The Border is Closed
We don’t know – and we will never know – for certain how many illegal aliens there are in the United States. We accumulated at least 40 million over the past sixty years, and then another 20 million just during the Biden-Harris regime alone.
The second Trump administration has deported hundreds of thousands of the worst of them, and over a million, perhaps a couple million, have self-deported so far, which is of course the best way.
The good news, however, is that the border is closed. The Trump administration has proven that we can indeed stop the flood of gatecrashers; it just requires the policy choice to do so.
The Return of Manufacturing
Between the first and second Trump administrations, we have accomplished both important business tax reform and considerable regulatory reform, while increased punitive tariffs on Chinese goods have helped to make American goods (both components and finished goods) more competitive. But that alone wasn’t enough to jumpstart the American manufacturing renaissance that our nation (and frankly, the entire western world) so desperately needs.
It was the concept of reciprocal tariffs, and in particular, the country-by-country, one-by-one, negotiations around them, that have resulted in an incredible amount of foreign investment in the United States manufacturing sector.
We are now watching as countless billions of dollars (well over $100 billion so far) in foreign investment are pouring into new American factories all over the country.
We haven’t begun to reap the benefits of this investment, but it’s just starting now. Over the next few years, the jobs and spending on construction, factory equipment, offices, transportation, and manufacturing will create an economic boom that will revitalize hundreds of small towns and rural areas from coast to coast.
The Israeli Election
We can’t pay attention to every foreign news story, but some are particularly noticeable, and particularly relevant to us here in the United States. One such news story is the most recent Israeli election.
Israel has numerous parties, and operates as a parliamentary system. Rather than using districts as we do, Israel’s entire small nation is one big “at large” district; voters cast their vote for their chosen party, and the members of the Knesset (their parliament) are awarded proportionately according to the share of the national vote that the party received.
Since one of our greatest challenges over here is the concept of legislative redistricting (and the gerrymandering that accompanies it), this is a tantalizing concept for us to consider here: wouldn’t such at-large voting be an interesting experiment for Congress, at the state level?
With the number of parties that Israel has, of course, it’s cumbersome and complex, as groups of minority parties must try to find enough common ground to build governing coalitions. At present, there are three blocks: a block that supports Benjamin Netanyahu, arguably the greatest prime minister of their history, a block that opposes him, and a block of arab parties that may be substantial enough to play kingmaker.
At this writing, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief current rival, Gadi Eisenkot, has been given the first chance to try to build a governing coalition to replace Netanyahu’s Likud government. This means he has up to six weeks in which to see if he can build a coalition without the arab parties, or to see if some of the arab parties, which deny Israel’s right to exist, can credibly convince the rest of Eisenkot’s coalition that they aren’t really committed to the destruction of Israel, at least, not anymore.
Serious matters – interesting to watch from abroad, and instructive for those of us who hope to save our own country too.
The Imperial Presidency Remains
The 2026 midterms were overwhelmingly one-sided.
There are many reasons for this; poor messaging from the President and the GOP, some poorly chosen candidates on the right (for some reason, poorly chosen candidates on the left never seem to hurt their chances), vote fraud (though it’s impossible to tell how much of an impact this had), and of course, the standard trend of the president’s party losing in the midterms.
This will be devastating to numerous states, where state legislatures and governors’ mansions are now in the hands of truly anti-capitalist extremists.
Fortunately, this time at least, the trend over the past century has been to what we know as “the imperial presidency” – the increased role of the presidency in American government, and the trend toward governance by Executive Order rather than by legislative action.
People tend to blame the presidents for this, but that’s not really fair or accurate. Rather, it is the legislature that has continuously increased the size of the federal bureaucracy over the past century, while reducing actual congressional oversight of the departments, agencies and bureaus they’ve created.
The Constitution puts that leviathan under the control of the presidency. No matter whether we have a Republican or Democrat in the White House, the legislature cannot deny its responsibility in increasing the power of what we now customarily call the Imperial Presidency.
For those concerned about the loss of the U.S. House to the Democrats, then, this is one refreshing truth: there’s a limit to how much the incoming House can do to retard America’s advances. President Trump still runs the government for another two years; he can veto anything they pass, and they most likely cannot override many vetoes.
Of course, there’s a corollary: if the GOP loses the White House in 2028, America’s economic renaissance will be stillborn. So we must pray for the help of Divine Providence in that regard.
The Endless Need for Energy
The gasoline and diesel fuel price issue that surfaced in this campaign shows the long-term danger of empowering the modern Democratic party. Some bad policy decisions can be overturned in a day; others take decades to undo.
The nation runs on petroleum, in numerous ways. We have considerable employment in the drilling, refining, transportation and sale of petroleum products, especially fuels such as gasoline and diesel. But some aspects of that industry can be turned off and on relatively easily; others can’t.
President Trump could restore the ease in granting permits for exploration and drilling, and then drilling could commence quickly. But that oil has to be refined, and Democratic Party policy, only partially at the federal level, primarily at the state level, has caused 170 refineries to close down in the past 50 years.
It takes over five years to get a new one online; most of the oil we drill therefore has to be shipped abroad to be converted into useful products. This is insane, but it’s where we are, because of decades of economically suicidal policies where states intentionally drove their own refineries out of business.
Until this month, there was progress on this front; a large new refinery in Texas, just now under construction at last, will be the first one in the USA since Marathon’s Garyville, LA refinery was built in 1977.
The results of the midterms will likely end any hope for progress in this area for the foreseeable future.
The 2028 Campaign
Presidents are up every four years, Senators every six, and Congressmen every two. Similarly, state legislatures and statewide constitutional offices are also up every two or four years.
Both American parties therefore get another bite at the apple every two years, and no time is wasted; as soon as the polls closed on November 3, the nomination battles for 2028 began.
Let us hope that America learns the lessons of this year, so that we can elect better people next time.
Copyright 2026 John F. Di Leo
John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation and trade compliance trainer, speaker, and consultant. His book on vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel), his political satires on the Biden-Harris administration (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I, II, and III), his first nonfiction book, “Current Events and the Issues of Our Age,” and his brand new collection of stories about the heroes of the American Founding, “The Founding Generation: The Patriots Who Built America,” are all available in either eBook or paperback, only on Amazon. His trade compliance training practice is available either in person or by webinar.
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