{"id":12741,"date":"2020-12-01T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12741"},"modified":"2020-11-30T22:00:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T06:00:55","slug":"trump-faces-a-critical-choice-about-his-political-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-faces-a-critical-choice-about-his-political-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Faces a Critical Choice About His Political Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Donald Trump&nbsp;is nearing a crossroads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who allege that he has endangered the tradition of smooth presidential transitions by not conceding immediately after the media declared him the loser suffer amnesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Trump was elected in 2016, the Washington establishment lost its collective mind. The top echelon of the FBI and CIA were still spreading a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/09\/steeles-dossier-source-was-a-suspected-russian-spy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fraudulent Christopher Steele dossier<\/a>&nbsp;paid for by the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly before Trump\u2019s inauguration, President Barack Obama called Vice President Joe Biden, National-Security Adviser Susan Rice, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and FBI director James Comey into the Oval Office. The purpose of the meeting was reportedly to collate progress reports about how best to continue&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/05\/fbi-set-up-michael-flynn-to-preserve-trump-russia-probe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">government surveillance of Trump\u2019s designated national-security adviser, Michael Flynn<\/a>, and thereby disrupt the transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2020\/11\/trump-faces-a-critical-choice-about-his-political-future\">Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Donald Trump&nbsp;is nearing a crossroads. Those who allege that he has endangered the tradition of smooth presidential transitions by not conceding immediately after the media declared him the loser suffer amnesia. When Trump was elected in 2016, the Washington establishment lost its collective mind. The top echelon of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3jv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10310,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-and-his-generals\/","url_meta":{"origin":12741,"position":0},"title":"Trump and His Generals","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson National Review Trump\u2019s reliance on his generals shows that he values merit over politics. Donald Trump earned respect from the Washington establishment for appointing three of the nation\u2019s most accomplished generals to direct his national-security policy: James Mattis (secretary of defense), H. R. McMaster (national-security adviser),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;McMaster&quot;","block_context":{"text":"McMaster","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/mcmaster\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11715,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/never-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":12741,"position":1},"title":"Never What?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review I wrote a book,\u00a0The Case for Trump, in an effort \u2014 as an outsider who has no career investment in Trump and has never met him or visited the Trump White House \u2014 to analyze how and why Donald J. Trump was elected president\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11149,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-seeks-middle-ground-in-foreign-policy-balancing-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":12741,"position":2},"title":"Trump Seeks Middle Ground in Foreign-Policy Balancing Act","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review The best course is to use overwhelming military force only when the interests or credibility of America and its allies are on the line. Was the latest round of airstrikes in Syria a one-time hit to restore deterrence and stop the future use of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11263,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-left-cant-come-to-grips-with-loss-of-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":12741,"position":3},"title":"The Left Can\u2019t Come to Grips with Loss of Power","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review There\u2019s no better explanation for the current progressive meltdown. Key Trump administration officials have been confronted at restaurants. Representative Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) urged protesters to hound Trump officials at restaurants, gas stations, or department stores. Progressive pundits and the liberal media almost daily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11721,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-cabin-boys-attack\/","url_meta":{"origin":12741,"position":4},"title":"When Cabin Boys Attack","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Julie Kelly \/\/ American Greatness Victor Davis Hanson is about as accomplished and\u00a0credentialed\u00a0a commentator you can find. He\u2019s an author, a military historian, a senior fellow at Stanford University\u2019s Hoover Institution, and a farmer in California. President George W. Bush awarded Hanson the National Humanities Award in 2007. By all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Case for Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Case for Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-case-for-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12655,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-escaping-wile-e-coyotevirus\/","url_meta":{"origin":12741,"position":5},"title":"Trump, Escaping Wile E. Coyotevirus","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Once\u00a0it was announced that President Trump had COVID-19, the media almost immediately talked of all the people in the \u201cTrump orbit\u201d who fell ill from COVID-19 \u2014 including many on his staff, U.S. senators, and at least three White House reporters. The surreal subtext\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12743,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12741\/revisions\/12743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}