President-elect Donald Trump answered the phone Friday and the media went crazy. Trump took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. According to CNN it is “the first publicly reported call between a U.S. president or president-elect and the leader of Taiwan” since 1979.

The media reaction to this call has been insane. The tone of much of the reporting suggested that we were on the verge of war. The media reacted as if Trump’s chat with the democratically elected leader of Taiwan was a much greater danger than, for example, China’s building artificial islands to control navigation in the South China Sea.

Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing. He was sending a signal to Beijing that there is a new man in town.

You may recall that just a few months ago Barack Obama was humiliated by the Chinese during an official visit. Among other things, Chinese officials refused to provide a staircase for Air Force One, forcing Obama to leave through the belly of the plane. China’s leaders could not have made their contempt for Mr. Obama more obvious.

Saturday, Trump tweeted, “Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the U.S. doesn’t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don’t think so!”

How can Trump’s chat with an ally be more controversial than Barack Obama engaging in secret negotiations with the ayatollah of Iran while that regime was killing our soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan?

How can Trump’s call be more controversial than Obama reaching out to Cuba’s Fidel Castro who was an ally of the Soviet Union? Besides, isn’t the left always saying we need to reach out to people? Obama has made a habit of ignoring friends like Israel and Taiwan, but that is going to change in the Trump-Pence administration.

For the past eight years the country has been politically hooked on the equivalent of “left-wing crack.” Our cultural and media elites acted as if Obama could do no wrong. They thought the world was just full of sunshine and lollipops.

Now we’ve got a leader who is bringing us back to normalcy and many on the left are experiencing withdrawal symptoms. It will be tough for a time, but it’s for the best.

Old Glory Flies Again

Last week we told you about the raging controversy at Hampshire College. After the election, radical students took the American flag down to protest the results. The administration decided to compromise by putting the flag at half-staff.

But students took the flag down again and this time they burned it. Then the administration decided that the flag was a threatening symbol to some students and it would remain down.

And then the public in liberal Massachusetts responded. There were major demonstrations and the college came under heavy fire.

Friday, the president of Hampshire College, Jonathan Lash, announced that Old Glory was going back up. In a statement, Lash expressed regret for the controversy and expressed his support for free speech, saying, “We raise the flag now as a symbol of that freedom, and in hopes for justice and fairness for all.”

Well that’s interesting. I have noticed that whenever American flags are burned on college campuses, the default position of left-wing administrators is to defend the free speech rights of the radical students.

But what would administrators do if someone burned the symbol of the gay rights movement, the rainbow flag, or the Mexican flag or a flag of a Muslim nation? Would even one university president ever dare to defend the free speech rights of those students? Of course not. They would condemn the bigotry. They would demand counseling. They would call for safe spaces.

So when do our veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq and are now attending American colleges get a safe space? When will the administrators condemn the bigotry of the left or demand the radicals seek counseling? Clearly, they need it!

Buy American

Well, that didn’t take long. Donald Trump is not even in office yet and already he’s facing a major policy dispute with key members of the GOP leadership. The issue at hand is a major water infrastructure bill pending in Congress.

The House and Senate have passed their respective bills and they are currently ironing out the differences. One big difference includes a provision in the Senate version requiring large government-funded projects to use American-made steel.

According to The Wall Street Journal, House Speaker Paul Ryan opposes the “Buy America” provision and wants it out. Big foreign steel firms from Brazil, Russia and Japan are lobbying heavily to strip it out.

I get why the foreign steel companies are upset, but surely Speaker Ryan can’t be — can he? Let’s hope he clarifies his position.

The Buy American Act, requiring government contractors favor American-made products, was first passed in 1933. A similar law related to mass transit infrastructure projects was passed in 1982. This is what most countries do. They enact policies that support job creation in their countries, policies that put their citizens to work.

I know some may raise concerns about the free market or object to “protectionism.” But I guarantee if you polled the issue, “buy American” would win hands down.

I have little doubt that the vast majority of Americans — especially those blue collar workers who just helped Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton — would agree that American companies should produce the steel the government buys for major taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects or for the ships, planes and tanks the Pentagon buys with our money.

Dr. Carson To HUD

The Trump transition team announced [yesterday] that Dr. Ben Carson has been selected as secretary for Housing and Urban Development.

In a statement announcing the choice, President-elect Trump praised Dr. Carson’s intellect and his commitment to strengthening families in our inner cities. Trump added, “Ben shares my optimism about the future of our country and is part of ensuring that this is a presidency representing all Americans.”