14 Nov

An Open Letter to President Donald J. Trump

“How to maximize the Trump Legacy.” – The Lonely Realist

Dear Mr. President:

I believe that ensuring the Trump Legacy should be your highest priority. Although the Democrats’ midterm election victory creates challenges, they are outweighed by a golden opportunity to add to your accomplishments. The Democrats do not have a veto-proof majority. Even though they are acting as if they control the government, they have no control over you or the Executive Branch. They are promising subpoenas, hearings, impeachments, and tactics intended to throw sand into the workings of America’s government…, which is distasteful to America’s electorate…, and which is highlighted by Democratic lawmakers’ threats to “get ready for some investigations — serious ones,” and for your supporters to “lawyer up” because Congress is going to “toss out subpoenas like Mardi Gras beads,” and with Jonathan Last’s advice to each of your supporters to “Get a great fucking criminal defense lawyer. You’re gonna need it.” That’s crazy talk! And the public hates it. The Democrats’ hubris therefore could be made to work to your advantage. The fact that the new Congress isn’t sworn in until January 3rd enables you to co-opt the 2027 legislative agenda. This therefore is the time to roll out immigration reform, using the success achieved by your immigration crackdown to lay out your preferred immigration policies (and demand Democrat concessions in return). Congressional insider trading is an issue that the American public finds distasteful, making now an appropriate time to propose “The Nancy Pelosi Anti-Insider Trading Act.” What about Congressional term limits? And cutting red tape to enable the rebuilding of infrastructure through a more rational administrative review process? And then there’s American foreign policy: Congress most certainly will not endorse surrender in the Middle East, not after Joe Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan. You therefore can assume that the Democratic Party will not cut military funding that would allow Iran to further its nuclear capability. Nor will Congress oppose your Gaza Peace initiatives. This gives you the ability, and therefore the obligation, to double down on both Iran and Gaza. The goals in continuing your Middle East policies include Iran’s eventual capitulation, resolution of the Gaza mess and a realignment of Middle East interests in America’s favor. The fact is that your domestic and foreign policy priorities will not be torched by the Democrats’ majority. The Democrats’ plans for 2027 are maximally oppositional and destructive. You, the President of the United States, should use the Democrats’ rancor to constructively bend events to maximize your Legacy.

An appropriate first step would be through an immigration reform proposal. Your policies have removed the murderers, rapists, terrorists and scammers who entered America illegally. Now is the time to present your vision for immigration legislation. Congress already has shown itself a willing participant by its 2026 version of The Dignity Act. The Act would grant work and travel status to undocumented immigrants who arrived before 2021, pass background checks and pay a $7,000 fee, but would not provide them with a path to citizenship. It also would provide conditional permanent resident status to anyone who has lived in the U.S. since coming to the country as a minor (“Dreamers”), add funding for border security and ports of entry, and revamp asylum processing. While The Dignity Act has flaws and weaknesses – for example, it has been derided as “rage bait,” a form of legislative performance art without any prospect of becoming law –, it in fact contains core provisions that are both workable and potentially supportable by a bipartisan majority. The devil will be in the details. Credit for its attractiveness rests largely on the success of your anti-immigration policies. Achieving Congressional passage, however, will require your leadership.

Your leadership also can accomplish a breakthrough when it comes to eliminating (or, at least, limiting) Congressional insider trading. Doing so once again would be popular, striking a responsive chord with America’s electorate. It would compel recalcitrant Democrats to defend themselves. TLR this past August pressed Congress to put teeth in the anti-insider trading legislation it was then considering (the Stop Insider Trading Act). That Act, however, was not a serious effort at Congressional reform. Members of Congress are not about to willingly limit trading on inside information, perhaps the most profitable of Congressional perks. The Stop Insider Trading Act was a midterm election publicity stunt, its scope intentionally limited to discouraging, but not preventing, members of Congress from buying publicly traded securities (though not privately offered ones or ETFs). Congress had considered putting limits on its members’ insider trading pursuits many times in the past and had not done so. With voters today shocked at the corruption that permeates Congress, now is the appropriate time to propose the legislation that would end Congressional insider trading.

Now also is the time to take the lead in imposing Congressional term limits that also are heavily favored by America’s electorate. As TLR wrote more than five years ago in supporting Ted Cruz’s proposed Constitutional amendment that would have imposed term limits of two six-year terms on U.S. Senators and three two-year terms on members of the House, doing so would significantly undercut the influence of large corporations and special interest groups that spend lavishly to ensure that those they’ve elected will continue to protect and enhance their special interests. It also would eliminate career incumbency and the financial and media advantages that incumbency provides. Members of Congress have been so busy electioneering that they have left the difficult legislative drafting and negotiation tasks to their staffs, all-too-often relying on templates provided by their partisan financial supporters, a practice that should change with a reduced need for re-electioneering and a potentially greater emphasis on ideas, execution and legacy.

When it comes to foreign policy, you will continue to have virtually unfettered discretion and therefore should follow through on your election night declaration that “I’m totally convinced that my decision on Iran, for the long-term good of our country and even the world, was an absolutely correct one — and it continues to be.” This is about the kind of world we all want. It should not be a world where the Islamic Republic retains its nuclear program and can threaten the U.S. with missiles and terrorism. This needs to be a world where the Iranian regime is threatened economically and militarily until it abandons its nuclear ambitions. That is precisely why directing energies towards the Middle East needs to be an essential part of the Trump Legacy.

Finally (from a good friend)