NEWS AND OPINION:
It’s never too early to get underway. President Trump has a robust re-election committee, and it has released what it bills in no uncertain terms as a “campaign ad.” Donald J. Trump for President Inc. remains ready to rumble, and continues to counter the din of the hostile press, career politicians and assorted rivals. The pushback is direct and to the point.
“Americans are saying let President Trump do his job. The president’s enemies don’t want him to succeed,” declares the new 30-second campaign spot released Sunday, featuring clear facts about Mr. Trump’s accomplishments in the economic and military sectors after 200 days in office plus a mosaic of images — from Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, among many others.
“The mainstream media continue to attack the president and career politicians continue to stand in the way of his progress. This new campaign ad speaks directly to the American people and sets the record straight, reminding them that President Donald Trump will not stop fighting for them, and will not allow anyone to stand in his way to deliver success for them,” says campaign director Michael Glassner.
Yes, a national ad buy is planned for both cable news and internet sources. According to the Federal Election Commission, the committee had raised over $15 million as of June 30.
KICK THE CAN TO TRUMP’S DESK
New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin points out that North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has been threatening the U.S. and its allies for a while, from issuing attack threats on July Fourth to producing a graphic video depicting the total destruction of the nation’s capital.
“Given Kim’s warnings and his arsenal, the really odd thing isn’t that President Trump is asserting American military supremacy and the willingness to use it if necessary. It’s that his predecessors didn’t. The three previous presidents over a combined 24 years — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — all followed near-identical paths, and all failed to stop the North Korean nuclear program. All three used diplomacy as a euphemism for kicking the can down the road. And they kicked it all the way to Trump’s desk,” writes Mr. Goodwin.
“Instead of recognizing those decades of failure for what they are and conceding that the situation has changed because the current Kim has weapons of mass destruction and the ability to strike American cities, the establishment is horrified that Trump would dare take a different approach. Lost in the manufactured outrage over his comments is that Trump offered to meet Kim, and pushed China to rein in its client state. And that aides continue to conduct back-channel negotiations and talk of wanting to avoid war,” Mr. Goodwin notes.
AMERICA: HOME SWEET HOME
Interesting new findings from the National Association of Realtors. The industry group reveals that sales of American residential properties to “foreign buyers” are up by 49 percent, with total sales topping a record-breaking $153 billion last year. These buyers purchased 264,455 properties — a number which is up by a third since 2016.
So where do these home buyers hail from? Folks from China lead the way, snapping up $31.7 billion in properties. Canada was in second place ($19 billion), followed by Britain ($9.5 billion), Mexico ($9.3 billion) and India ($7.8 billion).
The five top states for home purchase? They are Florida, followed by Texas, California, New Jersey and Arizona.
WE’RE ALWAYS ’LOCKED AND LOADED’
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster made it clear to ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that President Trump’s “fire and fury” comments were intended to demonstrate that the U.S. will not tolerate North Korean threats to U.S. citizens and allies, and that “ambiguity” in the matter was not particularly productive.
“We are prepared militarily to deal with this if necessary. But we’re taking all possible actions short of military action to resolve this very grave threat to the United States and the world. And that includes a very, a very determined diplomatic effort led by our secretary of state. And it also includes increasing sanctions, increasing pressure on the north, to convince Kim Jong-un that this is not in his interest to continue this path of provocation and escalatory actions. Any response that we have, we do in close cooperation with our allies in the region. We have been prepared for any escalation on the Korean peninsula since the armistice in 1953,” Mr. McMaster said.
“So we are locked and loaded?” Mr. Stephanopoulos later asked.
“The United States military is locked and loaded every day — and especially those who are on the front lines of freedom, such as those that are stationed in South Korea and those soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines stationed in northeast Asia, or rotate there. We have tremendous military capabilities. We have a very high degree of readiness. And so the United States military is always locked and loaded,” Mr. McMaster responded. “The purpose of capable, ready forces is to preserve peace and prevent war. And George Washington said it, ’The most effective way of preserving peace is to be prepared for war’.”
MEANWHILE, AMONG THE LIBERTARIANS
The Libertarian Party says its voter registration has grown by 25 percent in the past year to 511,000 registrants. According to Ballot Access News, a political newsletter, the Libertarians are “the first U.S. political party other than Republicans and Democrats” to have reached that half-million milestone.
“Republicans and Democrats are bickering over whose candidates are more compromised by Russia. Both are,” says Libertarian National Committee Chairman Nicholas Sarwark. “They’re arguing about whose health insurance bureaucracy is most disastrous to Americans’ health care. Both are awful. Both Democratic and Republican policies are careening us toward economically impoverishing trade wars, and violent wars that put our very lives at risk. Libertarians offer the only common-sense solutions of freedom to live and trade in peace.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 78 percent of Americans do not set aside daily time “to relax.”
• 67 percent say the current political climate and 24/7 news makes it harder to relax or sleep.
• 63 percent struggle to sleep even on vacation.
• 53 percent have an alcoholic “nightcap” within three hours of going to bed.
• 49 percent say they do not get enough sleep.
Source: A Wakefield Research/Princess Cruises poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted July 14-20 and released Friday.
• Fact and fiction to jharper@washingtontimes.com
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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