Just as President-elect Trump is getting ready to take over the White House, the horrifying terror attack in New Orleans and the cybertruck bombing in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas threaten to derail his plans for a near-flawless transition.
It is not that Trump has been immune from terror attacks. On the contrary, he is the only living president to have survived two assassination attempts, both from domestic actors. Details are still under wraps as the Biden DOJ refuses to divulge crucial information about who was behind those attempts.
Transparency aside, the larger issue is what future attacks lie in wait. "We're confident, at this point, that there are no accomplices," Christopher Raia of the FBI's counterterrorism division said in a news conference. Raia was referring to the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a Texas-born US citizen and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, and who had stated in a video that he, Jabbar, had joined ISIS before this summer. KPRC 2 Houston, the NBC News affiliate, said it has obtained footage of Jabbar's home featuring a book collection, which includes texts like the Quran, the Bible, and works on Islamic finance.
Although the New Orleans tragedy was a lone-wolf attack, Raia did not rule out the possibility that the attacker did not collude with the Tesla Cybertruck bomber in Las Vegas. This latter blast happened in front of the Trump International Hotel, and that message was clear. Someone intended to cause significant damage to both the Trump and Musk brands, a goal many liberals shared after Musk bought Twitter, made it the free speech platform of choice with no moderators and donated millions of dollars to help elect Trump.
Hurting Trump has been the Left's goal since he descended the golden elevators in 2015. First, they mocked him and said he would never become president. After Trump won the 2016 Republican nomination, the Left unleashed the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax. After he beat Hillary, the resistance went into overdrive. The Washington Post published a story, "The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun," the day he was sworn in. Between the two impeachments during Trump's first term, he also had to contend with the Left's devious efforts to change electoral processes during the 2020 election and Big Tech's suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story to swing the outcome in Joe Biden’s favor.
After Trump left the White House in a disputed election that our Editorial Board now feels probably vindicated Trump, the Left went on a rampage in their attempts to destroy Trump's popularity. The partisan J6 Committee was established with one purpose and one purpose only: To prevent Trump's return to Washington and celebrate those that publicly maligned him.
[On Thursday, President Biden announced he is awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to Rep. Bennie Thompson and former Rep. Liz Cheney, the two lawmakers who led the House select committee that investigated J6. Never mind that the committee never looked into why tens of thousands of Americans gathered in Washington in the first place. Never mind that Cheney resorted to witness tampering, and that all committee members destroyed documents of the proceedings, Enron-style - documents that could have shed light on how former Speaker Nancy Pelosi deliberately failed to do everything in her power to prevent violence on that fateful day].
When the final partisan report finally came out, it drew a big yawn from the American people. But, the Left's lawfare was already in full swing. On November 9, 2022, Biden let it slip in a White House press conference: "We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power if he does run, making sure he—under legitimate efforts of our Constitution—does not become the next president again." Exactly nine days later, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel to investigate Trump's role in J6 and his handling of classified documents. It was the same day that Fulton County's District Attorney colluded with the administration over charges in the Georgia RICO case. The Left's desire was clear: If bad-mouthing Trump doesn't drive a wedge between him and the American voter, the courts can stop him.
When Trump won in a landslide two months ago, all of the Left's efforts were shattered. Trump now has top-level presidential security from the brave men and women of the Secret Service.
The New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks could distract Trump, especially if additional attacks take place. The reckless Biden policy of unbridled immigration means that America does not know how many terrorists are in the country today, operating sleeper cells, lying in wait to strike. We do know that of the 18 million or so illegals who invaded America, many were not from Latin American countries. We also know from the Biden administration that America had caught and released into the country over 662,000 migrants with criminal records. Worse, more than 15,000 of them were murderers convicted in their home countries, and 16,000 were convicted of sexual assault. Even if one percent of them are planning terror attacks, we have over 6,000 bad actors waiting to pounce. It only took one ISIS sympathizer to kill 14 innocent civilians in New Orleans this week.
Protecting and defending America has always been the primary goal of any president, and Trump's MAGA focus will make it even more so. Upon Senate confirmation, Trump will be surrounded by an excellent team, including Pam Bondi at Justice, Kristi Noem at DHS, Tom Homan at ICE, and Kash Patel at the FBI. However, defending the homeland from terrorism was never a campaign issue in 2024. Suddenly, just as during George W. Bush's two terms, the issue has risen to the top of the new president's agenda, along with his promised actions on deportations, stopping illegal immigration, crime, the economy, and foreign wars.
No one is suggesting that the Left engineered this week’s terror attacks, but the Left will gladly take any disruption that the attacks would bring, given how it has shown it will go to any extent to stop Trump.
Rajkamal Rao is a columnist and a member of the tippinsights editorial board. He is an American entrepreneur and wrote the WorldView column for the Hindu BusinessLine, India's second-largest financial newspaper, on the economy, politics, immigration, foreign affairs, and sports.
