The best part of President Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia may have been what was missing: an apology. After eight years of Obama-sponsored groveling, Americans probably forgot what leading from a position of strength looks like. And while a 34-minute speech can’t undo almost a decade of servility, it was a good start to reasserting our place as the unapologetic leader of the free world.

Unlike President Obama, who offered reparations for every American act since the Revolutionary War, Donald Trump made it clear that the only thing he’s sorry about is that the legacy of political correctness has gotten in the way of true problem-solving. Taking a firmer tact than President George W. Bush, who went to great pains to paint Islam as a “religion of peace,” this White House didn’t leave the enemy to anyone’s imagination. “There is still much work to do,” he told the more than 55 Muslim heads of state gathered in Riyadh. “That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires. And it means standing together against the murder of innocent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews, and the slaughter of Christians… There can be no coexistence with this violence. There can be no tolerating it, no accepting it, no excusing it, and no ignoring it.”

After two terms of embarrassing passivity, Americans cheered the idea that it was time to combat the extremism responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people. Daniel Pipes at NRO beat back the notion that Trump’s tone was too mild. Like most of us, he understands that the president was tailoring his remarks to his audience. “[I]t was a good speech that signaled a major shift in the right direction from the Obama years — particularly with regard to Iran and Islam. Most important was Trump’s willingness to point to the ideology of Islamism as the enemy. This matters exceedingly for, just as a physician must first identify a problem before treating it, so a strategist must identify the enemy before defeating it. To talk about ‘evildoers,’ ‘terrorists,’ and ‘violent extremists’ is to miss the enemy’s Islamic core.”

One thing’s for sure: This isn’t Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Trump, who showed a side of true statesmanship, reestablished America as a no-nonsense partner in the war against radical Islam. Of course, the same media that’s attacked him for taking a hard line on the Middle East is now accusing Trump of being “too moderate.” But they’ll have a tough time persuading people after lines like this one: “If you choose the path of terror, your life will be empty, your life will be brief, and your soul will be condemned.”

Then, putting the bulk of the responsibility on the Muslim nations to intervene, Trump went on to say, “Religious leaders must make this absolutely clear: Barbarism will deliver you no glory — piety to evil will bring you no dignity… It is a choice between two futures — and it is a choice America cannot make for you.” But, he warned, doing nothing will bring “suffering, death, despair.” Hardly the stuff of easy-going diplomacy.

And, as FRC’s Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.) pointed out, this was a far cry from his predecessor, who wanted us to believe that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was going to cooperate with U.S. “He came down hard on Iran,” Gen. Boykin said, a nod at Trump’s declaration that it’s a country that “speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room.” He also praised the White House’s admonition that America isn’t the solution to the evils of terrorism. Each of these leaders will have to act to, as the president said, “drive them out. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land. And drive them out of this Earth.” Powerful words for a critical moment. “Only time will tell what the total impact of the speech will be,” Gen. Boykin went on, “but what’s clear is that America has a bold leader again.”

Originally published here.

The Lack of the Irish

President Trump understands the power of force multiplication. Thankfully, he’s not alone in the quest to turn America around. And he’s assembled a pretty impressive team to prove it — starting with the vice president. The longtime congressman-turned-second-in-command has been a calming and stately presence since Day One. With decades of policy experience, Mike Pence has brought a lot more to the table than a lot of men who’ve won the title. Case in point: his speech at Notre Dame’s graduation.

The Class of 2017’s choice of a commencement speaker wasn’t without its share of controversy, but Mike handled the situation with the kind of poise people have come to expect from the Hoosier. In fact, he used the opportunity to point people back to the problem — political correctness on college campuses. That much was evidence when a few dozen LGBT activists walked out of the auditorium in protest. (Once again we see that all the talk about “tolerance” is just that. Talk.) “This university is a vanguard of freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas at a time, sadly, when free speech and civility are waning on campuses across America,” the vice president argued. “I would submit that the increasing intolerance and suppression of the time-honored tradition of free expression on our campuses jeopardizes the liberty of every American,” he warned.

Unfortunately, it was a message some students never heard. A group of liberal graduates and their families stood up and left at the beginning of Pence’s remarks, giving the media a juicy distraction that was fanned by far-Left groups like GLAAD, which applauded the students’ supposed “leadership.” To many Notre Dame alums, it was a sad commentary on the church’s compromise on the cultural issues of the day. After all, this is a religious institution that was once rooted in biblical morality. Like a number of faith-based institutions, it’s surrendered important ground on the question of sexuality, which history tells us is just a harbinger of further moral compromise.

Still, as our good friend (and Fighting Irish alum) Chuck Donovan pointed out, “Let’s not forget the 3,000 who stayed, listened respectfully, celebrated a great achievement, and alongside family and friends took another step on the road to lives of mature faith and service to God and community. As for the dozens, you live in a nation where you can do this without fear of reprisal or scorn. On this day when that is not true for more than half the world’s people, cherish this right and defend it for yourselves and others, rain or shine, popular or unpopular.” Perhaps Pence’s words will spark a return to that day when, as he said, “opposing views are debated and where every speaker, no matter how unpopular or unfashionable, is afforded the right to air their views in the open for all to hear.”

Originally published here.

Macro Outrage Over Micro Study

The federal “wastebooks” are fun to read, but let’s hope that under President Trump, they won’t be nearly as long! The compilation of ridiculous spending projects has everyone laughing — at their own expense. But with Congress ready to debate a trimmer budget, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) shouldn’t have to devote nearly as much time to the outrageous earmarks that became common under Obama.

Unfortunately, it will take time to weed out some of the expensive examples of political correctness — like the controversial new grant for the University of Georgia. Last week, campus officials announced that they’d won $229,061 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study “microaggressions.” In case you’re not up on PC lingo, that’s “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group.”

Apparently, the lead professor on the project thinks that microaggression is the primary reason more minorities aren’t working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. “This grant can have an impact on the number of African-American and Latino faculty members we have in science education,” researcher Mary Atwater told reporters. As usual, the Left refuses to focus on the real barriers to academic success like failing education systems, poverty, and family breakdown. It’s so consumed by this phony crisis of sensitivity that it can’t even focus on the real threats facing our nation. At a time when our military is literally looting museums for plane parts, surely we can think of better ways to spend U.S. dollars.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.