Donald Trump's amazingly successful presidential start-up

Preoccupation with form over substance combined with denial and avoidance behavior are the chief causal factors for human failure — from the individual and family right up to the national level. 

World War II became inevitable because of denial by the British, French and Americans that Hitler meant what he said in "Mein Kampf" and was rearming to carry it out. Subsequent denial in the form of appeasement policies enabled Hitler’s early swift success in conquering and subjugating almost all of continental Europe.

An Islamified Western Europe is arguably one of the biggest stories of our time. Yet elites on both sides of the Atlantic are in denial about the coming Islamic takeover of much of Europe. There are already large Muslim minorities throughout many European countries and waves of Muslim refugees have joined them in the last five years. Given Muslims’ average birthrates of 3.5 children per couple compared to post-Christian European birthrates of only 1.35 per couple, the demographic die is cast for minarets and sharia law to supplant church bell-towers and constitutional democracy across Europe within two or three generations.

President Donald Trump has had no illusions about the challenges that the West faces. His first action after inauguration in January 2017 was his executive order to ban travel to the U.S. by people from countries well-known for harboring Islamist terrorists. He did so on the basis of zero-tolerance for terrorist entry to the U.S. and the fact that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not vet people adequately due to gaps and irregularities in birth and identification records characteristic of these designated highly unstable countries. 

In spite of the disrespect shown Trump from many of the elites in the U.S., he has commanded surprising respect overseas, from friends and enemies alike. In his July 6, 2017, speech in Warsaw, Poland, Trump was welcomed as hero after he proclaimed the need to defend Christianity and Western Civilization. He boldly stated the need to put “faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives.” No other U.S. President has made such unapologetic and direct statements that challenge the status quo.