Donald Trump is on a roll! He’s not even president yet, and he is already racking up major accomplishments.

As we previously reported, Trump put Canada and Mexico on notice that they had better take serious steps to secure their borders and stop the flow of illegal aliens and deadly drugs into America. If they failed to act accordingly, Trump threatened to impose stiff tariffs on both countries.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau immediately flew to Mar-a-Lago to try to satisfy the president-elect. According to sources who joined both leaders for dinner, Trump read Trudeau the riot act, warning that the tariffs could cost Canada as much as $100 billion.

The prime minister begged Trump not to impose the tariffs, saying it would kill the Canadian economy. Trump quipped that if Canada couldn’t “survive unless it is ripping off the United States to the tune of $100 billion,” then maybe Canada should become America’s 51st state with Trudeau as its governor.

When one of the dinner guests remarked that Canada would be a very liberal state, Trump suggested it could be divided into two states – one conservative and one liberal.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden ran off to Angola, a notoriously corrupt African country, after pardoning his son, Hunter, for any and all crimes he committed over the last ten years.

That’s a long way to go to avoid embarrassing questions from the media about the pardon.

Trump vs. Hamas

News broke Monday that Omer Neutra, an American citizen, believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7th attack, is in fact dead. Neutra was murdered that day by Hamas terrorists, who dragged his dead body into Gaza.

Furious, Donald Trump issued a strong warning to Hamas and its supporters. He demanded that all the hostages, including Americans, kidnapped by Hamas had better be released by January 20th, when he is inaugurated. If not, Trump vowed:

“… there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”

It reminded me of how Ronald Reagan scared the mullahs of Iran so much that they released dozens of American hostages immediately after Reagan’s 1980 inauguration.

Trump’s warning wasn’t just bravado. Nor was it just to Hamas. He said the Middle East will pay a price. That was a direct message to the sponsors and supporters of terrorism, like Iran, to lean on Hamas to release hostages. We’ll see what happens.

We know this for certain: Coming from Donald Trump, that is a credible threat. No one has been intimidated by Joe Biden the last four years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s warning as a “forceful statement,” adding, “President Trump put the emphasis in the correct place, on Hamas, and not on the Israeli government, as is customary in some places.” (That is a reference to the Biden White House.)

Trump & Notre Dame

Monday Night, Donald Trump announced his first overseas trip as president-elect. He will be going to Paris, France, this weekend for the official reopening of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral. Approximately 50 foreign leaders are expected to attend the event.

Trump understands the importance of Judeo-Christian civilization to the preservation of liberty. Politically, Trump did very well with evangelicals, although not enough of us voted and we need to work on that.

There was a big shift in the election among Catholics. In 2020, Joe Biden won Catholic voters 52% to 47%. This November, Trump won Catholic voters 59% to 39%. That’s a huge swing in four years!

Kamala Harris spent hundreds of millions of dollars promoting abortion on demand during the campaign. Catholics “aborted” her political ambitions.

It is a major development that very likely contributed to his victories in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as his improved performance in many northeastern states.

Notre Dame is a prominent physical symbol of the Christian West. Construction of the cathedral began in 1163 – nearly 330 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. It was mostly completed in 1345.

Notre Dame is an incredible tribute to the genius of man and one of the finest examples of architecture anywhere in the world. Men worked on it for generations. Some men were born, became skilled craftsmen, and worked on the cathedral knowing they would never see its completion.

It is an iconic symbol of Judeo-Christian civilization. Sadly, France is slowly being conquered by Islam and secularism.

Notre Dame was gutted by a devastating fire in 2019, which many believe was arson. After the fire, there were calls to “reinvent the cathedral” and rebuild it as a totally secular structure to more reflect the tenor of our times. Thankfully, there was enough of a remnant of Catholic France to prevent that from happening.

By the way, anti-Christian hate crimes are skyrocketing in Europe. Nearly half of them occur in one country – France, where two churches disappear every month, many due to arson.

The increasing attacks on Christianity and growing antisemitism are why some European leaders are demanding limits on citizenship and vetting of immigrants based on their acceptance of “fundamental values,” something I have been advocating for years.

More Pardons Please

The pardon of Hunter Biden is a good reminder that several pro-life activists also deserve pardons. I join other pro-life leaders in calling for Donald Trump to pardon them as soon as he can. They are:

Joan Bell (76) – sentenced to two years and three months in jail.

Jonathan Darnel (42) – sentenced to two years and ten months in jail.

Herb Geraghty (26) – sentenced to two years and three months in jail.

William Goodman (54) – sentenced to two years and three months in jail.

Lauren Handy (30) – sentenced to four years and nine months in jail.

Paulette Harlow (75) – sentenced to two years in jail.

John Hinshaw (69) – sentenced to one year and nine months in jail.

Heather Idoni (60) – sentenced to two years in jail.

Steven Lefemine (68) – sentenced to two months in jail.

Jean Marshall (74) – sentenced to two years in jail.

Bevelyn Williams (33) – sentenced to three years and five months in jail.

Calvin Zastrow (57) – sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation.

These pro-life activists are not threats to society, yet they are sitting in jail now because of the FACE Act, an ill-conceived federal law signed by Bill Clinton in 1994. Their sentences are harsh, similar to the punishments handed down for acts of violence. But the only violence in their demonstrations was the violence of abortion against defenseless babies.

These people do not deserve to be in jail. Many leftist demonstrators just get a slap on the wrist and are released. Of all the things that you can peacefully demonstrate against, abortion is the only thing that can put you in jail for years.