By DEXTER DUGGAN
Not even in the White House yet, Donald Trump provided a potentially significant sign of what may be hoped for in his presidency by attending church with Mike Pence and staff members in Bedminster, N.J., on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
The president-elect had retired from Manhattan to a New Jersey estate for the weekend to continue working on his transition. With not much of a reputation of being a churchgoer, Trump probably wouldn’t have surprised anyone if he had spent all of Sunday on political work and job interviews.
Moreover, he had had to apologize during the campaign for old behavior that definitely wasn’t like being a choirboy. Still, millions of traditionally religious voters turned to him in hopes he could save them from Democrats’ secular aggressions. And maybe Trump is working on saving his own soul, too.
The November 20 morning service at historic Lamington Presbyterian Church reportedly was accompanied by applause and praise from congregation members, with one of them being quoted by the New York Post, “I just told him that I hope he understands the country supports him and not to be distracted by the noise.”
Another was quoted, “I just want to say thank you to President-elect Trump from the bottom of my heart. I’ve been a member of this church for 45 years and the whole congregation is thrilled to have him.”
There’s certainly no mandatory religious test to become president. Also, a person can feign religious fidelity while being filled with dead men’s bones, as Jesus said.
And White House occupants from the conservative Ronald Reagan to the leftist Barack Obama weren’t known for regular churchgoing in the national capital.
So it was a rewarding and hopeful sign that Trump, his vice president-elect and his entourage might be showing they don’t set their own moral compass but turn to a wiser Captain for navigating stormy seas, including those along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Unlike the Never Trumpers, who did all they could in the campaign to attack, weaken, and disparage him, the president-elect showed a remarkable willingness in the early days of his transition to call in a variety of visitors, including the virulently Never Trumper Mitt Romney, to chat about potential jobs.
As affable Ronald Reagan might have said, I prefer not to have enemies, but to convert them all into being my friends.
Just ask Mikhail Gorbachev.
Still, it was reassuring to Trump’s conservative base, as well as to doubters, that his early appointments included Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) for attorney general, Kansas Cong. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, and retired Army intelligence veteran Gen. Mike Flynn as national security adviser.
Trump also met with Kansas’ Republican secretary of state, Kris Kobach, known for his firm stand against illegal immigration, as well as liberal Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii, who could have common ground with Trump on such issues as opposing unwise trade deals and harmful foreign interventions.
Unlike career politicians who only know the job of winning enough votes so they can throw away taxpayers’ money, Trump’s career has been getting things done efficiently so he can cut down on costs.
A businessman ordinarily may not be the best type of elected official if he lacks a governing philosophy, but Trump has been one successful surprise after another, sometimes with blistering bluster, since he came down the Trump Tower escalator in June 2015 to announce his presidential candidacy.
What can we expect? Consequential conservative consistency, to be hoped, along with more surprises.
Surely some Trumpsters and their allies celebrated Thanksgiving by raising a toast or three to the dominant media’s strong tilt to liberal Democrats.
Huh? What kind of turkey-brained idea is that? Trump giving thanks for hostile media?
Yep, because their bias was, unintentionally, so useful for keeping Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the dark. Hillary’s army wondered what kind of foe was on the other side of the mountain. Don’t worry, her adoring media said, just some primitive, bigoted barbarians armed only with stones and slingshots.
Hmmm, remember David and Goliath?
Barack Hussein Obama’s repellent left-wing radicalism had been busy killing off the Democratic Party with voters for years — with Dems losing congressional majorities, governorships, state legislative chambers, and other seats.
But dominant media worshipped the from-Chicago Alinskyite community organizer. What possibly could be said negative about him and his vision? What warnings dare could be delivered?
Dems dreamed of the November 8 elections creating their new U.S. Senate majority, dozens of additional seats in the U.S. House, a humiliated Trump dashing off in disgrace. What a feast they’d enjoy on Thanksgiving Day.
Of course, they were further encouraged by defeatist Republican Never Trumpers and establishment GOPers like astigmatic former President George W. Bush, who said earlier this year that he feared he’d be the last Republican president ever, and who declined to vote for Trump.
Unwarned is disarmed. The conservative Washington Free Beacon website on November 20 listed one silly story after another that the left-wing media flagship New York Times produced during the presidential campaign full of assurance about Hillary’s power and Trump’s hopelessness.
The Times already foresaw how Hillary would govern from the White House. But the newspaper forgot to see if there were any ingredients in the cupboard to serve up this feast.
Oh, how much left-wing Democrats had gotten away with, courtesy of their media pals.
MYou can’t have a much more emotionally appealing title than the Catholic “Little Sisters of the Poor.” And their work is just what one would praise from a Mother Teresa.
But when Obama’s government thugs decided to destroy the Little Sisters financially if they wouldn’t violate their consciences and go along with funding sexual immoralities, the dominant media snoozed off.
How different it would have been if a Republican administration had devised punishments to deflate the politically left-wing “Nuns on the Bus.” Weepy tales would have led the news twice a day and every hour on Sunday until the Republicans surrendered in disgrace.
Well, knowing we’re under assault by media and left-wing politicians keeps conservatives on our guard. Left-wingers can get lax because they think they already won the game by winning the good publicity.
Is it really possible that Hillary didn’t go back to campaign in Wisconsin once after that state’s primary election? Surely the Badger State would come through for the Clinton campaign after jobless blue-collar workers got a thrill watching Hollywood Hillary with her celebrity friends on TV, and sheep-like Catholics numbly shrugged off Clinton staffers’ insults about their medieval religion.
Ooops, Trump won Wisconsin?
The very idea that Hillary in any way intended to honor her claims to fight for the middle class leaves one gasping for air — especially when there were so many Wall Street fund managers and wealthy foreign governments who needed her constant attention.
It’s certainly possible for the Republican Party to buckle down and win a fight. Even jellyfish Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bestirred himself in an election year to block Judge Merrick Garland from getting the Supreme Court seat that Obama decreed for him.
It had just been so much easier for the McConnell crowd to keep losing to Democrats who had lost their clout but feigned a show of strength.
Trump, let’s hope, is done with accepting a loser’s game. What surprises may we find under the Christmas tree?
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