Under Donald Trump, America prospered. Let's go back to that. – Des Moines Register
Our economy is being devoured by inflation, our border is being overrun, our cities are rife with crime, our children are being indoctrinated in school, our government is being weaponized against its people, Israel is under attack, and our country is being laughed at on the world stage. We have very serious problems confronting our country right now, and they require courage and bold leadership. We need a president who will always stand strong, who will tell it like it is, and who will put our country first.
For this reason and so many more, I’m endorsing Donald J. Trump for president of the United States and I encourage all my friends in Iowa to caucus for him on Jan. 15.
Trump’s first term saw a great renewal of the American spirit and the traditional values that made our country the greatest on Earth. He ended federal taxpayer funding for abortion providers and vigorously defended the religious liberty of pro-life groups. He affirmed and defended the conscience rights of religious Americans, fought back against critical race theory, radical gender theory, and other toxic left-wing ideologies in our government and schools, and championed a positive, inspiring, and unifying understanding of American history and identity.
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Trump named nearly 300 conservative judges to the federal bench, including three Supreme Court justices, dedicated to interpreting our Constitution as written. Most consequentially, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett were pivotal votes in overturning Roe v. Wade last year and delivering the greatest victory for pro-life Americans in 50 years.
Under Trump, we also had a strong economy, a secure border, no new foreign wars, and peace breaking out in the Middle East for the first time in decades.
Less than three years after Trump left office, our country and the world are in serious trouble. After Trump held Russia’s Vladimir Putin in check for four years, Russia launched an assault on Ukraine just over a year into Biden’s presidency. Joe Biden’s appeasement of Iran paved the way for Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel, the most savage murder of Jews since the Holocaust. China is ascendant, and the American military is suffering a decline in recruitment and morale.
At home, inflation is rampant, authorities recorded a record 270,000 attempted illegal border crossings in September (more than the population of Des Moines in a single month), and murder rates in some cities are spiraling out of control. We’ve lost sight of who we are as a country, to the point where we now celebrate the murder of the unborn as “empowering” and perform gruesome surgeries on kids to “affirm” misguided beliefs about gender. In school, kids are taught to hate their country, not love it, and our country’s greatest heroes are slandered as racists and sexists.
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As bad as things are, I still believe America’s best days are yet to come, especially if we return Donald Trump to the White House.
When I was secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, I got to see the real President Trump — not the caricature created by the liberal media. Every time I called him, he answered or called me right back. He listened intently whenever I spoke and often asked for my input. He was thoughtful and reflective but also tough and uncompromising on his core principles. He always put the best interests of the country first, not personal preference or partisan ideology.
Most tellingly of all, Trump was never afraid to ask for my prayers as he led our country through the highs and lows — prayers which I was always ready to offer for him, and still do to this day.
This is the President Trump that oversaw one of the greatest periods of growth and prosperity in our nation’s history. He did it once, and he can do it again.
To the rest of the 2024 Republican primary candidates, here is my message: With the future of the country at stake, individual aspirations must be put on hold. It’s clear that Trump still has the overwhelming support and confidence of the party, and it’s time to rally around him. The surest way to ensure that Joe Biden and the Democrats remain in power is if we tear ourselves apart by letting our own egos and personal ambitions get in the way of focusing on the real threat at hand.
I’ll never claim to be a great politician, but one thing I did learn is that whenever your enemies are the most scared, that’s when you know you’re doing something right. When I see how hard the left is weaponizing the legal system to try and destroy Trump, I see how terrified they are of running against him in 2024, which is one more reason why he must be our nominee.
Fifty-nine years ago, in October of 1964, a rising star within the Republican Party named Ronald Reagan declared that Americans had “a rendezvous with destiny.” He warned that the choice facing the country was to “preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”
Part of the reason I entered politics in the first place is because I am a father and a grandfather, and I am deeply concerned about the country I will be leaving to them. Our era’s rendezvous with destiny is here, and Donald J. Trump is the man to lead us out of the darkness and into the light.
Dr. Ben Carson is a neurosurgeon and was the 17th secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is founder and chairman of theAmerican Cornerstone Institute.