Here, we had President Obama using the power of the White House to obstruct the FBI from doing its job—largely for imaginary political gain and Iran’s benefit. This is another real example of the deep-seated bias in the media and Washington. Had President Trump even thought about slowing down or impeding FBI investigations the way Obama did, the entire elite class would be screaming for impeachment hearings—or criminal charges.
During President Trump’s first year in office, he immediately worked to undo the damage done by Obama’s naive and dishonest pursuit of this truly dangerous deal.
Under the Corker-Cardin “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act” (INARA/PL 114-17), the president is required every 90 days to ensure that Iran is abiding by the terms of the JCPOA through a certification process.39
As I described in an op-ed for Fox News back in October 2017, “full compliance under this law requires the United States to certify that: (1) Iran is fully implementing the JCPOA and all related agreements; (2) Iran has not committed (or if committed, has cured) a material breach; (3) Iran has taken no action to significantly advance its nuclear weapons program; and (4) that continued suspension of nuclear-related sanctions is both appropriate and vital to our national security interests.”40
While making the decision to certify and deciding if all four points had been met, President Trump took a look back at all of the events that had occurred throughout the first year of his presidency.
He could see that the Tehran regime had become even more dangerous. Trump recognized that the Iran deal was doing nothing to curtail the rising threat. In fact, since the agreement lifted many sanctions on Iran, the regime had new access to billions of dollars that were being used for violence. All the while, the United States was not able to guarantee that Iran wasn’t working to obtain a nuclear weapon.
In fact, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley observed that since the nuclear agreement was signed, “the undeniable fact is that that the Iranian behavior is growing worse.”41
The failed launch of a missile by Iran in January 2017; a faked missile launch in September; and the enthusiastic chanting of “death to America” by the Iranian parliament after a unanimous vote was passed, according to the AP, “to increase spending on its ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard” made it impossible to reasonably assert that the aforementioned criterion No. 4 of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (that continued suspension of nuclear-related sanctions is both appropriate and vital to our national security interests) had been followed.42
Considering all of this, President Trump decertified the Iran deal in October 2017. Keeping in line with the America first policy, the president rejected the desires of global bureaucrats and prioritized the safety of Americans.
Decertification, however, does not kill the nuclear agreement with Iran. Rather, it provides President Trump with more flexibility and options by increasing America’s leverage to fix the broken parts of the deal, which is in the vital interest of American national security.
In January 2018, President Trump made the decision to extend the waivers on Iran nuclear sanctions, which he said is the final effort he will put toward fixing this failed agreement.43
Fox News reported, “In a stern statement, Trump said he’s waiving the sanctions to secure European allies’ agreement to address the ‘terrible flaws’ in the 2015 deal negotiated by his predecessor.
“‘Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deal’s disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw,’ Trump said.
“He added, ‘No one should doubt my word.’”
HOLDING INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ACCOUNTABLE
President Trump’s dedication to putting America and its interests first in foreign affairs even extends to our largest international relation—the United Nations.
On former governor Nikki Haley’s first day as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations she clearly articulated President Trump’s position to the international body. At UN headquarters in New York, Haley told members, “For those who don’t have our backs, we’re taking names.”44
In December 2017, the list of names grew.
During the campaign, President Trump pledged to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and declare it the capital of Israel. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also made this promise but realized once they were in office that it would upset the international bureaucracy and shake up the global order. They backed off.
President Trump did not. He is fulfilling the promise that he made to the American people—and supporting a key ally in the Middle East. The new embassy, according to Vice President Mike Pence, is set to open in 2019. The global bureaucrats in the United Nations did not like this decision.45
The United Nations voted in December on a resolution that demanded that the United States reverse its decision. An overwhelming 128 nations voted in favor of this resolution, in direct defiance against America and its interests.46 Some of these nations were (traditionally) major allies of the United States, such as Britain, France, Germany, and Japan.47
According to the New York Times, this vote is “nonbinding and therefore largely symbolic” but it provided an opportunity for the United States to clearly see “who has our back.”48
This massive level of global condemnation by the international bureaucracy was shocking. Haley reiterated her “taking names” warning in a tweet:
At the UN we’re always asked to do more and give more. So when we make a decision, at the will of the American people, about where to locate OUR embassy, we don’t expect those we’ve helped to target us.49
In a statement to the New York Times, she further said, “We will remember it when we are called upon once again to make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations.… And we will remember when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.”50
In response to the UN’s vote, the Trump administration plans to significantly scale back funding contributed to the United Nations.
According to the Guardian, the United States contributes 22 percent of the UN’s operating budget annually,51 amounting to approximately $1.2 billion for the 2017–2018 year.52 The United States is additionally responsible for 28.5 percent of peacekeeping operation funding, totaling an estimated $6.8 billion for the 2017–2018 year. Keep in mind, there are 193 member nations.
In response to the pushback from the members and in recognizing the inefficient monetary and management expenditures of the UN, the Trump administration announced it negotiated a cut to the UN budget of more than $285 million for the 2018–2019 fiscal year.
Regarding the budget slash, Ambassador Haley said in a press release issued at the end of December, “The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known. We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked. This historic reduction in spending—in addition to many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable UN—is a big step in the right direction.”53
As such, President Trump agreed, and said, “People that live here, our great citizens that love this country—they’re tired of this country being taken advantage of and we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”54
COMPETITION WITH CHINA
President Trump’s actions with China are perfectly in line with the National Security Strategy report’s goal to “respond to the growing political, economic, and military competitions we face around the world.”55
The report further states:
We welcome all economic relationships rooted in fairness, reciprocity, and faithful adherence to the rules. Those who join this pursuit will be our closest economic partners. But the United States will no longer turn a blind eye to violations, cheating, or economic aggression. We must work with like-mi
nded allies and partners to ensure our principles prevail and the rules are enforced so that our economies prosper.
Simply put, President Trump is finally holding nations accountable that violate trade agreements and engage in unfair economic practices that target American industry.
President Trump’s actions with China are a perfect example.
In January 2018, President Trump decided to place tariffs on solar panel imports.
Over the past five years, approximately 30 U.S.-based businesses that manufacture solar cells and modules have either gone bankrupt or closed56 due in large part to the devastating effects stemming from foreign corporations dumping their products into the U.S. market.57
Dumping is a technical term for what happens when a foreign entity (in this case, China) floods a market with goods that are priced substantially lower than the price in the country where they are made. The goal of dumping is to drive other manufacturers out of business by dramatically underbidding them on prices.
At the request of President Trump, an investigation into the solar panel dumping issue was conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
The Commission responded with a 4–0 ruling recommending action to protect the U.S. solar industry and, in a follow-up document, confirmed that most of these cheap imports were coming from China, even though they may have been manufactured elsewhere.58 The report shows that in response to previous tariffs placed specifically on Chinese solar products, Chinese companies simply moved their manufacturing to other countries. Furthermore, the Commission found that these Chinese manufacturers were able to offer such low prices because the Chinese government had been subsidizing them—an action that violated China’s obligations outlined under the World Trade Organization.
In other words, China was cheating, and President Trump caught them.
It is also worth noting that in 2014, five members of the Chinese military were charged with stealing the intellectual property of a U.S. solar cell manufacturer, as well as other companies.59
Alarmingly, Chairman Rhonda K. Schmidtlein wrote that the solar cell manufacturing industry “would likely cease to exist in the short term” if relief was not provided for these struggling U.S. corporations. She further explained that this would in effect create “significant long-term consequences for US economic and national security interests.”
Chinese and foreign control of our solar cell manufacturing industry has serious economic and national security implications. Not only does it pose a threat to the U.S. power grid, but just as critically, the U.S. military uses solar power as a backup energy source. Allowing China, which is already a very competitive global economic force, to control the prices and supply of a component so integral to our society is unacceptable.
It is a national security imperative that the United States does not relinquish control of this industry to foreign competitors. It’s equally important domestically that our solar cell manufacturers are competing on a level playing field.
In response to China’s attempts to cheat the system, President Trump issued a tax of up to 30 percent on imported solar cells and panels.60
The orderly institutionalists in the anti-Trump coalition responded by fretting that the tariffs would start a trade war with China and lectured about the benefits of free trade. Very few, however, acknowledged the foundation upon which President Trump reached his decision: The Chinese government was illegally subsidizing its industries and dumping its products to harm U.S. industry.
An editorial in the National Review titled “Against the Tariffs,” for instance, was long on economic theory but totally avoids providing an answer to the question “What do you do when your trading partners are determined to flout the rules?”61 They are so stuck in the new world order mind-set that they can’t comprehend that their huge, complicated, multilateral trade agreements are powerless to stop some countries from taking advantage of the United States.
President Trump understands that we have to be tough with China. It’s the only language its leaders respect.
As China has shown, it is capable of economically expanding at an incredibly rapid pace and is determined to do so—even if it means capitalizing on unfair practices. Moreover, China has expressed goals to dominate more than the solar power industry.62 It is hoping to gain market share in the next-generation information technology sector, the aerospace and aviation equipment industry, biomedicine, the agricultural machinery industry, and robotics.
Since we know the types of actions they will take to try and dominate the solar power sector, failure to respond would guarantee that China would pursue the same sort of economic aggression in those industries.
The United States cannot allow China to control future industries, and we cannot let the Chinese take advantage of our domestic markets for their own economic gain. President Trump has recognized this and, through imposing this tariff on the solar industry, has shown that we must make both rational and smart decisions in order to maintain our competitive advantage with growing economic powers, such as China.
The only way to beat competitors as strong as China is to refuse to allow our domestic industries to be taken advantage of in any way, at any point.
GOING FORWARD
Presidents Trump’s National Security Strategy Report lays out an important strategy that embraces the idea that the binary terms “at war” or “at peace” are largely irrelevant in today’s world. Instead, it asserts the United States is in “an arena of continuous competition.”
Further, the report declares, “We will raise our competitive game to meet that challenge, to protect American interests, and to advance our values.”
Though remarkably impressive strides have been made toward reasserting American dominance on the global stage, there is still much more work to be done to suppress and eliminate the threats facing our country.
After all, while ISIS has been largely destroyed, radical Islamic terrorism still thrives in the Middle East. The outcome of the proposed denuclearization talks with North Korea remains uncertain. Competition with China—both in economic and world influence—will likely be a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy for decades to come. To top things off, Russia’s use of hybrid warfare—the utilization of a broad spectrum of methods to attack numerous aspects of an enemy, particularly through aggressive cyber, information, and economic tactics—poses challenges that will evolve and change at the breakneck pace of technology.
Facing these prominent global challenges, President Trump has recognized that clinging to the outdated, failed “new world order” would ultimately lead to America’s downfall and inevitable destruction.
President Trump’s acute sense of the reality of our world, his principled, optimistic, yet realistic, approach to foreign and national security policy, and his recognition that economic prosperity is a critical component to keeping America safe has led him to make bold, influential, and beneficial decisions during the first year of his administration.
Most importantly, the American people can already clearly see that President Trump’s America first policy is working.
The president helped create a counterterrorism alliance with more than 50 Arab and Muslim nation leaders at the Arab Islamic Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This coalition helped dismantle and destroy ISIS’s territorial dominance.
He has also stared down the global bureaucracy and elicited more defense funding from members of NATO who had not been paying their fair share in the defense of alliance countries or the war on radical Islamic terrorism.
Thanks to the efforts of the Trump administration, America has been placed in a position to boldly and successfully “meet the challenge.”
There is no doubt, many in the anti-Trump coalition—in particular the globalists and news media—have been alarmed by the president’s efforts. However, Trump’s America is pleased. The Americans who elected President Trump see him doing exactly what he said he would do on the campaign trail to protect American jobs and keep people safe.
As the president’s efforts continue, America will only become more secure and prosperous.
The Trump administration’s decisions to withdraw from or renegotiate bad agreements, hold other nations accountable for their actions, not engage in unreciprocated relationships, and address economic cheating head on have initiated America’s comeback on the global stage.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE COMEBACK OF FREE SPEECH
Thanks to President Trump, free speech is making a comeback in America today.
Even as a candidate, President Trump recognized that, in addition to reshaping our nation’s unifying principles and limiting our religious liberties, the left-wing members of the anti-Trump coalition have been chipping away at our fundamental right to speak our minds and express ourselves freely.
They do this while waving a banner of inclusion and diversity, but their ultimate goal is a profound, unhealthy change to America’s fabric.
Through the dogged enforcement of political correctness, the elites in Washington, the media, and academia have been working diligently to convince Americans that freedom of speech is limited to “acceptable” speech. They say some speech is offensive, hateful, or otherwise distasteful and does not warrant protection. They have been persuading people that free speech needs to be confined to “free speech zones.” They seek to create “safe spaces,” where dissenting views cannot be expressed. Some “safe spaces” include entire university campuses. They have even begun a campaign to convince Americans that inappropriate speech is a form of violence. In fact, these efforts are not so thinly veiled attempts to silence views which the elites oppose.
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