Elections are won and lost on messaging. Right now, Democrats are winning that battle by hammering away at the undeniably high prices consumers are paying at the pump. And they have every reason to keep it up: They need to divert attention from their party’s indisputable march toward socialism, and they have no compelling agenda of their own.
But the strongest reason is that President Donald Trump has delivered on most of his campaign promises, and he’s making significant progress on the rest. Many of the issues that defined the 2024 election have faded from political debate because Trump has solved them.
No one even talks about our open borders anymore. The Biden administration allowed millions of unvetted illegal immigrants to enter the United States, pretending that new legislation was needed to stem the flow. Trump secured the border during his first two weeks in office. And he did it without passing a bill that would have allowed 4,999 migrants into the U.S. every day before triggering a temporary border shutdown that former President Joe Biden would have been free to override.
With the border secured, Trump turned to deportations.
Crime was another hot-button issue, and Trump’s crackdown has delivered clear results.
The top issue in 2024 was the economy. Prices rose roughly 21% across the board under Biden. His administration’s reckless spending led to a permanent and painful spike in inflation. Although rising energy costs tied to the war with Iran have pushed inflation higher this year, the rate still remains well below its Biden-era peak.
Yes, gas prices are high, but they are also temporary. Once the war ends, gas prices will return to prewar levels, which were lower than at any time during the Biden years.
Trump knew that war with Iran would drive up energy prices, which was not ideal during a midterm year. But if he’d waited until after the elections to strike, Iran would likely have acquired a nuclear weapon.
So Trump chose national security over electoral advantage. Not many presidents would have done that.
While I’ve been critical of Trump’s handling of the war, I am convinced that confronting Iran was in America’s best interest.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took to the Senate floor to demand an immediate end to the war, a dangerously shortsighted idea. Walking away without securing our objectives would hand victory to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose hostility toward America has only deepened since the war began. It would cement the terrorist group’s iron grip on Iranians and give the regime even greater incentive to pursue a nuclear weapon.
If Trump hadn’t acted, a future U.S. president would eventually be forced to act against a far more dangerous adversary: a nuclear-armed Iran.
Aside from the high price of gas, the U.S. economy is strong. One would be forgiven for not knowing that because the media have buried the story.
In fact, according to Fox News contributor and economist Larry Kudlow, the economy is “booming.” He repeatedly calls it “the greatest story never told.”
During a recent edition of his daily program, Kudlow cited several economic indicators that have exceeded expectations. Capital goods expenditures surged by 18.9% in August and by 16.4% over the past three months, signaling business leaders’ confidence in the economy. That figure may mean little to the noneconomists among us, but its significance is huge. Business investment is the heart of the economy.
Here’s one we can all understand: The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s estimate for third-quarter GDP growth is 5%, a level of growth unseen in decades.
Kudlow also pointed to the 6% increase in retail sales over the past year as a sign of consumer confidence.
The unemployment rate stands at 4.1%. In contrast to the substantial growth in government employment under Biden, he noted, the new jobs are being added to the private sector.
Republicans cannot afford to let Democrats ride outrage over gas prices to victory. They must remind voters that the Trump administration has already resolved most of the problems that mattered to them in 2024.
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Handing control of Congress back to Democrats would offer no guarantee of relief at the pump. It would only allow them to accelerate their socialist agenda.
Republicans must make clear what is at stake — before frustration over temporarily high gas prices leads voters to make a choice with disastrous long-term consequences.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
