Free Republic

"The greatest difference is that in Europe, politics and religion have been separated from one another, but in the case of Islam it is religion that determines politics" — Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister for Human Resources. It is no coincidence that President Donald Trump chose Poland, a country that fought both Nazism and Communism, to call on the West to show a little willingness in its existential fight against the new totalitarianism: radical Islam. [snip]In a historic speech to an enthusiastic Polish crowd before the meeting of the G20 Summit leaders, US President Donald Trump described the West's battle against...

President Trump's speech in Warsaw was a remarkable statement from a western leader in the 21st century - which is why the enforcers of our public discourse have gone bananas over it and denounced it as "blood and soil" "nativism" (The New Republic), "racial and religious paranoia" (The Atlantic), and "tinpot dictator sh*t" (some comedian having a meltdown on Twitter). Much of the speech was just the usual boosterish boilerplate that one foreign leader sloughs off while visiting the capital of another. But that wasn't what caused the mass pearl-clutching. This was the offending passage: There is nothing like our...

Gingrich told fill-in Laura Ingraham the speech was much like the one former President Ronald Reagan gave in 1982 to British parliament and laid out the “struggle” the West is facing with Islamic terrorism and “bureaucratic secularists.” “I thought it was very much like Reagan’s 1982 speech at Westminster, which was one of his best speeches,” Gingrich said. “Trump is describing in a way almost no American president has since Franklin Delano Roosevelt that this is a war about civilization — that we are in a struggle. And I thought he was particularly courageous in pointing out that not only...

President Trump delivered one of the most important speeches of his young presidency on Thursday. Billed as "Remarks to the people of Poland," the address was as clear a statement we've heard of Trump's nation-state populism. This philosophy, which differs in emphasis and approach from that of other post-Cold War Republican presidents, is both enduring and undefined. Reaching as far back as Andrew Jackson, and carrying through, in different ways, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot, Patrick Buchanan, James Webb, and Sarah Palin, the nation-state populist tradition has suffered from its lack of intellectuals,...

For two centuries, Poland suffered constant and brutal attacks. But while Poland could be invaded and occupied, and its borders even erased from the map, it could never be erased from history or from your hearts. In those dark days, you have lost your land but you never lost your pride. (Applause.) So it is with true admiration that I can say today, that from the farms and villages of your countryside to the cathedrals and squares of your great cities, Poland lives, Poland prospers, and Poland prevails. (Applause.) Despite every effort to transform you, oppress you, or destroy you,...

In Warsaw today (7:15 a.m. ET), President Trump delivers what the White House sees as one of the most important speeches of his presidency. He won't identify himself with the nationalist populist ruling party in Poland, but has something grander in mind. The president will present himself as the leader of the West during an address to thousands of Poles in a public square. Trump's team, led by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, saw an opportunity to use the story of the Polish resistance as the setting for a new rallying cry to Western civilization. From Trump's text: "The fundamental...

"The people of Poland, the people of America, and the people of Europe still cry out: 'We want God.'

This may be the most important speech given by our president to date.