The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Beware of These Political Land Mines, President Trump

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

The Trump administration has delivered significant achievements on border security, energy production, crime reduction, and foreign policy in its first 10 months, but several overlooked issues could become serious vulnerabilities if not addressed before the midterms.   Victor Davis Hanson breaks down the major political challenges that could quietly undermine the Trump administration’s momentum heading into 2026 and why the administration must shift its public messaging toward the economy on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”   “ Donald Trump has naturally talked about achieving peace with Ethiopia and Egypt, or Pakistan or India, or what we accomplish by taking out the nuclear facilities in Iran, etc. But the elections are not won on foreign policy, unfortunately, or maybe fortunate. They're won on economics. And the Left, in that vacuum, and that lack of praise for the accomplishments of the Trump administration on energy, on GDP, on the stock market, on deregulation, on tax reform, and what will happen in 2026 when, I think, foreign investment and these new technologies will help, in addition, spur the economy and relieve our worries about inflation and affordability—we have to talk about that. Specifically, he has to talk about the comparison of the Biden administration with both his first term, but more importantly, with what he's done the first 10 to 11 months, and what will ensue in 2026 for the things he's doing now.”   00:00 Introduction 00:58 Achievements and Comparisons 04:20 HB-1 Visas Controversy 05:50 Final Thoughts     👉 This episode is sponsored by the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. Learn more: https://go.pepperdine.edu/dailysignal   👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enabling notification:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1    👉More exclusive content are available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com     👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think most of our listeners, I know I do, favor the current administration and what it's accomplished. It's miraculous achievements, but there are landmines that the Trump administration has to be very careful of. Elections are not won on foreign policy, unfortunately. They're one on economics, on energy, on GDP, on the stock market, on deregulation, on tax reform. And what will happen in 2006 when I think foreign investment and these new technologies will help, in addition, spur the economy. and we leave our worries about inflation and affordability. We have to talk about that. Specifically, he has to talk about the comparison of the Biden administration

with both his first term, but more importantly, with what he's done the first 10 to 11 months, and what will ensue in 2006 for the things he's doing now. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen, the Daily Signal. I think most of our listeners, I know I do, favor the current administration and what it's accomplished. It's miraculous achievements on the border, on energy production, reduction of crime. The Big Beautiful Bill has a lot of good elements in it. Foreign policy has been spectacular, denuclear rising for the present, the Iranian Theocracy, having achieved

seven or eight ceasefires abroad, trying to address the war in Ukraine. These are all positive developments, but there are landmines that the Trump administration has to be very careful of. One of them is that in his success overseas, Donald Trump has naturally talked about achieving peace with Ethiopia and Egypt, or Pakistan or India, or what we accomplished by taking out the nuclear facilities in Iran, et cetera. But the elections are not won on foreign policy, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, they're won on economics. And the left, in that vacuum and that lack of praise for the accomplishments of the Trump administration on energy, on GDP, on the stock market, on deregulation, on tax

reform, and what will happen in 2006 when I think foreign investment and these new technologies will help, in addition, spur the economy. and we leave our worries about inflation and affordability. We have to talk about that. Specifically, he has to talk about the comparison of the Biden administration with both his first term, but more importantly, with what he's done the first 10 to 11 months, and what will ensue in 2006 for the things he's doing now.

A second, very quickly, a second landmine is, why would we want to increase the Chinese student population from the current near 300,000 to 600,000, that's contrary to the MAGA agenda of American First. There are 300,000 Americans that would love to come to college that either can't afford it or can't get in because of the competition with over 1 million foreign students. One million foreign students welcomed by the universities because their governments pay the full bill and they can overcharge them by 10 or 15%. And yet we know that of the 300,000 students, roughly here, that one or two or three or four percent engage in active espionage, that's several thousand, two, three, four, five thousand.

We know that because when we look at the end result, sophisticated satellites, rocketry, aircraft carriers, they look almost identical to ours. And they are the results of skipping billions of dollars in investment, years of research, and leapfrogged. to parity with us by appropriating our technology in large part and often by the presence of so many Chinese national. When we were in a race, an existential race with the Soviet Union, we did not have Russian students here. That would have been seen as insane. So we should be trying to gradually, without provocation, reducing the size of the Chinese nationalist population, not doubling it. And finally, there's this question very controversially of HB1 visas. These are the visas that are reserved for people with unique skills that supposedly

Americans don't have, but they would be integral to our prosperity, security, and national success. PhDs in computer engineering, master's degrees in French language that the professor, as a professor, a high-stakes athlete or model even to enrich our culture. And nobody objects to that. There's about 500,000 of these HB1 visas already, but as part of the negotiations with trade and tariffs and our foreign relations with other countries, we have said that we would like to take in a lot more HB1 visas. The problem with that is these countries don't view it the same way as we do. They would like to send their students with bachelor's degrees or the students themselves would like to come with no singular skills at all,

any different than most Americans who graduate with a bachelor's degree in computer, science, engineering, finance. In other words, we have plenty of Americans that would be able to do the things that foreign nationals would that we would bring in over the current limit of 500,000. And it's contrary to the MAGA agenda of America first. So it's a contradiction in terms, and it will hurt the president. So I would suggest very humbly that we take a second look at doubling the number of Chinese students. We take a second look at doubling the number of HB1 visas. I would take a second look at the public relations and the communications about the economy

and begin right now talking about how it is stronger than perceptions. from the left especially and the media, but more importantly, the things that are going on right now by the administration that will improve the economy radically in 2026. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis Hansen for The Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.