The Josh Hammer Report

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

Ever since then-private citizen Donald Trump first rode down that gilded escalator at Trump Tower in the summer of 2015, immigration has been the signature issue for his movement. "Build the wall," we all remember the red MAGA hat-clad faithful chanting at Trump's raucous political rallies, "and make Mexico pay for it!" But once in office, Trump and congressional Republicans chose not to focus their concerted legislative efforts right away on curing America's debilitating immigration woes. Rather, the White House and Congress first attempted to repeal Obamacare—a failed effort that ended with the late Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) infamous (and frankly gratuitous) thumbs-down on the Senate floor. Trump's subsequent major legislative victories were a fairly standard supply-side tax cut and a misguided jailbreak initiative, the First Step Act.

To be sure, illegal immigration was certainly much better during President Trump's tenure than it has been during the last four dreadful years of the Joe Biden presidency. On this count, the border numbers are extraordinarily clear: The Joe Biden presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. And Trump did begin meaningful construction on the border wall, despite falling far short of his promise to build the full 1,700-mile wall in its entirety. Trump also admirably initially supported a key legal immigration-reducing bill—the Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)-proposed RAISE Act—before the legislation unfortunately stalled in a closely divided Congress. But on another of Trump's signature immigration restriction-related issues, the thorny problem of birthright citizenship, he once again made very little progress in reorienting our byzantine laws and regulations toward a more rational and sustainable position.

On Monday, Donald Trump will once again be inaugurated as president of the United States. Thank God for that, truly. For American patriots and defenders of the Constitution, Trump's incredible comeback story—the greatest comeback story, political or otherwise, in all of American history—is an unambiguously positive development. Indeed, one shudders at the thought of the alternative; four more years of our prolonged Joe Biden/Kamala Harris-induced national nightmare. But with great power—as we old-school comic book fans know from Peter Parker and Spider-Man—comes great responsibility. Donald Trump has made history by becoming the first man since Grover Cleveland over 130 years ago to win a second non-consecutive presidential term. Now he must deliver to his legions of voters. That means hitting the ground running hard on Day 1 on the all-important immigration issue—the very raison d'être of the MAGA movement itself.

We need to see both flurries of targeted immigration-related executive orders and a thoughtful immigration-centric legislative agenda laid out for Trump's first two years in office. Anything less than that would be a disappointment. Trump has had four years in the political wilderness; he and his advisors have had plenty of time to get this right.

It's game time now. Godspeed, Mr. President. We the People are with you.

To keep up with all my media hits and other writings, make sure to follow me on Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can listen to all episodes of "The Josh Hammer Show" at the Newsweek website or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—as well as on select radio stations across the country. I also have a second show, "America on Trial with Josh Hammer," with The First; you can subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to also check out my Subtext chat, which you can read all about and sign up for here. And last but certainly not least, make sure to preorder my debut book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West, which will be released March 18 from Diversion Books/Radius Book Group!

Our highlighted recent Newsweek op-eds include selections from Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.); Robert C. O'Brien; former Amb. Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell; John A. Burtka and Brent Parton; and Jonathan Tobin.

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Spotlight

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Andrew Breitbart, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Two-Way Politics-Culture Street

The late, great Andrew Breitbart was one of the most quotable conservatives of his era. "Walk toward the fire," he exhorted his fellow activists. "Don't worry about what they call you. All those things are said against you because they want to stop you in your tracks." It was good advice when Breitbart said it during the contentious Barack Obama years, and it's even better advice during the era of hyper-woke dogma today. But if Breitbart the man is singularly identified with any one line, it would undoubtedly be his well-known quip that "politics is downstream of culture." Indeed, this pithy formulation became known as the "Breitbart Doctrine."

Breitbart, a native Angeleno who frequently inveighed against the fetid rot in his nearby Hollywood, was a culture warrior to his core. He correctly observed—and lamented—the immense power that comes with left-wing dominance of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the academy, and sundry other formative civil society institutions. The message of the Breitbart Doctrine was simple: Win the culture, and you win the war. If you control America's key opinion-sculpting institutions, then you will eventually control opinion itself. And that, in turn, will inevitably translate into victory at the ballot box.

In all this, the sage of Brentwood was correct. But what if the Breitbart Doctrine wasn't actually complete? What if it was missing half the picture?

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