The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Bold Measures & The Cost of Correcting the Left

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

On this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” a Daily Signal original, Hanson discusses the initial days of the Trump administration and the backlash from the Left. He compares the costs associated with corrective measures to those of the policies originally enacted by the Left.  “Over these first few days of the Trump administration, we've seen these bold measures. And it's starting to incur a big backlash, or anger, or counter response from the Left.”  “They're saying, well, Donald Trump wants to build the wall. Does he have any idea what it's going to cost? Well, a couple of things: What was the cost of letting 12 million people in here? Twelve million people. We have no idea. What was the cost of allowing 80 to 100,000 people to die every year from cartel-imported fentanyl? So, there was a cost. And that cost was much greater than building the wall.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. Over these first few days of the Trump administration, we've seen these bold measures, and it's starting to incur a big backlash or anger or counter response from the left. It's almost as if, well, the person who's going 100 miles drunk, and when you pull him over, the cost to arrest him, to bring him in to the police station, to arraign him, to indict him, to impound his car is so much more than the damage he did by going 100 miles and endangering people. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen again for the Daily Signal.

Over these first few days of the Trump administration, we've seen these bold measures, and it's starting to incur a big backlash or anger or counter response from the left. And it runs something like this. Well, yes, maybe this needed corrected, but it's going to be so expensive. Do you understand what you're doing? You're supposed to be cost cutters, and now you're going to spend all this money to rectify something. It's almost as if, well, the person who's going 100 miles drunk, and when you pull him over, the cost to arrest him, to bring him in to the police station, to arraign him, to indict him, to impound his car,

is so much more than the damage he did by going 100 miles and endangering people. So you don't arrest him, in other words. So here's what I mean. We're told, oh, Donald Trump is spending billions of dollars to fill the strategic patrolling reserve. Does he have any idea? Well, who emptied it? When he left office, there was about 650 million barrels. They got down to 340. It's only 40. I mean, he took almost half of it. And why did Joe Biden do that? He timed it right before the midterms and the general elections so he could lower the price of gas. There was no national emergency. There was no global tensions, which the reserve was designed to preempt. So yes, it's going to be expensive to fill it back up because Joe Biden drained it for his own political selfishness.

Another thing is about the wall. They're saying, well, Donald Trump wants to build the wall. Does he have any idea what's going to cost? Well, a couple of things. What was the cost of letting 12 million people in here? 12 million people, we have no idea. What was the cost of allowing 80 to 100,000 people to die every year from a cartel imported fentanyl? What was the cost of telling legal applicants wait in line for six, seven years with real talent, some of them?

You can't come in because we have to handle all of this. What was the cost to tell people our own citizens who are in social service dependencies? Sorry, the doctor's office is too crowded. So there was a cost, and that cost was much greater than building the wall. We have 700 miles that are walled pretty well now. There's gaps. The governor of Texas is helping. We have a 2,000 mile border. We need another 1,300 miles. Some of it is in rough terrain. Some of it is on the banks of rivers. We don't know exactly what can be walled and not. But the wall is a reaction to the waste and expenditure of the left, and it will save money in the long term. Now, finally, there's also this question of DEI. Everybody's saying, Donald Trump, just to lend it. ended DEI. And he's giving them paid leads. So Mr. Costcutter is telling people to go home and not do anything. Well, no, he's telling them, I'm not going to be sued right now. You're going to get out

right away because you're doing damage every second. And anytime you're not on the job, even if we have to pay you for a while, we're saving money. Because your sin is not just co-mission, in other words, you're a what, a Russian-Soviet comsar who is overlooking every type of productive activity and say, no, you don't. That person needs to not be in the pool. I'm disturbed about that talented person because they're the wrong race or the wrong religion or the wrong sex or the wrong sexual orientation. But they also commit this sin of omission. Why we spend all these money and these programs, we're taking money away from other things. It's been estimated, just to take one final example, in the National Institute of Health, $50 billion, maybe a fifth of that money is not on scientific research or medical studies to cure cancer or to cure viruses, but things like, what is the race, sexual orientation, gender of this.

particular group and were they treated fairly by this particular program. So maybe we're going to spend $5 million to look at how many people got chemotherapy and see if we can just find, just we hope we can find there is some discrimination. That's not going to get you a better chemotherapy. And so there was a sin of omission. What we didn't do because we were spending on DEI and co-mission, we were discriminating against people and robbing ourselves of talent. Bottom line is the corrective, the remedy for this malady is going to be expensive, and that's what the left is glomming on to. But they're forgetting that the malady itself that they cause was far more expensive than the cure. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal.

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