In 2016, Donald Trump overwhelmed 16 qualified Republican primary rivals and became the first major-party presidential nominee without prior political or military experience. Against even greater odds, Trump defeated in the general election a far better funded and politically connected Hillary Clinton.

What are his chances of repeating that surprising victory in 2020?

In 2016, Trump had no record to run on. That blank slate fueled claims that such a political novice could not possibly succeed. It also added an element of mystery and excitement, with the possibility that an outsider could come into town to clean up the mess.

Trump now has a record, not just promises. Of course, his base supporters and furious opponents have widely different views of the Trump economy and foreign policy… Read Full Story at PJ Media

• The Hill: Trump Mulls Deploying Emergency Disaster Workers to Detention Centers
• Washington Examiner: Trump’s Ohio Visit Puts Spotlight on Government, Pentagon Waste
• The Washington Free Beacon: 2020 Dems Alienating Voters With Abortion
• The Federalist: Border Patrol Nabbed 400 Illegals in Under 5 Minutes Yesterday
• Mediaite: Lou Dobbs Defends Trump: ‘Asinine’ for Republicans to Attack Him Over McCain Comments

I might be slightly less hostile to the Green New Deal, had I not walked home the other Sunday in a hail storm. Even before the BB-sized bits of ice came shooting down from the heavens that morning, this winter has been brutal, from Gotham to the Golden Gate.

Our Lady of Perpetual Limelight, Saint Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demands that America battle so-called “deadly, manmade global warming” as if it were Nazi Germany. Ten-year cost: $93 trillion. But this supposed threat somehow seems less menacing than Adolf Hitler and the Wehrmacht.

Temperature gauges aboard space-based satellites have recorded average global temperatures on Earth that peaked in 1997 and then slid or flat-lined from there. A quick, El Niño warming spike broke this “pause” in 2015-2016, followed by declining average readings. This virtual absence of observed warming led Greenpeace’s Steven Guilbeault to explain: “Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that’s what we’re dealing with.”

Perhaps suspecting that such authentic frontier gibberish was not — as the Greens say — sustainable, the government-control-hungry Left ditched their “global warming!” battle cry and instead screamed, “Climate change! Climate CHANGE! CLIMATE CHANGE!” This nebulous phrase is magically self-confirming. The absence of global warming disproves global warming. However, the absence of climate change is nothing that should worry the alarmists since the climate always changes. It has done so since the dinosaurs ran this place. So, warming equals climate change. Cooling equals climate change. Droughts equal climate change. Floods equal climate change.

How convenient! … Read Full Story at The American Spectator

• Washington Examiner: Trump Brandishes Anti-Socialism Message as Political Weapon in 2020 Campaign
• The Hill: Nunes Sues Twitter, Users for More Than $250M
• Mediaite: Joe Scarborough Mocks Evangelical Support: Trump Is the ‘Antithesis’ of Biblical Teachings
• Townhall: Muslim Doctor Shocks CNN After Saying Trump, GOP ‘Beloved’ in Much of the Muslim World
• The Wall Street Journal: Spreading Rumors About Trump Wasn’t McCain’s Finest Hour

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that congressional opposition to her department’s border security measures makes her “fear for our democracy,” insisting that members of Congress focus on changing the law instead of asking DHS to change how it is enforced.

“I said it before, but I really fear for our democracy when the body who creates the laws is telling the body who enforces the law, ‘just don’t enforce the law,’” Nielsen said in an interview with Fox News.

“If they don’t like the law, they should change it. But the men and women at the Department of Homeland Security have sworn an oath to protect communities to secure the homeland and to enforce the law that Congress passed.” Read Full Story at Politico

• The Hill: Trump Vows Veto Ahead of Senate Vote on Emergency Declaration
• Washington Examiner: House Votes 420-0 to Release Mueller’s Report to the Public
• The Washington Free Beacon: Cotton Defends U.S. Withdrawal From INF Treaty: Russia Understands ‘Iron Will and Brute Force’
• Townhall: Democrats Pursue Yet Another Russia Investigation, Ignore Another Real Crisis
• USA Today: Democrats’ Civil War Between Progressives, Moderates Will Bring 2020 Trump Victory