Donald Trump is our first Old Testament president.
Where critics view him as a self-absorbed tyrant bent on settling personal scores, he is more akin to the stern Yahweh of the Hebrew Bible who punishes wrongdoers to restore order to a broken world.
His quest for retribution is less a small-minded push to vanquish his enemies than a (small-“c”) catholic program to hold bad actors accountable for misdeeds that sends a larger message about acceptable conduct.
His simple message: Behave!
Trump is not a god – he’s never even played one on TV. Because he’s a fallible human being in a complex world, his decisions carry downsides worthy of debate. But by narrowly focusing only on the president’s conduct, his opponents ignore the crucial fact that many of his targets are malefactors who deserve wrath.
Continuing the left’s push to weaponize the justice system is problematic, but what about the cost of allowing former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James to get away with their egregious abuses of power?
The administration’s aggressive tactics to hunt down, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants are unsettling, but can you maintain a nation based on the rule of law when millions of people are here illegally?
His deployment of federal forces to help ICE arrest migrants and cops deter local criminals may test the boundaries of federalism, but what do we gain by allowing sanctuary cities to help people flout the law or by standing back as they continue to fail to protect their residents?
Trump’s use of drones to execute alleged drug traffickers on the high seas raises profound concerns about due process, but what about the hundreds of thousands of American lives lost each year to the poison these criminals are delivering to our shores?
His full-throated support of Israel has permitted grave suffering to continue in Gaza, but how will peace ever be possible in the region if the barbaric terrorists of Hamas, elected by those same people long under siege, are licensed to operate on the border of the Jewish State it is committed to destroying? Who would complain if he adopted a similarly robust stance toward Russia?
Trump’s insistence on labeling media outlets “fake news” and “enemies of the people” may weaken the essential role a free press plays in our democracy, but isn’t the media’s indispensable role the very reason partisan outlets must be called out for their betrayal of bedrock journalistic principles, including accuracy and fairness?
Executive orders threatening funding cuts at federal museums and national parks that advance what the White House considers “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology” may raise concerns about compelled speech, but how else can the misleading, often anti-American narratives that predominate the displays at so many cultural institutions be countered?
Suing colleges and universities may be a threat to academic freedom, but how else can we correct the illiberal, ideological, and antisemitic ideology that proliferates on campus?
Trump’s critics are right when they describe him as an authoritarian – but for the wrong reason. He is not trying to stamp out blameless opponents simply because they disagree with him, as Democrats did by advancing censorship, cancel culture, and show trials of political enemies during the Biden administration. One can argue instead that Trump is trying to re-establish the primacy of proper behavior in a world that has for too long scoffed at authority. He is not moving us toward the authority of a dictator, but returning us to a world where wrongdoers no longer feel free to do as they please. The days of spitting in a cop’s face and calling it peaceful protest, of attacking great art and blocking traffic because the world doesn’t share your climate alarmism, of playing whack-a-mole with border patrol and drug enforcement agents, of nations sponsoring terror in foreign lands are numbered.
Behave!
Those who pretend Trump is an autocrat ignore the powerful fact that most of his actions enjoy widespread public support. This is the essence of democracy.
There is a danger: Trump’s vigorous use of presidential authority to restore order could be cited by his successors to justify misguided and divisive policies, such as demanding that biological males be allowed to play women’s sports or that people be judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character. But fear of the future is not reason enough for Trump to allow wrongdoers to go unchecked.
Sometimes we need vengeance.
