When President Trump announced he was going to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, many on the Left and some of his “#NeverTrump” critics mocked him. Some said Trump had deceived his base in Middle America. Others suggested he was going to insult the world.

Well, the president addressed the Forum Friday and neither of those things happened. He spoke to a bunch of people who would like open borders and global government, but Trump made it very clear that he was not part of that gang.

As he has said many times, he is president of the United States, not president of the world. He said, “I’m here to represent the interests of the American people and affirm America’s friendship and partnership in building a better world.”

Far from what his critics alleged, Trump neither sold us out nor did he attack every other nation. He trumpeted the success of tax reform (more on that below) and declared, “There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the United States. America is open for business and we are competitive once again.”

President Trump extolled the virtues of democratic capitalism, but he pointedly said that a nation was more than just its GDP. It is also, he said, “the sum of its citizens, the values, pride, love, devotion and character of the people who call that nation home.”

You can watch the president’s remarks here.

By the way, many commentators have noted that Donald Trump caused more of a stir at Davos than anyone since Angelina Jolie. Angelina Jolie caused a big stir? What does that say about the Davos crowd and the media that covers it?

Good News

Add Home Depot to the long list of businesses offering bonuses and bigger paychecks to their workers. According to the latest tally, 250 companies are boosting wages and benefits for more than three million workers as a result of President Trump’s historic tax reform plan. The stock market is in record territory again.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of small-business owners believe the president’s policies are helping them, and they are responding accordingly.

Keep in mind, my friends, that Barack Obama and the Democrats could have done this at any time when they controlled Congress and the White House. But they didn’t. Instead, we got a socialized health care scheme and eight years of the worst economic growth in decades.

And don’t forget that every single Democrat voted against the president’s tax reform plan. Remember that in November!

Deal or No Deal?

The White House put an immigration reform deal on the table. At first glance, it includes many ideas that polled well in a recent Harvard survey — help for DACA recipients, an end to chain migration and the diversity visa lottery, as well as $25 billion for serious border security measures, including a wall.

However, many on the Left and the Right are unhappy with the deal, and I think it is very revealing what the objections are.

Conservatives are objecting because they believe in the rule of law and feel that any kind of quasi-amnesty still sends a bad message to those eager to enter the country illegally.

Moreover, in what the White House describes as an “extraordinarily generous concession,” the plan goes well beyond the DACA recipients, which presents many additional concerns.

The Left is outraged because it does not want to limit immigration in any way. It does not want to end chain migration, and it does not want to secure our borders. The Left wants open borders. It wants millions of future Democrats to pour into the country legally or otherwise.

We will see what happens next, but I think the White House just brilliantly exposed the extremism of the party of Pelosi and Schumer. The Left sees illegal immigrants as “dreamers” while it castigates American citizens as “deplorables.”

Never Again

On Jan. 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, revealing some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust. More than one million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. Nearly all of them were Jews, killed as part of Hitler’s “final solution to the Jewish question,” which ultimately claimed six million Jewish lives.

In 2005, as then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was threatening a second Holocaust by vowing to “wipe Israel off the map,” the United Nations voted to recognize January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Below are excerpts of President Trump’s proclamation recognizing this somber anniversary.

Tomorrow marks the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death and concentration camp in Poland. We take this opportunity to recall the Nazis’ systematic persecution and brutal murder of six million Jewish people…

Our Nation is indebted to the Holocaust’s survivors… Although they are aging and their numbers are slowly dwindling, their stories remain with us, giving us the strength to combat intolerance, including anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry and discrimination.

Every generation must learn and apply the lessons of the Holocaust to prevent new horrors against humanity from occurring… We must remain vigilant to protect the fundamental rights and inherent dignity of every human being.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we acknowledge this dark stain on human history and vow to never let it happen again.