President Trump met Monday at the White House with a group of black pastors, including Rev. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Contrary to the left’s delusional hysteria, this was not some hastily arranged “damage control” photo-op.

Speaking to Fox & Friends yesterday, Dr. King said:

We were invited to continue our discussions with the president…  Many of the African-American pastors have met with the president before… The president spent a long time with us, and the meeting was not a photo-op… All of us in that room are working to reunite America’s families and strengthen the economy…

King said that Trump “absolutely is not a racist,” that his economic and criminal justice reform policies are helping minorities and that he is working to draw attention to the plight of inner city minority communities. He certainly succeeded in doing that!

Trump also succeeded in getting several Democrat presidential candidates to align themselves with Al Sharpton!

By the way, Baltimore really is a mess. Consider this analysis of Baltimore’s crime rate:

Among the largest 30 American cities, Baltimore has the highest crime rate, and is a close second to Detroit for the highest rate of violent crime. But for murders, Baltimore is second to no other city, with more than 50 homicides per 100,000 people. That puts Charm City in the ranks of Jamaica, Venezuela and El Salvador in terms of lethality.

Perhaps the residents of Baltimore should claim to be illegal immigrants and refugees fleeing the gangs and violence plaguing their community. Maybe then Elijah Cummings and the left-wing Democrat establishment would pay more attention to them!

Trump Celebrates America

President Trump celebrated American democracy yesterday at an event in Williamsburg, Virginia, honoring the 400th anniversary of the first representative legislative assembly meeting. The president delivered a stirring tribute to the courage of the first English settlers, our founding fathers and our country’s commitment to advancing civil rights.

While acknowledging the difficult path that journey has taken, the president urged all Americans to be “proud of our heritage, united by our purpose and filled with confidence in our shared great American destiny.” You can watch the president’s speech here.

Also in 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation making “In God We Trust” America’s national motto. I am pleased to report that more schools are posting our national motto in prominent places.

The House and Senate have on different occasions voted to reaffirm our national motto. It would be interesting to see how “In God We Trust” might fare in Congress today. As President Reagan famously observed, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.”

Importing Hate

There was breaking news yesterday that Ahmed Mahad Mohamed, 21, and Abdi Yemani Hussein, 20, had been arrested Friday, charged with supporting ISIS. Both men came to the United States as refugees from Somalia. They bragged to undercover FBI agents about wanting to behead infidels.

As you may recall, last summer the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s so-called “travel ban” from a number of Muslim countries. One of those countries was Somalia.

According to government data, the Obama Administration admitted “more than 47,000” Somali refugees into the United States from 2010 to 2016. While it is impossible to know how many of them are Islamic supremacists, we know that “Little Mogadishu” in Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district has become a hotbed of jihadi recruitment.

While radical Islamic terrorism has faded from the headlines, the danger is still very real. There have been several terror-related arrests in recent weeks. For example:

• FBI agents arrested Delowar Mohammed Hossain at JFK airport last week.

• Last month, the FBI arrested Mustafa Mousab Alowemer for plotting to blow up a church in Pittsburgh. Alowemer came to the United States in 2016 as a refugee from Syria.

• Also in June, Ashiqul Alam, a Bangladeshi immigrant, was arrested for plotting attacks in Times Square.

• In May, ISISI sympathizer Waqar Ul-Hassan was arrested at a North Carolina airport after returning from Pakistan.

Commenting on the arrest of the Somali refugees, President Trump tweeted yesterday, “Get smart people!” He’s right. It’s well past time that we implemented commonsense immigration reforms that ensured we were no longer importing hate into the country.

McConnell Fights McCarthyism

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor Mlnday to defend himself against “hyperventilating hacks” who have accused him of being “unpatriotic,” “treasonous” and “a Russian asset.” McConnell blasted the left’s “modern-day McCarthyism” as “toxic” and “damaging.”

How did Mitch McConnell get branded “Moscow Mitch”? He has blocked Democrat attempts to pass sweeping bills that essentially nationalize the election process and infringe on the First Amendment. Congress has already allocated $380 million for election security purposes, but you never hear about that.

By the way, the Senate Intelligence Committee recently issued its report on Russia’s election meddling. It found that Russian interference began extensively in 2014. Gee, who was the president then and exactly what did he do about it?