Nikki Haley Resigned, But …

Nikki Haley shocked the world this week when she resigned from her position as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. I have great respect for Haley. She was a firm yet respectful conservative voice in a liberal U.N. and was one of the most high-profile people in the Cabinet. I wrote about her in God and Donald Trump and again in Trump Aftershock, which is coming out on Election Day, Nov. 6.

Since Haley’s resignation, people have been wondering why she gave up a position she was so good at, especially when she had favor with so many people and even with Donald Trump. Haley says she resigned for personal reasons and even told the president about her decision several weeks prior.

Some have speculated that Haley is stepping down in order to run for president in 2020, but she denies any such motive. On the contrary, she says she plans to campaign for his re-election. Haley is a loyal supporter of Trump, although she isn’t afraid to speak out if she believes it’s important.

And Haley isn’t the only one loyal to Trump. In Chapter 1: “Capital Psychosis” of Trump Aftershock, I write about just how loyal Trump supporters are to their president.

Perhaps most disconcerting for Trump’s adversaries is the fact that, regardless of what he says or does, and no matter what scandals or fiascoes the media manage to summon up, the base has remained faithful and continued to support the president and his agenda at all costs. In fact, there seems to be an uncanny pattern to Trump’s media disasters. Whether it’s his tweets about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; the NFL anthem kneelers; or his criticism of the young Parkland, Florida, anti-gun protesters, every attempt to paint the president as rude, insensitive or simply wrong falls on deaf ears. And worse, within days or hours, a major news event often comes along to confirm that Trump got it right and his accusers missed the boat.

These twists of fate have critics scratching their heads. I experienced their exasperation personally when several national news interviewers started by asking me to explain how evangelicals can overlook reports of infidelity and still support the president. In essence, these journalists were saying, “What will it take for Trump’s evangelical supporters to finally abandon him?” In an editorial for the Washington Post, guest columnist and Ohio newspaper publisher Gary Abernathy addressed this question. Over the years, he said, it has been commonly accepted that all presidential candidates will say whatever it takes to win, and once in office those promises are either abandoned or ignored. But not so with this president, who “has remained as constant as the northern star.” The writer then asked, “Has Trump really behaved in some new manner that wasn’t on full display during the campaign? The outrageous tweets, the bluster, the self-aggrandizement, the insults—Trump the commander in chief is virtually identical to Trump the neophyte candidate.”

Even as he exhibits what critics see as negative attributes, Trump has worked diligently to fulfill his campaign promises, including the following:

• Appointing a conservative Supreme Court justice to replace Antonin Scalia.
• Making border security a top priority.
• Enacting far-reaching and widely popular tax cuts.
• Repealing Obamacare.
• Empowering American manufacturing and energy production.
• Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordering the American Embassy to be relocated there.

“No one who backed Trump as a candidate, with all his flaws,” Abernathy writes, “has been given much reason to abandon him.”

Among all his missteps, the one many thought would bring Trump’s candidacy to a screeching halt was the Access Hollywood tape and the allegations of several women that Trump had sexually assaulted them. But lost on many liberals, Abernathy says, was the fact that the media had already declared during the presidency of Bill Clinton that such stories no longer matter. The Democrats had long-since won the debate. Consequently, Trump was immune on that topic, and, as I referenced in several media interviews, neither Access Hollywood nor the more recent Stormy Daniels mess would be enough to slow his momentum. The voters understand that everyone’s closet has skeletons, and, the columnist adds, “Trump’s closet door has long stood wide open. No new revelations about his personal life were going to shock or shake his supporters.”

Surprisingly BBC’s U.S. correspondent Katty Kay seems to have come to a similar conclusion. “To understand why somewhere between 35-38 percent of Americans consistently approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing, you need to reframe the way you look at his voters. It’s not what they are for that matters, it’s what they are against. So it’s not that a third of U.S. voters are fervently on the side of Donald Trump—what’s more relevant is that they are adamantly on the opposing side of a culture war that’s been brewing here since the 1980s.”

Kay continues: “Mr. Trump is against the political establishment (the media, the Republican Party, political grandees like the Bushes and the Clintons) and change (which encompasses everything you had but fear you are losing) and he’s against the world (which has taken jobs and sent immigrants to take over America). You can trace the roots of this culture war back to Ronald Reagan’s moral majority. Historians may even go back to the civic explosions of the 1960s. If you believe America is engaged in a life-or-death battle over its identity, in which the past looks golden and the future looks, well, brown-ish, then Mr. Trump sounds like he’s on your side.”

In my book, I share more insight about why Trump’s manages to maintain such loyal support. In fact, the book highlights the untold story the leftist media wants to pretend doesn’t exist—Trump’s accomplishments.

Samuel Rodriguez has read Trump Aftershock and appreciates its Christian journalistic perspective.

“Stephen Strang does it again!” Rodriguez says. “In Trump Aftershock, Strang captures with journalistic brilliance the unprecedented change and impact unleashed by the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Strang not only informs us of what has changed, but he tells us why things have changed. Anyone interested in finding out why 81 percent of evangelicals voted for and continue to support Donald Trump must read this book!”

Trump Aftershock doesn’t release until Nov. 6, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or at trumpaftershock.com. On that website, you’ll find a compelling video trailer, where I explain why this book is so important for our culture right now. And if you order the book on trumpaftershock.com, you’ll also receive the first three chapters of the book in PDF format, an e-book of Trump Aftershock, an e-book of God and Donald Trump, and a subscription to Charisma magazine—all free.

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