He is the political icon of the era: A wildly wealthy and successful businessman, who is now lapping the competition in the Republican field.
No one in the establishment knows what to do with Donald Trump. The more populist his rhetoric, the more the Estabs hate him and the more the people love him. Now with Donald J. Trump's pronouncement that he would halt (at least temporarily) Muslims coming into this country, there is talk of a brokered convention and third party runs.
Through it all, it appears that Trump is just what he appears to be: a media personality who finds himself swept along by history. Perhaps the man is having an epiphany as he articulates his views on our greatest threat. Time will tell, but the fellow who gave us the classic "Art of the Deal" has also written the New York Times bestseller, "Time to Get Tough."
It's quite a read.
Like a rock star, Trump always belts out his greatest hits as soon as he hits the stage. In Chapter 2 of "Time to Get Tough," he simply titles it: "Take the Oil." Now, a lot of "big" authors never write a word of their own bestsellers, but the text in this book sounds so much like Trump, he must have been heavily involved. Take for example his setup regarding oil in Iraq (liberated with plenty of American blood):
When I say they [Iraq] should pay us back, I'm not even talking about cash out of their pockets. All I'm asking is that they give us, temporarily, a few flows of oil – enough to help pay us back and help take care of the tens of thousands of families and children whose brave loved ones died or were injured while securing Iraqi freedom.
But does Iraq do that? No. In fact, they've made it clear they have no intention of doing so. Ever.
Trump then notes, tellingly, that when an American congressman proposed that very thing in 2011, the Iraqi response was to kick our ambassador out of the country. The American official response, of course, under Barack Obama, was fetal position and thumb-sucking. What would President Trump do? A clue comes in the title of the next section in Chapter 2: "To the Victor Go the Spoils."
Look, no one expects Trump to deliver on everything he's promised. It's unclear why Mexico would pay for a border fence, and only a catastrophic event (actually likely!) would compel Congress and the courts to bar Muslims from entering the country.
But Trump fights.
It's what the American people want after years of feckless, embarrassing "leadership." Obama appears to be endangering the country purposely, and so Trump appears as the ultimate outsider, promising to get tough. It's what bleeds through every page of his book.
(There is some unintentional hilarity in the book. Under a photo of his lovely daughter appears a caption apparently written by the Donald himself: "My daughter Tiffany is doing very well.")
And lest you believe the lib media (and even some "conservative" media), Trump is not dumb or in over his head. The guy is very smart, sophisticated even in his thinking, and he just flat-out knows a lot of stuff. His nuanced understanding of the Chinese is a case-in-point:
Even as Obama is busy degrading our military might by slashing the defense budget by a crippling $400 billion, the Communist Chinese are laughing their heads off and using the billions they make off us each year to jack up their military spending by 13 percent – every year for the last twenty years!
Of course, because China's leadership is sneaky and underhanded, they significantly underreport their actual defense budget and technological advancement. It's actually part of their culture.
You think Trump's personal business experience globally wouldn't be an asset in the Oval Office?
And here's the thing, something his book makes crystal clear, the recent presidential performance(s) have been so abysmal, does anyone really think Trump could do worse?
No. In fact, there's every likelihood he would be as much an innovator in Washington as he's been in the business world.
Trump's love of our military appears to be genuine. And his pulse-taking abilities are uncanny. He closes the book with this:
Mr. President, you might think the border deaths, narco terrorists, and waves of violent illegal criminals into America are a joke, but the people who live along the border and the communities under siege do not. We need a president who will get tough, enforce our laws, protect our people, and pull wages up.
If you haven't settled on a candidate for president, you very well might after reading "Time to Get Tough."