POLITICS: The world has now seen the ‘Trump Effect’ on full display

A glance across America and Europe leads to an unmistakable conclusion: Revolution is in the air. 

The failures of democracies are sparking internal upheavals.

Thankfully, spasms of violence and bloodshed are few, but a toxic brew of overbearing governments, shrinking freedoms and undeniable decline is producing demands for big changes. 

A common thread from California to Great Britain, France and Germany is that liberal underpinnings have morphed into sloppy socialism, unchecked immigration, cultural clashes and restraints on critical speech. 

Collectively, the conservative blowback reveals that the time allotted for an indulgent detour has expired and a new consensus is taking shape, whether entrenched leftists like it or not. 

You can thank Donald Trump and the 77 million Americans who elected him for this development. 

Or blame them if you are on the losing side of this remarkable
moment. 

Either way, Trump is, with apologies to Reggie Jackson, the straw that stirs the drink. 

Charting a new path 

His landslide election was a clear vindication of his first term, but it is turning out to be far more consequential than he could have imagined. 

To the millions of people around the world who are clamoring for a Trump of their own, he personifies the demand for a government that serves its citizens and not the other way around. 

When even Los Angeles’ uber-Democrats demand the heads of their mayor and governor for mismanaging water resources during the devastating wildfires, you know the hunger for change has reached new levels. 

In the early days after his election, Trump said he got more than 200 congratulatory phone calls from business leaders and politicians from around the world. 

Not bad for the candidate whose rabid, dishonest opponents declared him the new Hitler and a threat to democracy. 

A defining image of the time since are the pilgrimages to see him at Mar-a-Lago, with many wealthy wise men and women bearing gifts.

These included promises of enormous investments from Japan and Arabia and bullish statements from US bankers and industrialists. 

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, visited and came away impressed by Trump’s commitment to preventing “other global players” from taking over areas of “strategic interest” to America and Europe. 

It’s in that spirit that even the leaders of Greenland now say they want to talk to Trump about his effort to make it part of America! 

Regarding the extraordinary Trump Effect, Axios put it this way: “It’s rare, if not unprecedented, for a newly elected leader to have so many world leaders and CEOs shift their policies or posture so blatantly during the transition to curry favor with a new president.” 

Of course it’s rare, but there’s never been someone like Trump or a moment like this. 

And while no doubt many of the visitors aim to curry favor, the larger truth is that they know what Trump wants, and by giving it to him, are doing right for America and freedom everywhere. 

Chief among these is the pledge from Mark Zuckerberg to Trump that Meta would immediately end its censorship of speech on all its platforms. 

This is a breakthrough that goes beyond borders and confirms the wisdom of Elon Musk’s decision to stop censorship on X. 

The move helps to put pressure on governments from Iran to Europe to get out of the way of free speech. 

Dems’ misinfo wars 

Not surprisingly, doddering Joe Biden denounced the idea.

And had he or Kamala Harris won the election, Zuckerberg would have been pressured to tighten existing restrictions and there would have been a US move to copy much of Europe and actually criminalize speech. 

That’s because progressives, whatever their nationality, define misinformation as any speech they don’t like. 

Meanwhile, the clearest way to see the contrast between what’s dying and what’s being born is through events last Friday in a lower Manhattan courtroom. 

There the soon-to-be most powerful man in the world was learning his sentence after being convicted in a shoddy criminal case that amounted to a partisan fever dream. 

The case itself should be a crime, its genesis straight out of the playbook of Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief. 

“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” Lavrentiy Beria said. 

And so it was with the case at hand, the work of Democratic operatives in the White House and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office who concocted a witches’ brew to charge Trump with 34 felonies. 

The guilty verdict was engineered by a machine judge who ought to be prosecuted and disbarred. 

Because there was no sentence–no restrictions, no fine, no probation — the result underscored how trivial the entire exercise was. 

It’s hard to remember now, but the case represented the vanguard of Dems’ demonic plan to protect a decrepit Biden by persecuting Trump. 

The goal was to take him off the playing field by locking him up and, if that failed, dirtying him up enough that he would lose. 

It failed, though the media is celebrating the ability to call him a convicted felon.

But even that has backfired, with many voters supporting Trump precisely because they agreed he was being treated as a political enemy of the state. 

Warfare ends in defeat 

Which explains why Friday’s exercise took on the aura of a funeral, with the casket holding only the corpse of a corrupt system while the target was preparing to return to the Oval Office. 

Turnabout has never been more important or warranted. 

No cameras were allowed, but the recorded remarks showed Judge Juan Merchan, who did the corrupt bidding of the Democratic Party and the state’s judiciary, stayed on message. 

He called the circumstances surrounding the trial “extraordinary,” but claimed, presumably with a straight face, that the trial itself was “no more special or unique” than any other trial in the same building. 

That’s absurd because had the defendant’s name not been Trump, no charges would have been filed and there would have been no trial. 

A prosecutor named Joshua Steinglass also attempted to put lipstick on the pig, but inadvertently revealed the strongest argument for Trump’s election. 

“This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system,” Steinglass moaned, as if the miscarriage of justice he helped create was not responsible for destroying public confidence. 

To his warped view, the decline of credibility stems from a defendant who dares to fight unfair charges, denounce his tormenters — and win the presidency. 

Yea, that’s the problem. 

Trump could have skipped the theater, but chose to appear by video.

He declared his innocence and summarized the big picture beautifully: 

“The people of our country got to see this firsthand, and then they voted and I won . . . all seven swing states . . . and won the popular vote.” 

He might have added: 

Take that, New York!