As I drove home with my wife the day after the election, I began to list to her the reasons why Joe Biden becoming president in 2020 was ultimately the best possible outcome for Donald Trump, our nation – and even the world.

Back home, my wife turned on Fox News. Lara Trump was on “Hannity” alluding to the same point.

By the way, those who were hoping and praying for a Trump victory should know that Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump and Speaker Michael Whatley are two of the unsung heroes of this election. The RNC was in ruins when he took over: morale was shaken and the mood was dark. They made him a shining star of the Trump campaign.

Jessica Tarlov, a veteran Democratic Party strategist and co-host of “The Five,” repeatedly pointed out days before the election that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign was “knocking at 2,000 doors a minute.”

It’s good for them, but so what? You can knock on a million doors a minute, but if a majority of Americans think the product you’re selling is the political equivalent of snake oil, you won’t have many buyers. American voters knew that in Harris, the Democratic National Committee was peddling a candidate whose entire campaign was based on saying nothing, doing nothing, and reporting nothing.

With Trump, on the other hand, Lara Trump and Whatley knew they had a candidate brimming with solutions to the problems plaguing America after almost four years of the Biden-Harris administration. For this reason, they built a national campaign best suited to reflect this candidate’s energy, experience and confidence. Obviously, they succeeded.

But in doing so, Lara Trump was also able to take the pulse of the American people and come to what I consider to be a correct conclusion. In an interview with Hannity the day after the election, she said in part: “In 2016, this country definitely needed Donald Trump. But I don’t think he needed him any more than we need him right now and I think the American people, having had a four-year break from him, seeing how the situation could get worse, understood that perfectly and I believe that’s why they came out the way they did and overwhelmingly showed their support for him.

I have long believed that the greatest political victory of all time was Trump’s victory for president in 2016. Against all odds; against well-established establishments; against often hateful media; and practically without a campaign, he almost single-handedly wanted to become president.

But he did so as a non-politician who did not fully understand the methods – and cruelty – of Washington, DC. And because he failed to do so, his administration paid a heavy price in terms of disloyalty, betrayal and sabotage.

After Biden took office, Trump had four years to reassess the White House recruiting process and how best to fill about 4,000 political appointees at various agencies; take the temperature of the American people; build a more united and successful campaign; and watch the ebb and flow of a world on fire. Additionally, the election loss gave Trump time to observe how Biden navigated the turbulent waters of his own administration.

At this point, we come to the absolute gift from the Biden-Harris administration. Trump certainly thought that, more often than not, the Biden-Harris administration was crashing on the rocks. And guess who was paying attention alongside Trump? The American voter.

Democrats – and Harris in particular – have long underestimated the intelligence of the American voter, particularly those who are disenfranchised and those who live paycheck to paycheck. But these voters are smart, they have common sense, and they began to “believe their lying eyes” and realized that their lives were dramatically better four years ago, under the Trump administration, than they are today.

Let’s hope that some of the left-wing leaders among our allies around the world are also learning lessons from the failure of the Biden-Harris administration and the pressures it has placed on their own nations. Many believe that if Trump had been president, Putin and Russia would never have entered Ukraine and Hamas would not have invaded Israel and upended that part of the world.

Because Biden became president – ​​and there has been this four-year gap to reflect and reassess – I think Trump is now in a much stronger position to advance the policies he sees as most important. critical to right this nation. What’s more, many believe it will quickly defuse the wars that now threaten to spark World War III.

Four years of multiple Biden-Harris failures opened the eyes of the American people and world leaders to the fact that they lacked and needed Trump’s successful policies for their own well-being. During this same period, Trump has undoubtedly focused on the pros and cons of his own administration and will now tweak everything.

Thinking is often a very productive pastime.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.

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