President Trump held a tremendous rally Thursday night in Dallas, Texas. Not surprisingly, there was no violence after the rally ended. I suspect the leftists of Antifa had second thoughts about showing their masked faces in Texas!

Trump hit the left hard. He warned that the Democrats want to appoint far-left judges to “shred the Constitution.” He’s absolutely right.

The radical left is pushing a list of more than 30 progressive activists for the Supreme Court. Only four are Obama-appointed judges, meaning that the vast majority of activists on this list were “too extreme” for Barack Obama!

And Trump rightly declared: “The radical left tolerates no dissent, it permits no opposition, it accepts no compromise, and it has absolutely no respect for the will of the American people.”

He also defended his campaign promise to get us out of endless wars, a promise that has been in the news this week given the president’s decision to pull back U.S. forces in Syria. It was very unpopular with the Washington establishment. The House of Representatives voted 354 to 60 to oppose the decision.

But a new poll finds that American voters are much more conflicted about whether U.S. troops should be in Syria.

According to the poll, 33% of voters support Trump’s decision, 37% oppose it, and 30% are unsure. If the vote in the House reflected this poll, the result would have been far less dramatic — 153 to 136 with 124 not voting.

And a recent Rasmussen poll also finds that very few Americans — less than 20% — want us to be “more involved” in Middle East conflicts.

About That Ceasefire

Many pundits are complaining today that Turkey appears to have gotten everything it wanted from the ceasefire Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday.

Well, we wanted a ceasefire and we got it. It gives the Kurds five days to get out of the disputed area. After that, it remains to be seen whether a permanent ceasefire can be achieved.

But what exactly does our suddenly hawkish media want? They have decried every American military involvement since World War II. Just what is it they think Pence and the administration should have extracted from Turkey?

Turkish forces went into Syria because there are groups in that region launching terrorist attacks along the Turkish border. There has been ethnic strife in that region for centuries.

So, the media are attacking the president for trying to get us out of this fight. Do they want him to attack Ankara or Istanbul?

What is the media’s solution to Erdogan’s threats against Incirlik Air Base?

Why aren’t members of Congress opposed to the president’s decision introducing a declaration of war against Turkey?

Where are the European forces coming to intervene?

As Victor Davis Hanson explained, “The chief problem is that the Kurds are our friends but not our legal allies. In contrast, the Turks are not really our friends anymore but are legal, treaty-bound allies.”

Hanson notes that the Kurds are a very diverse group. Some embrace free markets, while others embrace “authoritarian Communism and Islamism.”

Hanson also adds that the “survival strategies [of various Kurdish groups] do not always assure compliance with U.S. anti-terrorist protocols.” In fact, some Kurdish groups are designated as terrorist entities by the U.S. government.

For eight years Obama frittered away our credibility in the Middle East. He allowed ISIS to metastasize. He sent billions of dollars to the Iranian mullahs.

Where were the headlines saying that Iran got everything it wanted from Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal?

What About The Christians?

As you know, I have deep concerns for the security of Christians in the Middle East. This administration has done more in three years to help the Christians of the Middle East than Obama did in eight.

Vice President Pence took direct responsibility for this situation and ordered the bureaucracy to cut through the red tape so that U.S. foreign aid and resources went to Christian communities.

But watching the news lately, I couldn’t help but wonder when did CNN and MSNBC suddenly develop this newfound fondness for Christians?

Most of the time, they are calling us “Nazis,” “deplorables,” and comparing us to the Taliban. The media largely ignored the plight of Middle East Christians while Obama was bringing over more and more Muslim refugees.

By the way, while they are expressing this concern for Middle Eastern Christians, they continue to push for limits on religious liberty here in the United States!

Impeachment Update

Various reports indicate that U.S. Attorney John Durham, the federal prosecutor investigating the Deep State’s meddling in the 2016 election, has gotten ahold of two cellphones that belonged to Professor Joseph Misfud.

Lawyers for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn are demanding access to the data on the cellphones, claiming they contain exculpatory information that could clear Gen. Flynn.

If the reports about the cellphones being in Durham’s custody are true, it is encouraging news that the Deep State investigation is making some progress.

Meanwhile, as Democrats continue down the impeachment path, recent polling sheds some light as to why Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to hold a vote in the full House. Consider these findings from an NPR/PBS Marist poll:

• By a 12-point margin, voters said they were “less likely” to support a member of Congress who voted to impeach President Trump.

• A majority of voters (51%) did not want impeachment discussed at the next Democrat debate.

• And by a whopping 23-point margin, 59% to 36%, voters said that the fate of Trump’s presidency should be decided at the ballot box, not through the impeachment process.

Honoring Israel

Thursday night, I was in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois for a Night to Honor Israel. The event was sponsored by Christians United for Israel and the MGT New Hope Church in Moline, Illinois.

The church was packed! There was tremendous representation from the local Jewish community as well, including Allan Ross, executive director of the Quad Cities Jewish Federation. I was honored to be the keynote speaker at this Night to Honor Israel, and my friend and colleague Pastor Lyndon Allen, CUFI’s Central Region coordinator, also spoke.

Over the past two days, we did radio and TV interviews with local media, and I also addressed a lunch with evangelical leaders.

I want to tip my hat to Tom McGovern, CUFI’s Iowa director, who has been hosting events like this for the past 16 years. Tom and his wife, Kate, were recognized by the local Jewish community and the Israeli government for their many years of dedicated pro-Israel work.

With all the problems confronting the country today, this patriotic crowd was truly inspiring. Their love for America and Israel was on full display as they belted out the American and Israeli national anthems. It was an encouraging reminder that “flyover country,” as the left derisively calls it, is truly the heart of America!