracy theory. For example, Hillary Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi even pushed a new Russian conspiracy theory just this week, arguing with no evidence, that Trump worked with Putin to coordinate the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Trump disavowed the violence that engulfed the Capitol that day, in his farewell speech. In his speech before the invasion of the Capitol, he asked his supporters to protest “peacefully and patriotically.” That hardly sounds like a man who wanted to incite violence. Yet, Clinton told Pelosi, “I would love to see his [Trump’s] phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol.”
Trump will leave the White House early Wednesday morning to fly to his home in Florida, and will not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden. It is likely that while he gave a Farewell Address on Tuesday, it will not be the last time the American people will hear from Donald Trump.
