Posted on 11/22/2022 4:55:03 PM PST by SoConPubbie
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) was among a crowd of hundreds who broke into cheers as former President Donald Trump formally launched his third bid for the presidency at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 15.
He came back to Washington the next day feeling upbeat, describing the event as “absolutely fantastic.”
“His message was right on target,” the congressman told The Epoch Times.
Like a half-dozen others who spoke to The Epoch Times following Trump’s announcement, Nehls was struck by the former president’s tone, which marked a departure from his rallies leading up to the midterm elections. Many described the speech as “forward-looking,” which offered a blueprint for remaking America’s future.
“He was deliberate. He just laid out his plan on what he wanted to do,” Nehls said. “I thought he delivered a very, very effective speech that the American people could understand.”
Nehls said he’s “all in with Donald J. Trump.”
“I’m excited for him … because I believe our country needs him now more than ever,” he said.
In an hour-long campaign address, Trump painted a dark picture of America under the Democrats’ rule, with soaring inflation, threats of war, a porous southern border, and rampant drug trafficking.
Positioning himself as someone who can turn things around, the former president promised to cut regulations, restore energy independence, lower taxes, and strengthen foreign policies. Notably absent from his speech was Trump’s trademark criticism of legacy media outlets and claims of fraud in the 2020 election, both of which have drawn attacks from the left.
The measured and restrained approach on Nov. 15 caused some to remark that Trump was too “low energy,” but to his defenders, it was a style befitting such an occasion.
“Taking a look at the problems that we have seen—the downward spiral of the country over the last two years—I think he was right to strike the more serious tone and to come across as very serious and very presidential,” Jenna Ellis, a former senior legal adviser to Trump and contributor to The Epoch Times, said in an interview.
“His bottom-line message for heading into 2024 is that life was better under Trump than it is under Biden. And that’s a message that everyone can resonate with.”
According to a Morning Consult survey last updated on Nov. 14, 69 percent of more than 6,000 Americans—including 46 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of independents, and 91 percent of Republicans—believe the country is on the wrong track.
“We’re in a bad state here. And we need to change this now, or we’re going to lose our country,” Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and a staunch Trump backer, told The Epoch Times.
When Trump, the first major contender from either party to enter the 2024 race, called Lindell over to an upstairs table after the speech to ask for his thoughts, his response was that the tone of the speech was “very, very perfect.”
Lindell believes that Trump’s platform proposed “common sense” solutions that should speak to people across the political spectrum.
To some of his supporters, Trump was rewinding the tape to 2015, when he first entered the political arena as a New York businessman and won a surprise victory the next year against Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
“[The] Trump campaign will be a replay of 2015/2016—an outsider campaign for ‘the forgotten man and woman,’” Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist during the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times.
“He’s going to really go after the oligarchs: the tech oligarchs, the media oligarchs, the Wall Street oligarchs, and it’s going to be strongly anti-CCP,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Nehls and Kash Patel, a former national security official during the Trump administration, particularly noted Trump’s pledge to reinstate military personnel who were discharged for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Patel believes that this proposal, as well as Trump’s plan to impose term limits for Congress members, resonates with many people across the country.
“I think many Americans find powerful movements like that refreshing and new and attach it immediately to the theme of his speech last night, which was going in and draining the swamp and getting rid of the corruption in government,” Patel told “Capitol Report,” a program on The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet NTD, on Nov. 16.
There’s no shortage of hurdles as Trump kicks off his bid to return to the White House, something the former president acknowledged on Nov. 15.
“We will be resisted by the combined forces of the establishment, the media, the globalists, the Marxist radicals, the woke corporations, the weaponized power of the federal government, the colossal political machines, the tidal wave of dark money, and the most dangerous domestic censorship system ever created by man,” he said.
“We will be attacked. We will be slandered. We will be persecuted … but we will not be intimidated.”
Among the clutch of legal challenges shadowing Trump, who survived two impeachment trials during his presidency, is an investigation into his handling of classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago resort and the ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) and House select committee probes into his alleged roles in contesting the 2020 election results and the related Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
While Bannon and Ellis believe that criminal probes will fade amid Trump’s presidential bid, Patel was less ready to make a judgment on how the DOJ probes could affect his candidacy.
“There are very few people in America, even former federal prosecutors, that can answer that question because I just don’t know that it’s been done in recent time or around the same subject matter,” Patel said, noting the unprecedented nature of the probes into a former president.
Whether it’s legal impediments or others, Ellis believes that Trump won’t let anything stand in his way.
“He’s waited two years to make this announcement. He’s basically been campaigning for reelection since Jan. 20, 2021, so this wasn’t a surprise,” she said.
“The left has been using and weaponizing any mechanism of law enforcement and Congress oversight to try to continue to take him down, and he has withstood all of their attacks, all of their caucuses, all of the impeachment, everything that has come his way, so I think that’s only made him stronger.”
In Trump’s circle, there’s confidence that he’s formidable against competition from intraparty challengers, such as the newly reelected Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Other Republican presidential hopefuls aren’t expected to announce White House bids until well into the new year.
By launching his campaign early, Trump could lock in endorsements and showcase his enduring appeal before others enter the fray.
While the announcement has ignited opposition from some Republicans who believe that conservatives should move on from Trump, he’s still the de facto leader of the Republican Party, his allies say.
Since Nov. 15, his press team has touted backing from more than a dozen elected officials, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who on Nov. 15 won another term as House GOP conference chair.
“Anybody that’s thinking about running for president against Donald Trump in the Republican Party” should “just forget about it, turn around, and endorse him because that’s what the people want,” Lindell said.
“He’s got a strong campaign, strong message in a massive grassroots organization,” Bannon said. “People will run against him, but, in the end, he’ll be the nominee.”
Nehls believes that Trump, who won 74 million votes in 2020—an increase of 13 million from 2016—will weather the challenge from the left as well.
“Why would the left be so afraid of this if they crushed him so badly in 2020? It’s because he is the leader of our party. He’s coming back,” he said.
To the GOP lawmaker, no candidate in the yet-to-be-determined Democratic field, including President Joe Biden, would be able to triumph over Trump.
“He’s going to beat them all,” Nehls said.
“I saddled my horse. I believe Donald Trump can ‘Make America Great Again,’ again.”
Daddy let a stranger in the house. He just stood by while this stranger took over and ran amuck. He watched as they locked us in our rooms, put covers over our faces and made us eat poison. Then the stranger stole the deed to the house and forged themself in as the owner. They had papa evicted.
He didn’t call the cops. He didn’t call the national guard. He didn’t call the military. His lawyer friends promised to do something about the stranger, but he made sure everyone stayed peaceful.
It’s been years since then. And now daddy says he wants to move back in. I hate the stranger, but I feel a kind of way ... suspicious about my dad now. Because one undeniable fact which led to this whole thing still remains:
He let them in.
(Incoming)
I view Trump as the “presumptive R nominee” already.
But his efforts have to focus on winning the states he won in 2016 but lost in 2020. Or break through in a few others.
A problem that’s easily defined and very difficult to solve.
And, how does Donald Trump and conservatives successfully get around all upcoming voter fraud and all upcoming judicial activism?
President Trump gave up a cushy lifestyle to save America, and put himself between The Swamp, and Us. He’s been slandered, persecuted, and taken more punishment than any one person could be expected to bear. The FBI even raided his home, rifled through his wife’s clothes, and searched the room of his teenage son. As far as I’m concerned, anytime he chooses to run for President, he has my backing, and whatever few dollars I can send him.
That’s the $64 dollar question.
Speak for yourself, Mike. Lots of time between now and the primaries.
Yes, Trump just let them in.
They hadn’t been doing bad things before.
Point of fact, we didn’t even know how deep the swamp was
until he started a scorched earth policy of Tweeting, which
they gladly responded to, thus outing themselves.
This revisionist history is what they are teaching in our
schools. It won’t fly here.
The FBI had pulled some bonehead moves before, but they
had never to my knowledge gone full bore after Trump
supporters. The IRS had gone after Conservatives too,
but who did anything about it?
Trump wasn’t even here yet.
And what did you expect Trump to do, to get the swamp
creatures out of the lagoon? Purge them? Order them
arrested by deep state operatives who were turning on
him with false warrants and tapping his phones?
You just witnessed a coup in 2020, and you’re blaming
Trump for not doing more. It boggles the mind what
leaps of faith you guys and Liz have.
You don’t remember Trump’s own party fighting him? You
don’t recall the Media, the Left, the FBI, the Justice
Department going after Trump?
Do I really have to remind you of these things?
He let them in?
I know you are trying to say something but what is it? Do you have a temperature? Cat got your tongue? Spit it out! Your intellect is showing! Quick! Cover it up! Good grief! ANOTHER FR fair weather lad contracts the TDS and speaks in tongues! Whatever you do, DON’T handle any rattlesnakes during tomorrow night’s ministry, and... GET OUT OF MY FOXHOLE!
Your selective memory is impressive.
Re: Post # 1, # 8 & # 9.
“Your selective memory is impressive.”
Yeah- YOU TOO!
It’s cringy to say he “lost” states he actually won but which were stolen from him.
No doubt Trump commands the GOP rank and file.
But Americans have yet to address the cheating. That’s a very big concern.
CORRECTION- Re: Post # TWO, # 8 & # 9.
THIS >>> Selective memory ain’t cutting it around here! GIT!
AT least I have one, which is more than you can say for
yourself.
You guys haven’t a single clue what is going on, but
you’re here to fix it.
Thanks Liz.
Thank you!!
Re: “He let them in.”
I disagree, they were already in, he was trying to sort out who was who. At minimum, the following were already infested: the media (news and entertainment), big tech businesses, the State Dept., DOJ, Homeland Security, FBI and CIA, IRS and probably more. With all of the skills and might, they were never able to find a single offense to hold against him.
I think he was much too generous and patient as, one by one, they revealed their true colors. His care to not expel suspicious people is a testament to his honesty. He works like our legal system is supposed to, innocent until proven guilty.
Now he knows who most of the anti-American invaders, sabateurs and traitors are
We need him now more than ever. I very much doubt there are any politicians who are so clean they can stand up to this cabal. I doubt even more that there are any who can not only withstand the storm of malovence but become the storm of honor.
He arrived with a flag of peace, ready to deal fairly with all, but will return with a sword.
God bless Donald J. Trump!
I’m MAGA loyal transformed into an equivocal force of energy times 1 million sun’s energy.
I think that in my post to you, I mistakenly forgot to include the part where I agreed with the content of your post to conservativeimage, which I do not agree with one bit, and am saying so AGAIN!
Sorry about the confusion.
Cowboy Up! Eagles Up! freepersup!
Love my fine feathered freeper FRiends- even though... (insert Forest Gump voice here) I DISAGREE WITH THEM like YOU >>> Bruce Campbells Chin! High Five!
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