His charm reflex kicked in.
“You’ll never be out of business,” he said. “You’re the best guy around.”
I was reminded again of our first conversation nearly four years earlier. Trump is always complimentary of people, especially people who are complimentary of him. He likes people who like him. This is, probably, the single most common trait found among all politicians in all of history. It’s why he is so energized by the massive rallies with thousands of ordinary Americans who, unlike so many Washington wonks, love him for just who he is.
The people who matter to President Trump—and the whole reason I endorsed him the day he announced and have pretty much stuck up for him ever since—are the regular working Americans for whom he speaks.
I asked him how he handles all the constant, vicious, and often dishonest vitriol directed at him. He waved it off like it doesn’t really matter but acknowledged, “Nobody’s ever had to do this.”
And then he answered, “I always say, ‘Do I have a choice? You know, really, do I have a choice?’
“A lot of guys would have sat in the corner, put their thumb in their mouth, and said, ‘Mommy, take me home.’ It’s true.”
I asked why he doesn’t just give it all up and walk away, go back to his very full and enjoyable life of luxury.
“I couldn’t do that,” he says flatly.
“I would never do that. I just couldn’t do that.
“I really feel an obligation,” he said earnestly. “You know, we have millions of people out there that are counting on me. I really feel that strongly.”
My Endorsement of Donald Trump from June 16, 2015
DONALD TRUMP DECLARES WAR ON LYING, STREET-HUSTLERS OF CONGRESS
BY CHARLES HURT
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, JUNE 16, 2015
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Finally, a serious and truly experienced contender. Donald Trump and his $9 billion just made the biggest splash of the 2016 presidential race.
By the time the seas stop sloshing back and forth, there may not be a drop of water left over for anybody else to float a rowboat.
Of course, what you heard from Washington and the elite political set in both parties Tuesday was snickering and laughing and scoffing. All the old jokes about the Donald’s cheesy style. His crazy orange comb-over. His penchant for grand statements spoken bluntly with an exclamation point that is often dotted by his very own finger in the air.
And, yes, he descended down to his kickoff at Trump Towers via a glass escalator. It was shopping mall glamorous.
As presidential announcements go, it was brilliant. It was simple, and it was patriotic.
No sun-splashed park with throngs of rented people jammed around an H-shaped stage. No fake columns.
Just a stage and a velvet blue curtain and a podium. Flanked by American flags carefully folded to show both stars and stripes, Mr. Trump wore a simple uniform of red tie, white shirt, blue suit. Red, white, and blue.
Get it? Red, white, and blue? America’s colors? The flag? In other words, Mr. Trump loves America. Get it?
It sounds so simple, yet it is so terribly complicated for all the geniuses around here who get paid monstrous amounts of money by political campaigns to put on events like this. They get into earth tones and pantsuits and open-collared shirts.
You can imagine Mr. Trump shaking his head, patience drained, just before he fires somebody.
“No! I want American flags behind me,” you can hear him saying in an exasperated tone. “I want a red tie, white shirt, and blue suit. Get it? Red, white, and blue? I love America and I want to return her to greatness so I am going to wear red, white, and blue.”
Then came Mr. Trump’s take on what is wrong with America today. It was a scalding evisceration of politicians in both parties and all their terrible ideas and lazy neglect of fierce and festering problems.
He shredded them for everything from trade to defense to unemployment to immigration. And “the disaster called ‘The Big Lie.’ Obamacare!”
And in one sentence, he shone a light on the only path anyone should have ever used to combat Obamacare: It is A LIE! The president and his party are liars and they lie every time they tell people that the government will make people’s lives better. It is a complete lie just to shake down people for more money and accumulate more power for themselves. It is a scam. Total street hustler scam and Obamacare is the biggest of them all.
If the president and his party are telling the truth about all the wonderful ways government can make your life so much better, why is there rioting in Missouri and Baltimore and California after six years of Obama and Democrat rule? Why are so many people so desperately miserable today?
“We don’t have victories,” Mr. Trump said, before running through all the foreign countries that beat America all the time in trade, immigration, defense, and economy.
“I beat China all the time,” he said flatly. “All the time.
“When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist.”
Mr. Trump then turned southward.
“When do we beat Mexico?” he asked. “At the border, they are laughing at us—at our stupidity. They are not our friend, but they are killing us economically.”
Who talks like this? Name one single politician today in either party who is this plainly articulate. Unafraid to say precisely what we are all thinking.
“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,” he said.
Donald Trump is the Godzilla we all wanted Sarah Palin to be. He is the real renegade. He is the businessman we wanted Mitt Romney to be. He is the straight-talker that George W. Bush was on good days.
Another way you know that Mr. Trump is manna from heaven for America is to hear all the clowns in media and politics who were perfectly horrified by the spectacle of Mr. Trump’s announcement.
Look no further than the simpering and insufferable Washington Post, which is the very face of everything that is wrong with political insiderism and incestuous journalism today.
“Terrible,” the flailing paper declared of Mr. Trump‘s candidacy. Why?
“People like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee and everyone else on that debate stage will be playing by one set of rules, Trump will be playing by another. Or, more accurately: Trump won’t be playing by any rules.”
Dear God, help us. America is falling to pieces. Russia, China, and Iran are plotting to destroy us. Radical Islamists want to slit every one of our throats. And the best these idiots can come up with is Hillary Clinton. And what they are worried about are the rules of some stupid debate nobody’s gonna watch.
We really are ruined—at least until this current crowd of liars, fakers, and frauds are tossed aside. At least Donald Trump understands that much.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Sincere thanks to my editor, Kate Hartson, and her terrific team at Hachette Books for their encouragement and assistance in helping me publish this book. My thanks as well as to my literary agents, Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn, of Javelin. Matt is a great friend who is endlessly creative and always generous with his creativity. This book would not have been done without him.
Fox News has been a rare shining light the past three years, covering the rise of President Trump honestly and fairly, refusing to get sucked into the blind anti-Trump hysteria that has seized so much of the media. Chris Stirewalt—one of my oldest friends in Washington—Tucker Carlson, Bill Sammon, Bret Baier, and so many others at Fox are not only great colleagues but also wonderful friends in a town where true friends are usually only of the canine variety.
Speaking of which, deep thanks also goes to Molly, Harper, and Hickory, who are great friends and also actual dogs. Their approving looks and patient attention keep me relatively sane working in a city teetering on the edge of madness.
It goes without saying, but probably should be said anyway, that eternal gratitude goes to my long-suffering wife, Stephanie, and our three extraordinary ch
ildren, Lily, Henry, and Sam. They make everything in life worth it.
No one has been more patient and encouraging than the Washington Times, whose careful balance during these turbulent political times should be a lesson for all newspapers. In particular, Chris Dolan, Larry Beasley, and Stephen Dinan are some of the best and most honest news guys around.
Finally, my greatest thanks goes to my father, Henry Hurt, who is the best, truest and most fearless reporter I have ever known. A brilliant writer, he is also a great editor—both of words and in life. For a million reasons, this book would not exist if not for him.
—Charles Hurt
Tightsqueeze, Virginia
May 1, 2019
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHARLES HURT is a reporter and political commentator. He is currently the opinion editor of The Washington Times and a contributor to Fox News. Previously, he was an editor at Drudge Report and the New York Post’s D.C. bureau chief covering Washington politics.
Still Winning : Our Last Hope to Be Great Again (9781546085287) Page 20