Bobby was assigned to guide me around Connecticut this past week. He’s a former police officer who now takes care of guests of my radio station affiliates in the Nutmeg State who don’t know the area. He’s a very smart veteran of the Air Force and police forces. 

When Bobby recognized me as the fellow with whom then-candidate Donald Trump was not altogether happy during the four debates in which 45-47 participated in 2015-2016 when I was among the journalists asking questions, I got from Bobby the question in the headline and spontaneously gave the answer in the subheadline. I had not used that answer before. But it’s wholly true and accurate for me. 

Not surprisingly, the next question after "Yes" was "Why?" To which I responded without much thought: "Because he’s an ‘A-to-B’ guy and we need a lot more of that."

TRUMP RESPONDS TO CRITICS WITH COUNTERPUNCHES ACROSS POLITICS AND ONGOING CULTURE WARS

I don’t care for some of the Trump policies, personnel and decisions over the years, but give standing ovations for others. He’s so much better a choice for the Oval Office than either Secretary Hillary Clinton, former President Joe Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris. I don’t really have to explain my three votes for him. 

But, when I confess that I’ve grown to "like" him to a stranger, it’s fair for the stranger to ask "Why?" My answer this week is the quick summation I’ll use going forward. 

I don’t think Bobby, or anyone else in casual conversation, wants to hear why the president’s defense rebuild, especially of the U.S. Navy, is absolutely critical to the long-term safety of the country; why Operation Midnight Hammer saved the world from the nightmare of a nuclear Iran; why his demand that "elite" education stop violating the country’s civil rights laws when it comes to admissions and protect its Jewish students on campus is just and necessary; how his appointees to the Supreme Court and lower federal courts saved the Constitution from mauling by ultra-progressives in robes; the One Big Beautiful Bill, a closed border etc. etc. etc. The list of excellent policies is long, as is the list of excellent appointees. I have my list of disagreements about policy and people. It’s much shorter. 

What most people want when they ask about President Trump and if their interest is genuine, as opposed to the bell that is intended to open a fight, is a concise explanation of my votes and my affection for 45-47, one that isn’t wonky or a diversion and my spontaneous answer has improved in my mind the more I think of it. 

When I practiced law, I represented large developers who had enormous projects covering sometimes tens of thousands of acres. Whether individual entrepreneurs like Trump or corporate entities, the decision makers in the world of land development were all "A-to-B" guys and gals. They had a project, time was money and they needed to get from where they were on the "critical path" to the end point of selling homes, commercial office spaces or industrial sites. 

Lawyers were hardly welcome on those journeys, but often necessary and when the obstacle in the way was a federal or state law or regulation having to do with "endangered species," "wetlands," or a few other categories of hurdles to be crossed, the phone would ring. The client didn’t care about my family, my firm, my faith or my health. Could I get their project from point A to B? 

And that is an "A-to-B" guy or gal: A problem solver. President Trump sees problems and he wants to take the most direct path to solve them within the Constitutional order. 

(He always obeys court orders and has often reaffirmed his intent to always do so. Thus talk of dictatorship and authoritarianism is absurd. Those who use such ridiculous descriptions should lose the respect of serious people. If you submit to the law — and boy did the president ever do that throughout the lawfare years in front of courts that are only charitably described as "kangaroo" in some cases — then you are a "rule of law" person, not a dictator or authoritarian.)

But Trump is direct, always and everywhere. He tells you exactly what he thinks. He changes his mind and then tells you what he thinks now. He identifies what he thinks are solutions and pursues them in linear fashion. If something doesn’t work, he looks for the next best direct line to a solution. He doesn’t stop trying. "A-to-B" again and again. 

There is only one "A," which is where America is right now. There are a host of "Bs," which are all the problems Trump sees bedeviling America in one way or another, from Xi and Putin, to Gaza, to high interest rates, to the need for manufacturing of all sorts to reshore.  

He is always in the "most direct possible solution" business, until that possible solution becomes impossible. Then he finds the next "B" to pursue in that space. 

I’ve grown to like this approach immensely because it is public. Everybody sees it. Everyone who wants to listen will hear it explained.  

The president has always been the best interview of my lifetime in broadcast because he answers every question and, if you ask a stupid question, he will tell you that too. Accessibility? There’s never been a president to whom the public had more access. I think he is this way, by the way, because all developers who succeed have to answer questions from the most extraordinary range of people of various levels of talent if they want to get to "B" and see their project completed.

All successful developers are fundamentally alike. All of them take big swings and have some misses. But the ones who succeed? They are all "A-to-B" people. 

So that’s why I like Trump. I have a priest and a pastor. I don’t need those in a president. I think the Constitution as amended and interpreted is a work of genius that needs respecting and President Trump does, though he’s not shy about having his lawyers test old precedents ("Humphrey’s Executor" or the "Chevron doctrine" come to mind) that may need tossing out by the Supreme Court. He’s full of an energy and resilience that the entire country, even his political enemies, feed off of.

And he scares our enemies, or at least causes them to hesitate in their malign designs. 

The GOP has a great young bench that Trump has helped build up: Vice President JD Vance, Secretaries Rubio and Heseth, Senators Cotton and Cruz, Representative Stefanik. He gets along with GOP leaders with independent sources of power like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Thune and smart governors like Ron DeSantis in Florida and Glenn Youngkin in Virginia. The Democrats are in disarray and plunging off the hard left cliff like lemmings. Trump has seized the political center and is holding it tenaciously with focus on issues of the physical security of the citizenry, the safety of their children and economic growth for everyone. 

He’s an "A-to-B" guy and Americans generally like that.

Trump is far more "TR" than "RR" or "HW" in temperament, but for this time and the next three years, we very much need an A-to-B guy who will accept losing rounds in the courts. It is sometimes that simple. 

Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a 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 frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his 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 his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.