Donald Trump is on an epic winning streak.
Not only did the former president by the grace of God just escape a would-be assassin’s bullet, but the Supreme Court recently ruled in his favor regarding presidential immunity. In addition, Trump trounced Joe Biden three weeks ago in their first presidential debate. That calamitous encounter for President Biden, in which he appeared confused and frail, split the Democratic Party wide open, with many calling for the president to step out of the race.
To top off that history-making (and head-spinning) series of events, the judge overseeing the government’s prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling secret documents, which legal analyst Jonathan Turley has called the ‘greatest threat to the former president,’ has just tossed the case. Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Special Counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed to his position by Attorney General Merrick Garland and did not therefore have the authority to bring the case.
Boom! All these favorable happenings increase the chances that President Trump will be reelected in November. Betting odds for a Trump victory have soared to 65%, and that was before the critical documents win.
Democrats have thrown absolutely everything at Trump: bogus legal prosecutions that have resulted in absurd fines and 34 felony counts, unconscionable smears and lies about him, his family and his platform, and attempts to remove his name from the ballot. Nine House Democrats even teamed up to deny the former president Secret Service protection. Imagine.
Through it all he has persevered, and is currently in the strongest position ever to claim the Oval Office. The Real Clear Politics average of polls show Trump ahead of Biden by almost 3 points, and that was before the attempted assassination.
Perhaps more convincing than polling is that in the aftermath of the shooting Republicans in deep blue cities like San Francisco and New York are emerging from their hidey holes wearing MAGA hats and showing their support for Trump. Until very recently, doing so would have been risky.
To be sure, it is a long time until November. But it is worth noting that never once in 2020 did Trump lead in the national polling. What changed?
Very simple. Voters have now experienced a Biden presidency, and they can compare it to the years that Trump occupied the Oval Office. The comparison does not favor the incumbent. Rampant inflation brought on by sky-high government spending has lowered the average American’s standard of living and made people angry and anxious. Consumer confidence under Biden has persistently been lower than it was under Trump, even with COVID ravaging the economy in 2020.
People are also angry about Biden’s open border, which has allowed millions of people to enter the country illegally and caused havoc in towns and cities around the country. The president has kowtowed to Leftist pro-immigrant groups but Hispanics have borne the brunt of the drugs and violence imported by dangerous gangs and have abandoned Biden. As the Washington Post reports, ‘A post-debate New York Times-Siena poll found Biden and former president Donald Trump roughly even among Hispanic likely voters, 47 percent to 46 percent…In 2020, exit polls showed Biden winning Latinos by 33 points.’
Meanwhile, under Trump, the world was at peace, while under Biden it has become more dangerous, with Russia invading Ukraine, Israel under attack by Hamas and China ever more combative. Many think that the weakness and incompetence displayed by Biden as he directed the catastrophic retreat from Afghanistan encouraged our enemies while Trump’s toughness kept them in place.
But the biggest surprise for Democrats may be that their lawfare attacks on Trump have boomeranged. In the 24 hours after he was found guilty of 34 felonies in a biased New York court he raked in $58 million dollars from donors disgusted by the unfair prosecution.
Which brings us to Judge Cannon’s decision to throw out the documents case, which Turley describes as a ‘seismic development.’ Prosecuting Donald Trump for mishandling the nation’s secrets has always appeared unjust, since President Biden also hid classified materials in his unlocked garage in Delaware and also in an office at the University of Pennsylvania. Special Prosecutor Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s documents scandal, declined to prosecute the president, saying that juries would view him as an ‘elderly man with a poor memory.’
Hur made that decision even though as a senator and as vice president, Biden had less authority to hold secret documents than Trump, who, as president, could legally declassify information. Also, many remember that Biden and his Attorney General Marrick Garland withheld announcing the politically-damaging discovery of documents in the president’s office and home until after the 2022 midterm election; CBS finally broke the story in January.
Judge Cannon’s decision will undoubtedly be challenged, but it comes as a welcome common-sense moment in what has been an unprecedented full-bore weaponization of the Department of Justice against a political adversary.
As the Republican convention gets underway in Milwaukee, the stars appear to be aligning for former President Trump. Democrats are in disarray, Biden’s approval ratings are the lowest ever for a modern-day president and his entire campaign has collapsed.
Because Trump came within an inch of being killed – an event that shocked the nation -President Biden has had to abandon his endless vilification of his opponent. In the hours following the shooting, his team took down all their advertising. That is not surprising. They knew that Republicans would blame their hate-filled language and lies for helping to convince a deluded young man that Trump had to go.
Now Biden will try, he claims, to unite the nation – a promise he campaigned on in 2020. That ship has sailed. Is it possible that Trump can do better? He has defied the odds on every front; perhaps bringing the country back from the brink will be his ultimate victory.