By Allan Wall

Following the biggest comeback in American political history, Donald J. Trump is taking office again. Trump is only the second man in history to win a second non-consecutive term in the White House. The previous man was Grover Cleveland in the 19th century.

Ten years ago, in 2015, Trump came down the escalator and he’s been shaking up the political world ever since.

Neither his supporters nor his enemies can stop talking about him.

Look what Trump has been through. The media/political complex has lied about him and distorted what he says.

They impeached him twice (the second time when he was out of office!). They’ve manipulated the legal system against him. And twice someone tried to assassinate him.

Yet despite all this, he won the 2024 election.

It’s hard not to see the Providence of God at work. Who knows, maybe it was God’s plan to allow Trump’s defeat in 2020, to show Americans how bad things could get, paving the way for a greater victory in 2024.

Now it’s up to Trump to show he means business.

At the top of the agenda should be the immigration fiasco. Trump and his team must move rapidly, to accomplish the following:

1. Secure the borders. That includes the Mexican border, the Canadian border and the coastline.

2. Begin mass deportations. Everybody who got in under Biden needs to go, no questions asked.

3. Close up the anchor baby loophole, which allows babies born to illegal aliens to be declared U.S. citizens. It’s an insane policy, practiced by no other First World countries except the U.S. and Canada.

A true America First policy would end legal immigration as well. We have over 340 million people. Why bring in more?

A century ago, in the 1920s, immigration was drastically reduced. From the 1920s to the 1960s America had net out-migration, with more people going out than coming in. During that time period, the country survived the Depression, won World War II and became the most prosperous country on earth. The country didn’t need mass immigration to do that. The 1950s was in many ways the Golden Age of American history. Ask people who remember that era.

That’s the direction Trump needs to go in if he wants a truly America First policy.

Of course, the federal bureaucracy needs a lot of reform, and that includes the military, which has been corrupted like all bureaucracies. Some departments ought to be totally abolished, such as the Department of Education, which the states should be handling anyway. Our foreign policy needs to be reconsidered from the ground up. The Cold War ended over 30 years ago, it’s time to seriously consider what the goals of U.S. foreign policy should be.

Meanwhile, there is plenty to do on the state level. Regardless of how things go in Washington, there is much that can and should be done in Oklahoma.

Environmentalists, who are very talented at promoting a public agenda, have a saying: “Think globally, act locally.”

Conservatives active at the state level could adopt the saying “Think nationally, act locally.” This saying emphasizes the importance of conservative activism at the state, county and municipal levels.

Oklahoma has a gubernatorial election in 2026, and potential candidates are already jockeying for position. As the Republican selection process develops, it’s the perfect time to put these candidates on the spot and ask them the tough questions.

What are the candidates’ positions on economic issues, on freedom of speech issues, on education and freedom of association? Campaign time is a good time to ask those questions.

Oklahoma needs good candidates for its legislature, and also good candidates at the county level, the municipal level, and of course on school boards.

Education has become a culture war battleground and in Oklahoma, much of the improvements needed must occur at the local level. Oklahoma conservatives should consider running for their local school board, or if they can’t, support someone who can.

There’s another education problem that must be dealt with – university teacher training. States can ban doctrines such as critical race theory, the diversity agenda and gender theory. But that’s not always effective, if teachers and administrators personally subscribe to such doctrines. In the education field, you can just rename a banned doctrine and teach it under some other title. “Oh no,” they say, “We’re not teaching banned doctrine XYZ. What we teach is ZYX!”

But it’s essentially the same thing!

The real question is, how are state institutions of higher learning turning out so many teachers with crazy ideas? Conservative activists need to examine that problem and take action to correct it. The state’s future depends on it.

Go Trump, and Go Oklahoma! “Think nationally, act locally.”

Allan Wall is a Spanish teacher in a public school and resided for a decade and a half in Mexico. Allan writes about immigration-related issues, the contemporary Mexican scene, and how immigration is viewed south of the border. His website is www.allanwall.info