After Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, he immediately found himself on the defensive. He was the proverbial fish out of water in Washington, DC. He was falsely maligned as a Russian stooge and, at the same time, as a political imbecile who knew nothing of the real ways of politics.

The Russian collusion charge was an obvious fiasco, but the outsider smear was the main reason he got elected. Americans wanted someone who was outside of the corrupt political establishment class to go into the Swamp and drain it.

Unfortunately, Trump was unprepared for what awaited him. Within weeks of taking office, he lost one of his most important advisors, Mike Flynn, to the Russian collusion hoax and was hamstrung by members of a deep state who made it their mission to prevent Trump from succeeding in his agenda as much as possible.

Furthermore, Trump faced a mainstream press that was seemingly hell-bent on framing him as the worst person to ever sit in the Oval Office. The media coverage he received was over 90% negative.

Yet, in spite of the hurdles he faced, Trump saw a litany of successes during his first term, headlined by Supreme Court choices, his tax cuts, and his foreign policy accomplishments. Indeed, Trump oversaw an economy that roared into high gear only to be derailed by the global COVID pandemic in his last year. However, his record was enough to convince a majority of Americans that, economically speaking, he knew what he was doing.

Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic, combined with the incessant bad press, helped Democrats and Joe Biden to rig the election against him. Following the election loss and the subsequent January 6 Capitol riot, Trump’s political fortunes were deemed to be dead and gone. Indeed, he was the only U.S. president to face impeachment after leaving office.

Democrats weren’t content to let him fade into political ignominy. Instead, they launched an unprecedented lawfare campaign against him in what turned out to be a futile effort to ensure that he never saw the inside of the Oval Office again.

But rather than turning and walking off into the sunset, Trump did what he does best: he fought. The moment that epitomized Trump’s spirit came directly after suffering near death from an assassin’s bullet — his immediate fist pump and call to “fight, fight, fight.” At that moment, Trump not only inspired his MAGA supporters, but he inspired an entire nation that has become weary of being beaten down by an inherently anti-American woke political and social ruling class.

Trump helped rouse the country from a self-loathing stupor, as it focused on the sins of the past rather than the more significant and relevant development and overcoming of those ills. Trump reminded Americans that it was good and right to love the greatest country on the planet.

So now, after orchestrating one of the greatest political comebacks in the nation’s history, Trump is finally enjoying the honeymoon period he never had during his first term. He’s seeing the highest approval ratings of his presidency and enjoys a net positive approval. This approval rating has only grown following his first week in office, as he has hit the ground running by taking hundreds of actions and issuing executive orders to rapidly reverse course on the spiraling agenda of the Biden administration.

Trump has once again shown not only the American people but the world what it’s like for the country to finally have a leader again. Rather than resent him for it, people respect him. Even in the deep-blue state of New Jersey, Trump is enjoying a positive approval rating of 48%.

Once again, America has a leader who aims to get her back on the liberty track. And that word which so many had forgotten is now creeping back into the American conscience: hope. Suddenly, the future is bright again, bursting with the possibilities and opportunities of the American Dream reestablished. It’s a good time to be an American.