VDH: The ‘Donald Trump Is Evil’ Routine Isn’t Going to Cut It Anymore

 Victor Davis Hanson

. . ."So, something is missing here. And I think I know what it is. If you do not have a coherent, positive message—and the Democrats don’t—and you keep haranguing and trying to smear and slander and talk about killing the president of the United States, then people are going to lose confidence here. And that’s what’s happened in California with Mayor Karen Bass, Gavin Newsom. And it’s happening on a national scene." . . .

. . ."Then we had our own senator here in California, Alex Padilla. He deliberately did not wear his identification. In fact, nobody knows him. If I saw Alex Padilla on television, I wouldn’t know he was our senator. He’s never done anything. But nevertheless, he had no identification. He heard that Kristi Noem, secretary of homeland security, was gonna have a press conference. He barges in. He disrupts it. He tries to make a scene. And what happens? The Secret Service doesn’t know who he is either, so they restrain him. And then he becomes a folk hero with his street performance. 

"Unfortunately for Padilla, he thought it would be a Sen. Cory Booker moment. Remember Cory Booker—25 hours to filibuster nothing? There was no impending law. It was just “Donald Trump is evil” for 25 hours. He thought he would get the same media attention. But unfortunately, there was the “No Kings” parade and the war in Iran, and nobody really knew much about what he had done, other than he’d made a complete fool out of himself. 

"And then we had this No Kings parade. And it was really funded by multibillionaire left-wing donors, like Christy Walton, one of the heirs, by marriage, to the Walton fortune; #MeToo; all of these groups." . . .

Even CNN Calls Padilla Takedown STAGED and FAKE!   Notice in the video as he is pushed against a wall, his eyes seek out the camera. Right on cue and in the fullness of time, Democrats posture eloquently and emotionally. This had to be worked out beforehand and I feel shame on American politicians and their wretched sense of honor. TD

Who is behind the No Kings protests?

"It is long past time for real answers.  Who owns the No Kings domain?  Who receives the emails?  Who paid for the infrastructure?  Who designed the logo and coordinated the livestream?  These are not unsolvable mysteries." . . . 

Todd Baumann  "If China is involved in the recent No Kings protests across the U.S., it’s potentially an act of war.

"The circumstantial evidence is on full display.  Rep. Erick Swalwell (D-Calif.) was on hand at a No Kings protest this weekend.  It was Swalwell who was compromised by a female Chinese spy and served on the House Intelligence Committee.  Yet he feels emboldened to stand with No Kings without consequence.

"That is a problem all by itself.

"We’re constantly told these riots are highly organized and coordinated.  What we’re not told is who is responsible.  Who’s funding the travel, the signage, the livestreams, the paid organizers?  We’re told there are progressive groups behind it.  If there are CCP financiers behind it, we should know.  Our law enforcement officials should tell us.

"The media avoid questions like the plague.  The Biden-holdover bureaucrats in the Intelligence Community won’t say.  And the current FBI director, Kash Patel, seems to be staring into space while Attorney General Pam Bondi offers no public clarity.  If this is what decisive national security leadership looks like, the American people are right to be concerned.

"To be fair, Patel did say he’s looking into foreign influence here.  Historically, an announcement like this is meant to assure the American people that something is being done.  In reality, it rarely goes beyond that.  The assurance dies on the vine and is replaced by other shiny toys from future news cycles.

"Meanwhile, George Soros’s son — long rumored to help bankroll these sorts of operations — just married Huma Abedin, daughter of Saleha Abedin, a Muslim Sisterhood leader.  The “wedding” took place on the same day as the original No Kings day of protest.  There are mountains of evidence that Huma’s connections to the group should have prevented her from ever obtaining a security clearance when she served secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  All those who looked the other way, to include elected Republicans, are dirty." . . .

Memo To Tucker: This Is Not Iraq War II

"What’s more, everyone (that is, every reasonable person) agrees that a mullah-run Iran with a nuclear weapon is intolerable. Which makes Carlson’s unshakable belief that Iran doesn’t want to develop nukes difficult to swallow." . . .

*Memo To Tucker: This Is Not Iraq War II   "Tucker Carlson, the TV personality who currently enjoys an enormous gap between the size of his audience and his intellectual abilities, has decided to declare war on the Trump administration for the sin of taking Iran’s nuclear ambitions seriously.

"President Donald Trump hit back with a post on Truth Social saying “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”

'Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene jumped in with Carlson saying, “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA.”

'The mainstream media is loving all this because they delight in anything that undermines Trump. But from our perspective, Carlson hasn’t come close to making his case.

'Carlson seems to think, without much evidence, that this is a repeat of the Iraq fiasco, wherein the U.S. justified war based on a false belief that Saddam Hussein had a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

'At the time, there was good reason to believe Hussein did, if only because he was so defiant about allowing international inspectors, per the ceasefire agreement he signed at the end of the Gulf War, to verify that he wasn’t building or storing WMDs.

'It was only after U.S. troops toppled Hussein’s regime that it became clear that he was engaged in theatrics in an apparent attempt to raise his stature in the region by making the world think he had WMDs.

'So, is that what Iran is doing? And are we falling for the same ruse again?

'Carlson and Co. clearly believe so.

“ 'I feel like I’ve been hearing that Iran is weeks away from a nuclear weapon for at least 25 years,” he said on his show recently. That episode featured “world-renowned economist” Jeffrey Sachs (who endorsed Jill Stein for president) saying, as Carlson nodded, that: “Iran does not want a nuclear weapon, Iran’s neighbors like the Saudis and others in the Gulf do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Iran’s major ally, Russia, does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and Iran doesn’t want a nuclear weapon." . . .