Trump’s Mission: What We Should Grasp Foremost About His Presidency

By Aaron Kliegman Years from now, when historians want to understand the presidency of Donald Trump — and scholars will no doubt be curious about our 45th president — they should study two speeches. One speech is the president’s most recent, which he delivered at Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day. The other speech dates back to July 2017, when President Trump spoke to the people of Poland in Warsaw. These are, to date, the two most important speeches of Donald Trump’s presidency. But more than that, they share identical themes. Maybe it wasn’t planned this way, but the speech at Mount Rushmore logically follows the one in Warsaw, taking the latter’s broader ideas and applying them specifically to America. Together, the two addresses outline the core message of Donald Trump’s presidency and what his fundamental mission is in the White House. President Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore was a patriotic ode to America and some of its greatest figures. As Newt wrote earlier this week, the president “laid out the core values that make America free — and stood defiantly in defense of those values despite the ridicule and hostility of the elites, news media, academics, and his political opponents.” The president said much during his speech, but his remarks were fundamentally about preserving “our beloved American way of life,” as he put it. And doing so requires a strong national will, without which a nation cannot endure and live in freedom. “We will proclaim the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and we will never surrender the spirit and the courage and the cause of July 4, 1776,” President Trump said. “Upon this ground, we will stand firm and unwavering.” Citing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Trump called on the American people “not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage.” The president also called on the American people “to go forward united in our purpose and rededicated in our resolve,” and for the youth “to be taught that to be American is to inherit the spirit of the most adventurous and confident people ever to walk the face of the Earth.” At the core of President Trump’s remarks is the notion that national spirit, a word he used multiple times, sustains a nation above all else — including wealth and a strong military. A nation needs the will and confidence to survive and prosper. In short, President Trump is calling for a revival of the will, spirit, and confidence needed to preserve the American way of life, the heart of conservatism. President Trump’s speech at Warsaw centered around the exact same ideas, only he focused more on the West overall than America alone. Championing Western civilization, President Trump said the “free nations” of the West, above all, “value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person, and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom.” President Trump spent much time discussing the history of Poland, whose people suffered constant invasions and occupations throughout history but never lost hope or their sense of nationhood. “As the Polish experience reminds us,” the president said, “the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail and be successful and get what you have to have.” Then, he seemed to pose a challenge. The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it? President Trump went on to say that, even if the West has the largest economies and the most lethal weapons on Earth, the nations that comprise Western civilization will be weak and not survive without strong values. “Our own fight for the West does not begin on the battlefield — it begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls.” In other words, the West will only be defeated by itself. Intentionally or not, President Trump linked his two greatest speeches at Mount Rushmore. American independence, he said, “represented the culmination of thousands of years of Western civilization and the triumph of not only spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.” Critics often pan President Trump and his administration for being disorganized and incoherent, lacking a clear message to unify America. On a day-to-day basis, they may have a point. But, in a larger sense, the 45th president’s message has been quite consistent and unifying. So, years from now, if historians want to study the political chaos of President Trump’s first term, there’s plenty of material for them. But if they truly want to grasp the essence of Donald Trump’s presidency — what our 45th president was really trying to accomplish — they should examine carefully his speeches at Mount Rushmore and in Warsaw. The speeches reveal a leader trying to revive the American spirit at home and the national spirits of the free nations of the West abroad. They reveal a leader urging the free peoples of the world to have and demonstrate the will to survive. They reveal a leader calling on these same peoples to conserve what is beautiful about their national stories and not let such beauty get lost in the often-necessary push for progress. Finally, they reveal a leader who believes in America — and in Western civilization. Regardless of personal politics on this or that issue, anyone who loves freedom, the rule of law, and equal opportunity should, broadly speaking, hope President Trump succeeds in his mission. Order Newt's Latest Book: https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future

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