In my last post I wrote about our self-appointed saviors. Omar. Piker. People who cast themselves as the rescuer and America as the villain.
Somebody’s going to say, “What about Trump?”
Fair question. Let’s be honest. Trump plays the savior too. At the 2016 convention he said it out loud: “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
Both sides pitch savior qualities to their own people. So the question isn’t who claims to save. It’s whose side you’re saving, and whether you treat your people as capable or as victims.
That’s the difference.
Trump’s stance is that people, especially Americans, are very capable and are not victims. They’re also very benevolent.
The data back that up. Americans give more of their own money, voluntarily, through private charity than the “moralistic” Europeans do. Individual giving in the U.S. came to 1.44% of GDP. Britain, Europe’s best, gave 0.54%. Germany gave 0.17%. France gave 0.11%. A 2025 survey found the same order on share of income: Americans 0.97%, Britain 0.75%, France 0.45%, Germany 0.39%.
His approach is to uplift American values, not put them down. He promotes our traditions instead of silencing them. “We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again,” he said in 2017. He celebrates the Judeo-Christian Western traditions without apology. He is not shy about being proud of it. In Warsaw he put the question plainly: “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost?”
He is not bashful in saying we are more successful than others because of our people and how we practice our culture. He is not in favor of celebrating other cultures while tamping down ours!
He doesn’t believe more successful people should be made, through government power, to carry the burden for the rest. He believes agency built this nation, not altruism. The latter is made possible by the former.
When we do make mistakes, he believes it’s a misplacement of the latter. Or, if not, a misreading of the situation, but one made in the best interest of Americans first.
Were there true mistakes? I’m sure there were, and many. But we are a self-criticizing culture, and we course correct.
Now hold the other side up next to it. Omar tells a Somali crowd she’ll guard Somalia’s seas. Piker rides to Havana against his own country’s sanctions. One saves America. The others save someone else, from America.
I say he, but HE is US.
My verdict? Grateful.
Now you weigh in. Grateful, or Ungrateful? Cast your verdict in the comments, then send it to someone who needs to see this.
Spine, not knees.
LIVE GRATEFUL 🇺🇸
— A Grateful Immigrant
