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As President-elect Donald Trump approaches his second inauguration, does he have a plan in mind to achieve his “legacy accomplishments” in his second term?
Trump already holds the title of “biggest upset victory in a presidential election ever” as a result of Trump's 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
Trump will never be dislodged from the title of “greatest political comeback in American history,” a title he took from his old friend Richard Nixon.
Trump is already the most important president ever when it comes to shifting the United States Supreme Court in an entirely new direction — in Trump's case, back to the actual text and general meaning of the Constitution — a legacy that may deepen and extend even further. In the future if retirements follow the end of this or the next SCOTUS term.
It is almost certain that Trump will put two new and different marks on the board. If the GOP holds its Senate majority in 2026, Trump will almost certainly eclipse the record for total number of federal judges appointed over a presidential term, currently at 383, held by Ronald Reagan, who is currently ahead with 149. A total of 234 judges. Judges appointed by Trump in his first term.
As for the judges of the Federal Court of Appeal, Trump's first term It saw 54 candidates confirmed for those seats, just one fewer than the total number Barack Obama saw during his eight years as president. Trump should end up appointing as many federal appeals court judges as possible, perhaps within three months of being sworn in again. (President Biden has appointed one justice to the Supreme Court and 45 justices to the Court of Appeals. These 45 are, of course, obligated to follow the law as declared by the Supreme Court.)
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When the Wall is completed, Trump will almost certainly attend the completion of its final section, and as long as anyone reading this is alive, the Wall will be the country's visible expression of an invisible national resolve to control our borders.
Trump's second economic boom will come on the heels of tough deregulation and a flare-up of deregulation of energy production and housing construction.
The one area in which Trump did not succeed in his first term? His promise, which was repeated often, to Expansion of the US Navy to 355 ships while revitalizing shipbuilding through the expansion and modernization of drydocks and berths needed by the expanding fleet. It started at the end of his first term when Ambassador Robert O'Brien, “the Navy SEAL,” was Trump's national security adviser, and he was doing everything he could to help Trump move the Defense Department bureaucracy to get serious about the ships, but Trump ran out of steam. Of time. He's got a second strike on that goal and that legacy.
Making the US Navy as great as it has ever been is a big boost for Trump, but he can get it if he starts on January 20. He can express this goal in his second inaugural address, and he can address it every day by asking his senior staff. Every morning: “What did we do for the Navy yesterday and what will we do for it today?”
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, it is easily the equivalent of any think tank delving into the subject National security affairs– “China now has the largest naval combat force in the world, operating 234 warships compared to the US Navy’s 219 warships.”
There is more bad news. The Center for Strategic and International Studies report noted that “about 70% of Chinese warships were launched after 2010, while only about 25% of US warships were launched.” “Chinese ship production outpaces that of the United States. An Office of Naval Intelligence assessment noted that China has “scores” of commercial shipyards that are larger and more productive than the largest U.S. shipyards, and an unclassified U.S. Navy briefing slide indicates that China has 230 Once upon a time, the United States' shipbuilding capacity would provide a strategic advantage in a war lasting more than a few weeks, allowing it to repair damaged ships or build replacements much faster than the United States, which still faces a large maintenance backlog. And probably won't Be able to quickly build many new ships or repair combat ships damaged in a great power conflict.
Read the entire CSIS review and be very and rightfully upset. Trump has consistently targeted the kind of maritime power legacy that characterized the greatest presidencies of the 20th century — TR, FDR, and Reagan. At their core, these three leaders understood that the United States was first and foremost a “sea power,” and that maintaining dominance over global waterways was essential to US strength and resilience in the face of many global adversaries, most notably the sole superpower. Counterpart: People's Republic of China. (TR and FDR had the advantage of having been Assistant Secretaries of the Navy earlier in their careers.)
Trump knows Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the ruthless leader of a ruthless regime. Trump is not afraid of Xi but he would certainly prefer to manage tensions between our nation and the Chinese Communist Party rather than turn them into conflict. “Making America great again” necessarily involves avoiding war with China, which in turn means maintaining our strategic superiority over the People’s Liberation Army and People’s Liberation Army Navy (“PLAN”).
Mackenzie Eaglen and Brady Africa of the American Enterprise Institute recently evaluated both our Navy and the PLAN and concluded that “China has invested so much in shipbuilding over the past 18 years that it can now build more ships in a single month than the United States can.” . “Within one year – Beijing aims to continue expanding its superiority.”
He continued: “If the US Army cannot soon catch up with this capability, it risks finding itself caught off guard and ill-equipped in a conflict scenario.” “China’s recent expansions should alarm U.S. military planners and spur investments to enhance naval power.”
Trump can join TR and Reagan as the godfather of the fleet that primarily deters wars, but he can also support winning them. When Woodrow Wilson first sent six destroyers to join the Allies in World War I, the first six destroyers to arrive in Ireland and join the battle against the Kaiser's submarines were the USS MacDougall (Destroyer No. 54); USS Cunningham (Destroyer No. 58); USS Porter (Destroyer No. 59); USS Wadsworth (Destroyer No. 60) and USS Davis (Destroyer No. 62). All six of these ships were built between 1913 and 1916. When Wilson finally responded to unrestricted all-ship warfare and to the revelation of the “Zimmermann telegraph,” he had destroyers on hand to send into the canal and nearby waters.
US President-elect Donald Trump smiles during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
A secret diplomatic message to the Germans issued by the German Foreign Ministry on January 17, 1917. The telegram was intercepted by the Royal Navy, which proposed a military contract between the German Empire and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany, which said that Mexico should gain Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona from the United States. United. The telegram was sent from the Tsar's Foreign Ministry to his ambassador in Mexico City and included explicit instructions:
“On the first of February, we intend to commence submarine warfare without restrictions. However, we intend to endeavor to keep the United States neutral. If this attempt does not succeed, we propose an alliance with Mexico on the following basis:
That we will wage war together and make peace together; We will provide general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico will regain its lost territories in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The details are up to you to settle.”
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Wilson received the contents of the telegram in late February of 2017 and chose to make it public, and America's entry into the war ensued.
We don't need Zimmerman's telegraph to alert us to Xi's plan. He is building ports in Peru and Namibia to support the blue water plan and new ships suitable for invading Taiwan. The best way for Trump to go down in history as a “peacemaker” is for him to expend much of his enormous energy rebuilding our power above and below the seas.
Hugh Hewitt is the host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh is waking up America on over 400 affiliates across the country, and on all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. An Ohio native and graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches constitutional law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on every major national television news network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major U.S. newspaper, authored dozens of books and ran a host of Republican programs. Candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-2016 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and column on the Constitution, national security, American politics, and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over 40 years of broadcasting, and this column explores the key stories that will drive his radio/TV show today.
