Three reasons to vote for Trump

This essay first appeared on October 7, 2024 in the Desert Sun, a Palm Springs newspaper and part of the USA Today network.

As we prepare to vote for president in November, I thought it would be useful to abandon the approach that focuses only on the many negative things that have been said about both of the major party candidates.

Campaigns that rely on fear may be successful, but they demean us as a people. There is a better way to choose our leaders. We should choose leaders we want and refuse to vote only to reject the other candidate. So, rather than explain why a vote for the Harris/Walz team in November would be a really bad choice, I wanted to explain why a vote for the Trump/Vance team would be a really good choice.

There is not enough room in this short column to cover every issue, but three subjects that concern all of us come to mind: the economy, immigration and world peace. The policies enacted in Trump’s first term provide a roadmap of what we should expect from a second term.

One truth about our economy is that while the rich got richer, the rest of us are treading water or simply becoming poorer. Interest rates and soaring real estate values have made purchasing a home much more difficult for those starting out in life. And the pandemic exacerbated the problem by helping the rich get richer while destroying the finances of those who don’t own real estate or stocks.

According to a May 20 report in Investopedia, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that if the Trump era tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2025, 22,000 households making $20,000 to $30,000 will collectively pay 26.6% more in 2027. That would hurt. Trump promised to remove hourly wage workers’ tips and overtime pay, and Social Security payments from income taxation, all of which obviously will require legislation. Exempting tips, overtime pay and Social Security from income taxes and renewal of the 2018 tax relief will help the working poor who need all the help they can get in this economy and don’t have student loans to forgive.

Immigration of over 10 million people in the last three years has overwhelmed the ability of many cities to house and feed the immigrants and educate their children and is likely to suppress wage growth among the low skilled workforce. That doesn’t even account for the very real threats of uncontrolled immigration to our national security that FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned us against. On Nov. 25, 2023 Director Wray testified, “The threats that come from the other side of the border are affecting every state.”

Trump promised to secure the southern Border and that would be a first step to address the problem. I worked as a lawyer in the immigration court; the law does not allow those only seeking a better life to gain entry. The law requires the immigrant to present a credible claim of persecution in the home country. The law is fair and should be enforced.

As for world peace, the Abraham Accords and a strong military posture gave the world relative peace in the Middle East and the Ukraine/Russia border lands. Under the Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalized relations with Israel, and when Trump left office Indonesia (the world’s largest Muslim country), Niger, Mauritania and Somalia were in negotiations to normalize relations with Israel. Trump will encourage other nations in the Middle East to make peace with Israel.

Trump wrote the Art of the Deal, and he’ll persuade the adversaries at the Ukraine/Russia borderlands to settle the dispute and stop killing each other. He successfully deterred war in Ukraine during his first term in office. In 2018, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised President Trump for pushing countries in the alliance to boost their defense spending. That is positive leadership.

Tulsi Gabbard and RFK, Jr. object to our forever wars and argue Trump is the candidate who will bring an end to wars abroad . Adding them to Trump’s team is a good sign that world peace will be high on the Trump/Vance agenda. American strength is essential to world peace. Trump’s policies will enable us to regain economic prosperity, secure our borders, re-build our military power sufficient to deter adversaries who would do us harm and de-escalate the risk of World War III.

When we decide who to choose in November, I invite voters to reject negative fear mongering and look for a positive, hopeful future. There are many positive reasons to choose Donald Trump.