Former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes has just written a new book. Rhodes was one of the major architects of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. He later bragged about lying to the media in order to sell the deal to the American people.

In his book, Rhodes tells us that Barack Obama didn’t take Trump’s election very well. “Maybe this is what people want,” Obama reportedly said. “No facts. No consequences. They can just have a cartoon.”

The obvious implication is that Obama thinks Donald Trump is a cartoonish caricature of a president, not a serious leader.

Well, this “cartoon president” is smart enough to know that life begins at conception. Barack Obama said that was “above my paygrade.”

This “cartoon president” instinctively knows why Israel and the U.S. are natural allies. This “cartoon president” has never confused enemies like Iran with friends like Israel.

Obama said he believed in American exceptionalism just like he believed in Greek exceptionalism. Translation: No nation is exceptional. This “cartoon president” is determined to make America great.

This “cartoon president” delivered the greatest defense of Western civilization since Ronald Reagan. During his eight years, Obama defended Islam more aggressively than any president we have ever had and hopefully ever will have.

This “cartoon president” defeated two political dynasties in one election — the Bush dynasty and the Clinton dynasty. He’s also done a good job of crushing the Islamic State caliphate, something Obama did not do.

If we’re making entertainment analogies, what we had for eight years, and what Hillary Clinton would have continued, was a horror story staring the monsters of socialism, progressivism, identity politics, etc.

I won’t waste my money on Rhodes’ book. I’m not that interested in what this lying Obama sycophant has to say. Frankly, I prefer his remarks on Election Night.

Presidential Pardons

The pardon of my old White House colleague Dinesh D'Souza is being lambasted by the left-wing media as “political.” But Trump is simply correcting what was a political prosecution.

Making excessive campaign donations historically results in fines. It rarely results in a criminal prosecution and jail time. We recently wrote about Rosie O'Donnell dodging legal donation limits, and yet there is no talk of prosecuting her.

D'Souza was a well-known outspoken critic of the Obama administration. His prosecution was a prime example of “lawfare,” using the law to target political opponents, which the Left has been doing for decades.

The Left is also howling over rumors that Trump may pardon Martha Stewart. It turns out that she was prosecuted by James Comey.

The power of a president to pardon individuals is extraordinarily broad. We were sadly reminded of that fact when Barack Obama pardoned a terrorist and Chelsea Manning, a traitor who leaked tremendous amounts of national security information.

The sudden interest in the president’s pardon powers comes as he has bemoaned the lives ruined by the Mueller investigation. They have not been ruined because of collusion with Russia. They have been ruined by an overzealous prosecutor hoping to coerce them into making statements that can be used to bring down the administration.

The most notable example is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. It is not at all clear why he was indicted. The FBI agents who interviewed him did not think he lied. But his family has been crushed by legal expenses. Unlike Manning, Flynn is a hero who devoted his life to serving our country.

I have no inside information. But if this “witch hunt,” as the president has called it, by Mueller and his team of Hillary Clinton donors continues, it would not be surprising to see the president exercise his pardon power again.

Left-Wing Extremism

I want to revisit an issue that has made headlines lately — the Left’s devotion to the radical open-borders agenda.

As you know, President Trump made news when he called MS-13 gang members “animals.” The Left and media erupted in fits of rage, even though they took his statement grossly out of context so they could smear him.

When Trump counterattacked and accused Democrats of defending gang members, suddenly the media was insisting on 100% accuracy. The New York Times labeled Trump’s charge as “false.”

But I was recently reminded of something that strongly reinforces the president’s point.

Last year the House of Representatives passed a bill called the Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act. As the name implies, the legislation is intended to speed up the deportation of MS-13 gang members.

Every Republican but one (99.5%) voted for the bill. Every Democrat but 11 (94%) voted against it. That’s a pretty clear distinction between the values of the two parties.

It is one thing to be pro-immigration. But it is unconscionable to not care if the people coming into the country are violent gang members.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell should immediately bring this bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Dare Chuck Schumer to filibuster it or let it pass and watch President Trump sign it into law.

Good News

• May job growth exceeded expectations and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%.

• Paychecks are getting bigger.

• U.S. oil production hit a record of nearly 10.5 million barrels a day.

• President Trump is cutting the federal workforce and making it easier to fire bad bureaucrats, which 58% of Americans think is too hard to do.

• Do you remember the confirmation hearing for CIA Director Gina Haspel? Liberal Democrats scolded her for being mean to terrorists. They actually thought that was a winning issue. It backfired. Polling discovered that public support for Haspel “jumped dramatically” to a 21-point margin after her contentious hearing.

• 54% of Americans and 59% of “big NFL fans” agree with the new policy that fines football teams if players protest the national anthem. Trump wins again!

• The latest Rasmussen poll finds the generic ballot question for control of Congress is essentially tied. At the beginning of the year, Democrats had an eight-point advantage.