Back in February 2019, just two years into Donald Trump’s term in office, a Gallup poll practically mocked the president with the following headline: “Solid Majority Still Opposes New Construction on Border Wall.”

Strange. We searched and searched, but we couldn’t find any indication that Gallup has asked that same question at any time during Joe Biden’s presidency. If we had to guess, we’d say it’s because the border wall is no longer a winning issue for Democrats.

Trump, of course, had run for president largely on a promise of border security. How many times had we heard him on the campaign trail telling us he’d build “a beautiful wall” and have Mexico pay for it? It was great marketing, and quintessential Trump, but in a republican democracy, the opposition party typically has a say. And in this case, the Democrats were saying “No.” After all, the browning of America has long been a leftist strategy for permanent political power, and a border wall tends to gum up the free flow of undocumented migrants illegal immigrants.

As Gallup gleefully reported in that 2019 poll, “60% of Americans oppose major new construction of walls along the U.S.-Mexico border.” At the time of that poll, Trump had just ended a record 35-day partial government shutdown, the goal of which was to secure funding for the wall. No dice.

Still, Trump persevered, and he found other ways to secure our 1,933-mile southern border. As he recounts in a recent Des Moines Register op-ed:

Under the Trump administration, we had the most secure border in U.S. history. We ended catch-and-release, and removed over 1 million illegal aliens in my first term. I negotiated unprecedented agreements with Central American nations and brokered “Remain in Mexico” to stop the flow of migrants to our border. I also got the Mexican government to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to the border free of charge. Every step of the way, we fought obstructionist left-wing judges and radical Democrat activists who tried to stop us — and we won.

Trump did win on the border, even if he didn’t get his wall. But elections have consequences, and Trump’s successor has since orchestrated an illegal immigration disaster — so much so that a normally mild-mannered House Speaker Mike Johnson, who led a delegation of dozens of Republican House members to the Texas border town of Eagle Pass on Wednesday, called the situation both “heartbreaking and infuriating.”

“Now you are witnessing the disastrous results,” Trump continued. “We have the highest number of illegal border crossings in history, by far. Nearly a quarter million migrants crossed in November alone — and that’s a likely vast undercount. Migrants are overwhelming our cities. Drugs, criminals, gang members and terrorists are pouring in.”

As our Nate Jackson noted earlier this week, Joe Biden has presided over an intentional invasion, and his failure to secure our southern border is worthy of impeachment all by itself.

As for Trump’s op-ed, its purpose was threefold: to remind us just how much we miss his border stewardship; to campaign for another term in office; and to lay out a detailed way forward from day one should the American people return him to the White House.

“On my first day back in office,” he said, “I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration and immediately restore the full set of strong Trump border policies.”

This, it seems to us, is the easy part. Ever since Barack Obama bragged about his pen and his phone, American presidents have largely bypassed Congress and governed by way of executive order. Where things become far more difficult — and far more likely to be met with leftist lawfare — is with the next stage of Trump’s plan, “a record-setting deportation operation.”

“To achieve this goal,” he says, “I will make clear to every department and to state and local governments that we must use all resources and authorities available. We will shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement — including parts of the DEA, ATF, FBI, and DHS.”

Should Trump begin deporting illegals, Democrats will no doubt play the race card, too. And a certain share of low-information voters will fall for it. But ask yourself: Why are brown and black people streaming into our country by the millions if white supremacy is so rampant, and if our society is so irredeemably racist?

None of this matters, of course, unless Trump wins the presidency. If Biden and his fellow Democrats can convince an electoral majority that Trump and his “MAGA Republicans” are a greater threat to “our democracy” than are sleazy Biden and his ruinous policies, then none of this matters.

We cease to be a country when we cease to control our border. And Biden’s refusal — as opposed to “failure,” which implies effort — to secure our southern border is certainly the most consequential story of the year just past.

And, if Donald Trump has anything to say about it, the border will continue to be a big story in the year ahead — but this time in a way that holds more hope for American sovereignty. Border security is a winning issue for Republicans and a loser for Democrats, as public sentiment is far more favorable now than it was when Gallup was last polling us on border walls. Success has a way of doing that, of instilling complacency. Calamitous failure, on the other hand, has a way of focusing folks on what really matters.

“Joe Biden is leaving behind a catastrophe of historic proportions,” said Trump in closing. “The next president must secure the border while also stopping inflation, saving the economy, cleaning up Washington corruption, restoring peace through strength, and preventing World War III. We do not have time for on-the-job training. Unlike every other candidate, with me, there is no question. I promise you that I will get this job done.”