President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Fox News’ Pete Hegseth asked voters in Carthage, NC what they thought about President Trump’s State of the Union address. One elderly woman told him, “We need to put a cape on his back, an “S” on his chest, and call him Superman. No mortal man could take what he has took these past three years and do what he has done.” She summed it up beautifully.

The President knocked it out of the ballpark on Tuesday night.

Sitting behind President Trump as he delivered his powerful and dramatic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared small, bitter and defeated. She sat there doing a slow burn for 90 minutes until she performed her final act of defiance, tearing up the speech. Classy lady. Someone probably told her that was a good idea beforehand.

It’s all quite understandable. For three years, she has hated this President. And, for over a year, she has actively, and obsessively, used every tool in her arsenal to paint him as an unhinged, lawless, dangerous man who poses a threat to our democracy.

But a funny thing happened along the way. Trump, who will surely be acquitted by the Senate today, not only survived her repeated attacks, but appeared to draw strength from them. While Pelosi, the Democratic Party and the media, convinced that this time they’ll finally get him, President Trump has remained focused on accomplishing the goals he set out during his candidacy and has achieved one success after another.

In his State of the Union address, Trump said one of the reasons he sought the presidency was his frustration over China’s economic exploitation of the U.S., their “massive theft” of American intellectual property and jobs. He said:

I also promised our citizens that I would impose tariffs to confront China’s massive theft of America’s jobs. Our strategy has worked. Days ago, we signed the groundbreaking new agreement with China that will defend our workers, protect our intellectual property, bring billions and billions of dollars into our treasury, and open vast new markets for products made and grown right here in the U.S.A. (Applause.) For decades, China has taken advantage of the United States. Now we have changed that, but, at the same time, we have perhaps the best relationship we’ve ever had with China, including with President Xi. They respect what we’ve done because, quite frankly, they could never really believe that they were able to get away with what they were doing year after year, decade after decade, without someone in our country stepping up and saying, “That’s enough.” (Applause.) Now we want to rebuild our country, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We are rebuilding our country.

While previous administrations recognized this state of affairs, they believed that taking action to change it would draw the U.S. into a dangerous conflict with China. Their strategy had been to accept it. In a Tuesday op-ed, the always insightful Victor Davis Hanson, wrote:

When candidate Donald Trump campaigned on calling China to account for its trade piracy, observers thought he was either crazy or dangerous. Conventional Washington wisdom had assumed that an ascendant Beijing was almost preordained to world hegemony. Trump’s tariffs and polarization of China were considered about the worst thing an American president could do. The accepted bipartisan strategy was to accommodate, not oppose, China’s growing power. The hope was that its newfound wealth and global influence would liberalize the ruling communist government. Four years later, only a naif believes that. Instead, there is an emerging consensus that China’s cutthroat violations of international norms were long ago overdue for an accounting.

Likewise, President Trump recognized that Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was not only foolish, but disastrous. His decision to pull out of the deal was met with fury. When Trump made the audacious call to take out Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, an action both Presidents Bush and Obama, fearing political consequences, had rejected, he was vilified by not only Pelosi and Schiff, but by the entire American left (and even some on the right). Pelosi issued a statement which said, “Tonight’s airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America – and the world – cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return.”

The folks over at MSNBC were in a state of fear over the strikes as well. After giving viewers an idea of just how powerful Soleimani was, MSNBC reporter Ali Arouzi said, “In the past, Soleimani had been in the crosshairs of the United States, and they decided not to hit him, because of what might unravel. I think we’re going to see what might unravel now.”

If Obama had called a few airstrikes to eliminate Iranian’s evil leaders instead of negotiating a bad deal and sending over a plane loaded with cash, Iran wouldn’t have become such a threat. Once again, Trump’s boldness and willingness to act has already paid dividends. Hanson explains:

But recently, Europeans have privately started to agree that more sanctions are needed on Iran, that the world is better off with Soleimani gone… Iran has now become a pariah. U.S.-sponsored sanctions have reduced the theocracy to near-bankruptcy. Most nations understand that if Iran kills Americans or openly starts up its nuclear program, the U.S. will inflict disproportional damage on its infrastructure — a warning that at first baffled, then angered and now has humiliated Iran. In other words, there is now an entirely new Middle East orthodoxy that was unimaginable just three years ago. Suddenly the pro-Iranian, anti-Western Palestinians have few supporters. Israel and a number of prominent Arab nations are unspoken allies of convenience against Iran. And Iran itself is seemingly weaker than at any other time in the theocracy’s history. Stranger still, instead of demanding that the U.S. leave the region, many Middle Eastern nations privately seem eager for more of a now-reluctant U.S. presence.

It’s breathtaking to me that the Democrats remain so fiercely determined to remove this President. Are they unhappy that NATO members have been asked to pay their fair share for defense spending? That the U.S. is now energy independent? That our economy is booming and unemployment is at record lows? A list of President Trump’s achievements in the last three years is beyond the scope of this post, but we all know they are numerous. That he’s been able to accomplish so much while enduring the most malicious assault on a president in U.S. political history is extraordinary.

What liberals call unhinged and dangerous, I call smart and courageous. After eight years of Obama’s appeasement of our enemies, America required a man with the stones to take bold actions to restore American leadership in the world. To use a cliche, Trump was the right man for the right moment in history.

His leadership has transformed America and, in my opinion, he will be remembered as one of the greatest presidents in American history.

Hail to the Chief!



MBA, former financial consultant, options trader

Mom of three grown children, grandmother

Email Elizabeth at



Writer at RedStateMBA, former financial consultant, options traderMom of three grown children, grandmotherEmail Elizabeth at [email protected] Read more by Elizabeth Vaughn