I'm not really sure if Donald Trump is the luckiest man on earth, is blessed by Divine Providence, or is an unparalleled political genius. I suspect the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia demonstrates a combination of all three.
Think about this: Democratic political leaders, political strategists and social media influencers have made a cause célèbres of an alleged wife-beating, suspected human trafficking, illegal alien judicially-determined MS-13 gang member that the Trump administration deported back to his home country of El Salvador, but whom Democrats demand be returned to the United States.
Let that sink in.
If Republicans were conniving enough to insert hidden operatives into the (marijuana) smoke-filled rooms of top Democratic Party political tacticians to ostensibly help them plot a strategy for Democrats to return to electoral power and greatness, but in reality sought to sabotage those aims, could they have come up with a better plan than for Democratic honchos to embrace this thug locked up in El Salvador's CECOT prison?
Unfortunately, I doubt that Republicans are either savvy or underhanded enough to engage in such political skullduggery. If only.
But I do think that Donald Trump is possessed of such genius. While I do not think that even he could have anticipated that Democrats would be so benighted as to embrace this Third World piece of human excrement and hold him up as Maryland Father of the Year, I do think Trump recognizes an extraordinary opportunity when it presents itself.
Traditional Republicans (think Bushes, Romney, Ryan and the rest of the pusillanimous crowd in the Old Republican Establishment) would have capitulated immediately to the caterwauling leftist politicos and their media lapdogs wailing over the plight of the guy with MS-13 symbology tattooed on his knuckles, which his much-abused wife unartfully tried to hide with a strategically placed emoji in images she posted of him.
Not so Trump.
The man who came within a hair's breadth of losing his life to an assassin's bullet (and where I am certain Divine Providence did intervene) is far from intimidated by this leftist frenzy. He's energized by it.
And why not? Trump recognizes that eighty percent of America is still sane and do not want to see human smuggling, wife-assaulting, illegal aliens freely roaming America's streets. They see that anyone who does support that policy is clinically insane. So let the Democrats make highly publicized pilgrimages to El Salvador to demand the release and return of this creep to America's protective embrace. It makes them look ridiculous.
And it also distracts from attention that would otherwise be directed to difficulties the Trump administration is facing on other fronts, such as volatile equities markets, senior government officials being terminated for leaking to the press, and headwinds in getting a Ukrainian peace deal done.
In short, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his Democrat Party patrons are an enormous gift to Donald Trump and his administration. Trump is the Obi Wan Kenobi of modern American politics, leading his ragtag band of Jedi warriors trying to restore American greatness and employing his greatest Mind Trick yet with Abrego Garcia. Run-of-the-mill Democrats can certainly be cast as mindless Galactic Empire stormtroopers, but I would hardly credit Chris Van Hollen or any of the other Democratic boobs trekking to El Salvador as special pleaders for Abrego Garcia with possessing the evil genius of Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine. That would be stretching the analogy into unbelievability.
But the embrace by the Democrats of Abrego Garcia is of a piece with their truly head-scratching positions on so many issues that defy political sense. Why do they insist on letting males (sorry, “biological males”) compete in women’s sports – driving many otherwise rational Democratic women into the Republican camp? Why are they in favor of pushing pornographic literature (mostly homosexual in orientation) on elementary school children, confusing young minds about the most basic human truths at the most formative ages? Why do they want to put tampons in elementary school boy bathrooms (looking at you, Tim Walz)? None of this makes any sense when looked at through a political lens.
I’m old enough to remember when former Vice President Walter Mondale, running against President Reagan in the 1984 presidential election, openly declared that he planned to raise taxes on millions of American citizens. Reagan’s political consultant, Stuart Spencer, told CBS at the time, “I've never heard a politician say he is going to raise taxes to 30 million, 40 million, 50 million people in a campaign.”
Indeed, a real head-scratcher. Even if that was your plan, based on what you perceived to be in the best interest of the American economy, or if you were just a died-in-the-wool leftist who simply liked to impose high taxes on working Americans, why would you announce it in the heat of a presidential campaign?
My sincere hope is that Obi Wan Trump keeps exploiting the gifts the Democrats offer. May the Force be with him.
William F. Marshall has been an intelligence analyst and investigator in the government, private, and non-profit sectors for 38 years. He is a senior investigator for Judicial Watch, Inc., and has been a contributor to Townhall, American Thinker, Epoch Times, The Federalist, American Greatness, and other publications. His work has been featured on CBS News 48 Hours Mysteries and NBC News Dateline. (The views expressed are the author’s alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.)