VICTOR JOECKS: The difference between Trump and Biden

President Donald Trump is back. He has brought along the common sense and optimism that were sorely missing during Joe Biden’s failed tenure.

On Monday, Trump returned to the White House. It’s the comeback story of the century — too implausible to be fiction. He went from political newcomer to president. He lost re-election during a pandemic. Social media companies silenced him. The Biden administration and leftist prosecutors attacked him with unprecedented lawfare. God spared his life from an assassin’s bullet.

The contrast between Biden and Trump is striking. Start with their appearance. Biden dropped his presidential bid after a debate revealed to the world the extent of his cognitive decline. He looks frail and weak. Trump is full of energy and exuberance. He gave an inaugural speech and then went to a rally where he spoke and signed executive orders. Ever the showman, he tossed pens into the crowd. Then he returned to the White House and signed more executive orders while bantering with the press.

But there are much deeper differences. Democrats and the propaganda press spent years claiming that Trump was a thoroughly corrupt figure who would use his political office to enrich and protect his family. Right before he left office, Biden pardoned five members of his family. That’s after he pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing jail time for tax and gun crimes. If you remember, Democrats impeached Trump for asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to look into Biden’s corruption. These pardons are a de facto admission of familial guilt.

Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly claimed Trump was a threat to the country. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said in a dark 2022 speech.

But just days before leaving office, Biden declared the U.S. Constitution has a new amendment. It doesn’t, because the self-imposed deadline to pass it came and went decades ago.

“I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land,” he said in a statement. A president trying to amend the Constitution by tweet is a pretty big affront to the “very foundations of our republic.” Yet, it was Biden doing this, not Trump.

There’s a trend here. So much of what the left accuses Trump of is projection.

Trump’s “extremism” looks a lot like common sense to a majority of Americans. The border is now closed. ICE is deporting illegal immigrants. Trump is “unleashing American energy.” The federal government will stop pretending that men can become women. Discrimination in the name of DEI is out. The president even wants to put “people over fish” and get more water to California. No wonder most Americans feel good about the next four years.

Trump’s most controversial action was pardoning most Jan. 6 prisoners. Don’t expect the public to care especially after Biden’s pardon-fest and weaponization of the Justice Department.

Biden was supposed to put the adults back in charge. Instead, his incompetence and the failure of liberal policies left the American public longing for the normalcy of another Trump term.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.