A lesser man staring down a criminal conviction, even on utterly bogus charges, might break under the stress of the event, or succumb to doubt and despair. But Donald Trump, as the saying goes, is made of sterner stuff. This stuff was readily on display Thursday morning in Midtown when he was greeted to a hero’s welcome before a litany of construction workers, representing the Steamfitters Union 638. Close to a thousand union workers, many of them still registered Democrats, arrived at the crack of dawn – before the President’s scheduled court proceeding – to serenade the President with a traditional New York homecoming.
What was especially remarkable about the event, which was spearheaded by the New York Young Republican Club, was not so much the enthusiasm among this traditionally Left-leaning voter bloc. Nor even was the fact that legions of them braved unseasonably chilly temperatures to come out at the crack of dawn, deep in the belly of the beast of liberal Manhattan, to showcase their support for President Trump (of note: their leader, Bob Bartels, said that “President Trump is leading Joe Biden three to one” of their 9,000-member union).
Nay, what was truly remarkable about the largely impromptu meetup was how organic it felt, and how strong President Trump’s support remains, even as he is hamstrung by an illegitimate court proceeding that in large part is preventing him from campaigning in this crucial election year in more important battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Nevertheless, only Donald Trump can make a tour de force out of what was really just a cobbled together side act for a campaign that has been slowed down by a weaponized justice system. Even so, the turnout, media presence, and optics of the union workers event would be envied by many other presidential campaigns (especially Joe Biden) — which would consider an event of this notoriety a main act.
Our system of justice has been weaponized beyond repair – and Americans feel these effects viscerally, not just vicariously through the political persecution of Donald Trump. Faithful Catholics are being added to FBI lists, while parents who dare so criticize woke public school curricula are treated as domestic terrorists by the Biden Regime’s Department of Injustice — and imposed heavy-handed legal penalties.
Legions of January 6th defendants, whom President Trump rightly terms “political hostages” — are being held in detention, so many of their due process rights denied without even being charged with a crime. Countless more face lengthy prison sentences, all for committing at worst a misdemeanor. They languish in solitary confinement, at the directive of our government, for sometimes months on end in inhumane conditions that we would be ashamed to keep ISIS terrorists or MS-13 gang members, whose crimes cannot even be placed in the same universe as those Americans who peacefully demonstrated at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
For these reasons, and many more, once insurmountable Democratic havens like New York and New Jersey are beginning to show cracks. The blue wall that President Trump pierced in the Midwest in 2016 is beginning to trickle over to the northeast, and the west, and other regions of the country that Democrats in the not-too-distant past once retained a formidable grip on. President Trump’s gains are bolstered by his uncanny appeal to working class people, legacy Americans who do not want their fundamental liberties and rights denied by their government – or their way of life outsourced to China, South America, or the Middle East.
The invasion at our southern border is emblematic of a much larger invasion – and subversion – to our national identity, being carried out with impunity by a political elite that includes members of both party establishments, which remains utterly and dogmatically committed to selling America out to the world. President Trump offers the only antidote to preserve our time-honored traditions, those things that made America special and unique for over two centuries, but now is on the precipice of being lost forever – notwithstanding a dramatic course correction.
That course correction can only be accomplished through the movement President Trump first launched in 2016, when he descended the fateful Trump Tower escalator. Make America Great Again gave the President two electoral victories in 2016 and 2020 and will do so again – with even more zeal this time around – because the stakes are that much higher, and millions more Americans have been awakened — and galvanized — to these harsh realities, which affect each and every one of us – regardless of race, religion, creed, or ideology.
It is for this reason, ultimately, that best explains why President Trump has catapulted in the polls and will carry this momentum all the way to victory come November, so long as we the people do our part to help get him there.
A slightly modified version of this piece was originally published in The Gateway Pundit, and can be found here.
Paul Ingrassia is a Constitutional Scholar; Communications Director of the NCLU; a two-time Claremont Fellow, and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club and the Italian American Civil Rights League. He writes a widely read Substack that is regularly posted on Truth Social by President Trump. Follow him on X @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, Instagram, and Rumble.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.