When Grandma Sarah was saved from Comanchero thugs by the eponymous main character in the film The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), she wasn’t entirely happy. “This Mr. Wales is a cold-blooded killer,” she told the Indian Lone Watie, who’d been abducted with her. “He’s from Missouri, where they’re all known to be killers of innocent men, women, and children.”
“Would you rather be riding with Comancheros, Granny?” Lone Watie responded, waxing rhetorical.
“No, I wouldn’t,” Grandma Sarah confessed, seemingly having to almost pry open her own mouth to utter the words.
Ah, prejudice and expectations. Wales wasn’t the savior Granny wanted; he also wasn’t the savior she feared. But he was the only savior she was going to get — and he got the job done.
This comes to mind when pondering recent MAGA criticism of President Donald Trump over his perceived failures. You’ve likely heard the complaints. Maybe you’ve even leveled some. Where are the pre-dawn raids on the homes of swamp creatures such as James Comey (as happened with Roger Stone)? What’s Attorney General Pam Bondi doing? Is she just another Establishment plant? What of the FBI’s Kash Patel and Dan Bongino and the Jeffrey Epstein conclusion? Have “they” gotten to these guys? While I doubt this, there’s a better question:
What has gotten to the critics? What spirit, that is.
“Don’t Use a Hatchet to Remove a Fly From a Friend’s Forehead” — Chinese Proverb
Of course, it goes without saying that no one should follow a mere mortal blindly. Know, too, that I don’t get close to all of what I desire from Trump or any president. How could I, being best characterized as Mayberry meets the Middle Ages?
And criticism of even a cherished leader can be warranted. To use a twist on a G.K. Chesterton line, “My president, right or wrong” is “like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’” But there’s a difference between constructive criticism — and turning your guns on your general in the midst of battle.
Making this point today is American Thinker editor J.R. Dunn. He opens with the saga of pugnacious pundit Ann Coulter. Coulter, as you may know, was for Trump before she was against Trump before she was for Trump. In fact, she wrote a book titled In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! in 2016. Then she advised, last year, that he should “die.” Yet coming full circle, she wrote last month that “Trump 2 is AWESOME!” Okay, I know it’s a “woman’s prerogative to change her mind,” but this is dizzying.
Now, Dunn emphasizes that Coulter’s emotional vacillations have hurt her brand. Really, though, the lesson is that she’s what we’re not supposed to be: flighty and fickle. Serious and sober is in order.
The Opening Act
As to this, commentator Bill O’Reilly has emphasized that Trump did more in his first 100 days than any other president in history. It’s striking, in fact, and Dunn outlines his accomplishments. A summary:
- Trump has drastically reduced illegal immigration by approximately 93 percent via successful border closure policies.
- He has stabilized the economy, reducing inflation to an impressive low.
- Trump’s policies have exceeded expectations and appear to be bringing industry back to the U.S.
- His bold tariff approach has forced many other nations, including China, to make concessions, yielding unexpected positive results despite initial criticism.
- Backed by Elon Musk’s DOGE, Trump exposed federal finances as a large-scale money-laundering operation, recovering over $165 billion and closing or limiting agencies supporting left-wing agendas.
- Trump compelled universities to address antisemitism, terrorists, and extremist ideologies on campuses, often leading to swift compliance.
- His actions have weakened the Democratic Party profoundly, leaving it detached from the working class, minorities, and most voters, with ineffective leadership and no clear future.
- Trump achieved these results despite resistance from the same groups as in his first term, plus rebellious lower-level judges, and a slow-moving Congress and Supreme Court.
Realize, too, that Trump accomplished all this in just four months; almost 92 percent of his term still remains.
Of course, there are many unknowns. For example, will the tariff strategy ultimately work out? Will inflation remain low? Time will tell. But Trump has hit the ground running — and largely been winning.
The Rumblings
Dunn also outlines what he believes motivates the MAGA complaints. He mentions:
- “The Zeitgeist” — people following the crowd; namely, the naysayers.
- “The Whiners” — some always see the glass as half empty.
- “The Defeatists” — this group predicted 2024 defeat, and now they warn of 2026 disaster. Well, you can’t be disappointed when your expectations are low, right?
Dunn then writes:
But I think the major factor is this: Some people have extraordinarily strange ideas about what conservatism is and what it’s supposed to do. We’ve all run into those types whose plan for saving the country involves burning all Beatles albums or splitting the U.S. into two nations or executing, hanging, or torturing whatever group aroused their ire that day.
Consider also, though, that ours is a time of great cynicism (unlike the starry-eyed ’50s). Many today are like an oft-jilted woman: With hearts broken almost irreparably, they find it impossible to trust any politician.
Nor should they.
We shouldn’t “wed” a politician. Rather, we should view him as a tool that serves a function. We also should be mindful, however, of an Otto von Bismarck line I often cite.
That is, politics is the “art of the possible.”
It’s not the art of “getting whatever you want, right now, 100 percent, no questions asked,” but of the possible. And perspective is necessary.
That Perspective
First, since any given president isn’t you, it’s almost certain he’ll do things you don’t like. You know who my ideal president would be?
Me.
Next on the list would be someone such as Pat Buchanan or Alan Keyes. But none of us was an option. Trump and Kamala Harris were.
Second, as with Josey Wales, the Trump administration has the entire Deep State and Establishment against him. This is no small matter. Just consider Bondi’s, Patel’s, and Bongino’s situations, for example.
How many deep-state, sabotage-minded operatives lurk within their agencies? How many documents were destroyed before the three even ascended to their positions? Are facts being hidden from them?
Also realize that it takes time to build legal cases. As you do, too, it’s often necessary to keep information close to the vest. So there’s surely much we don’t see.
Additionally, I’d surely find it emotionally pleasing to see Hillary Clinton, Comey, Anthony Fauci, and other Deep Staters in shackles. The question is, however, how much is it politically possible to do simultaneously? Which battles should you pick at the moment? What would the proposed actions’ optics be? And, yes, because Trump isn’t actually a dictator, contrary to propaganda, he must consider the latter in our pluralistic land.
Really, the big threat here isn’t what President Trump does or doesn’t do. It’s that if the hard Left regains power, Woke Tyranny 2.0 will be downloaded into our nation’s hardware.
In the meantime, we should all work toward our country’s spiritual renewal and, politically, stay in the phalanx and fight the good fight. There’ll be plenty of time for lamentation, condemnation, and the gnashing of teeth when and if defeat comes.
