All bad things, too, must come to an end.
And so it goes for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ “magic minute,” the New York Democrat’s pointless, nearly nine-hour “speech” on the House floor on Thursday to stall the inevitable passage of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Hakeem’s “Spartacus” moment notwithstanding, the exercise, like so many things Democrats do, was pointless.
After fist-shaking, recriminations, and a lot of heartburn on both sides of the aisle, the 45th and 47th president of the United States has his signature domestic policy win. And it took just over five months to achieve. The rapidity of passage is truly amazing considering it took nearly a year for a Republican-controlled Congress to pass Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The president finally signed that bill a few days before Christmas.
Now, a day before Independence Day, Trump has his big win. Again. Whatever the big-government warts of the BBB — and there are many — the reconciliation bill that makes those 2017 tax cuts permanent is another in a long line of brutal political butt-kickings Teflon Trump has delivered to the Democrats.
Yes, the concussed minority party will campaign on Medicaid cuts to able-bodied people who could and should be looking for work. Yes, members of Team AOC, as they always do, are already screaming, “People will die!” But the Big Beautiful Bill is the latest reminder that Trump is eating their lunch.
One Year Later
Look at where we were one year ago. Trump, about to be nominated the GOP’s presidential candidate for a third-straight time, was just days away from a near-miss assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Democrats had spent the better part of a decade desperately trying to “86” their hated political nemesis — figuratively and literally. They had him arrested and indicted on grotesquely political charges. They tried to toss him off the primary ballot on the basis of those spurious charges. They convicted him in a New York City kangaroo court in a rigged prosecution led by Democrats who campaigned on getting Trump.
They thought they had him. They didn’t.
Trump stood up after that assassin’s bullet pierced his ear and exhorted his supporters to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” He certainly has.
Trump beat at the ballot box the people who arrested him, indicted him, excluded him, tried to convict him, ruin him, kill him. And in early July 2025, the second U.S. president to be elected to nonconsecutive terms beat them again.
And just look at the wins over the past five-plus months.
Illegal Immigration
In June, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested a mere 6,070 illegal aliens at the Southern border, with nationwide apprehensions at their lowest levels in U.S. history, according to the Department of Homeland Security. There were zero releases into the U.S. for the second straight month. So-called gotaways are down 90 percent from last year, the fourth year of the Biden administration-sponsored illegal immigrant invasion of the United States. On June 28, Border Patrol took just 137 illegal aliens into custody, a single-day record. The Trump administration says fiscal year 2025 is on track to record the fewest illegal immigrant apprehensions in five decades.
Trump campaigned on securing the border. He’s done just that.
The Economy
Inflation was near a four-year low in May after years of ever-soaring prices.
Gas prices are right around their lowest summer level in four years (see a pattern here?) thanks to Trump turning America’s domestic energy light back on. On Thursday, the national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $3.16, a 10 percent drop from a year ago, according to AAA. Perfect timing. AAA said more than 61 million people were expected to hit the road this Independence Day holiday weekend. What a difference a few years make. In June 2022, the national average for a gallon of gas topped $5.
And the U.S. added 147,000 jobs in June, continuing corporate media’s surprise turn of phrase, “more than expected.”
Foreign Policy
Terrorist state Iran doesn’t presently have the ability to complete a nuclear weapon. U.S. bunker-buster bombs caused significant damage to three Iranian nuclear sites last month, Pentagon officials report. And, so far, the strikes have not necessitated wider U.S. military involvement. Israel is safer. The Middle East is safer. The world is safer with an Iran sans an actual weapon of mass destruction.
And America is stronger. Action — meaning what we say — has replaced pallets-of-cash diplomacy. Putin is on notice. Xi Jinping is on notice. That maniacal butterball from North Korea is on notice. Peace through strength and respect for the United States of America are back.
Competence in the White House is back in fashion.
Trump wins again.