My point is that right now we’re doing too much talking.
When dealing with China we need to stand up to them and remind them that it’s bad business to take advantage of your best customer. And then we should sit down and figure out how to make this a more equitable relationship.
There is no one-size-fits-all foreign policy. We need to make our beliefs very clear and let them form the framework of our policy.
Everything begins with a strong military. Everything.
We will have the strongest military in our history, and our people will be equipped with the best weaponry and protection available.
Period.
That means the best missile systems, the best cyber-warfare training and equipment, and the best-trained soldiers. And when they come home after a war, battered and bruised, our troops won’t have to wait months for treatment.
We owe those who serve us the best and the fastest care. It’s ridiculous how long our vets have to wait to get the help they deserve. They are our heroes, and the present administration has forgotten them.
So how do we turn the tide and start winning again?
As I’ve said, it starts with the most advanced and muscular military in the world, the most mobile one as well. We need to put some of the bill for this transformation on the Saudi Arabians, the South Koreans, the Germans, the Japanese, and the British. We’re protecting them, after all, and they should share in the costs.
Next, we need to operate from a position of economic strength. We have the most powerful consumer engine in the world. We just need to start using it to our full advantage.
Nobody likes to do business more than I do, but every deal I make will have one objective: America wins.
We need to use the economic strength of American markets and the American consumer to assist our friends and remind our enemies about the benefits of cooperation.
We need to use those strengths to form stronger alliances with our natural allies, but we need to expect them to be there when they are needed. I still don’t understand why Germany and other countries watched impassively as Putin marched into Ukraine. You can be sure Israel can be counted on to stand tall with us in the Middle East.
And finally, we need to pay special attention to the Chinese. Their days of undercutting us with protectionist policies and cyber-theft are over.
The new dawn of America has just begun.
5
EDUCATION: A FAILING GRADE
MY FATHER DID NOT graduate from college. He was too busy working and building his business, but he understood and appreciated the value of an education. He had great respect for people with college degrees, even though he had built a large real estate business and earned many times more than most of them. With my father’s financial assistance, his younger brother, John, earned his master’s degree in physics from Columbia and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious universities in America. John became a noted professor at MIT and invented one of the first million-volt X-ray generators that was used to save the lives of cancer patients. During World War II, he played an important role in the development of radar. President Truman awarded him the President’s Certificate of Merit, and he was a recipient of the National Medal of Science.
From my father and my uncle I learned the value of work and the value of a good education. From my own experience I learned what happens when you put them together. I went to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, which is, in my opinion, the best business school in America—and arguably the hardest there is to get into.
There is one thing I know that even the professional politicians will support—education is good. It’s the easiest statement for a politician to support. But the question is, how do we make sure the best education possible is available for the most American kids?
Because right now that is not the situation.
Like so many other areas that our so-called leaders have wreaked their havoc upon, the American educational system is failing. We’re 26th in the world—26th! That’s an embarrassment. We spend more money on education, per capita, than any other nation—but 25 countries in the developed world provide a better education for their kids than we do for ours. This is simply unacceptable.
Part of the problem is the politicians! They are unable to run a national education system with a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. Our states and local districts are doing just fine making their own decisions on how best to educate our children. Now the federal Department of Education has been dictating educational policy for too long, and that needs to stop. Common Core doesn’t work.
A lot of people believe the Department of Education should just be eliminated. Get rid of it. If we don’t eliminate it completely, we certainly need to cut its power and reach. Education has to be run locally. Common Core, No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top are all programs that take decisions away from parents and local school boards. These programs allow the progressives in the Department of Education to indoctrinate, not educate, our kids. What they are doing does not fit the American model of governance.
I am totally against these programs and the Department of Education. It’s a disaster. We cannot continue to fail our children—the very future of this nation.
I went to a military school, New York Military Academy. It was a tough, tough place. There were ex-drill sergeants all over the place. and these people liked to scream and, above all, they liked to fight! Our instructors were demanding about everything from academics to personal hygiene. I learned American history and I learned how to neatly fold my clothing so it could be stacked. That might not be a skill that has had much application in my life, but it was part of teaching my fellow cadets and me discipline, focus, and self-reliance.
The main rule was pretty simple: Do it right or do it again. One of my roommates from school told a reporter recently, “The school taught you how to be a leader. It taught you, ‘show me a sore loser, and I’ll show you a loser.’… Honesty and straightforwardness were the rule of law. It got ingrained in us that you don’t lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do.”
This may be why I never became a politician (until now)!
Our national educational system was never intended to be limited to the three R’s, history, and science. It was designed to produce well-rounded young people capable of prospering in the world. In addition to an education, kids were supposed to graduate with some basic values, self-discipline, and life skills. A little common sense wouldn’t hurt either. Our schools don’t teach that anymore. Instead we’re more concerned about kids having self-esteem and feeling good about themselves than we are about preparing them for real life. The politically correct crowd has taken over our schools, and as a result we are failing our children. And our children will fail America if we don’t do something about it. Educators are worried that kids will feel bad if they flunk a test. You know what makes a kid feel good?
Winning.
Succeeding.
We’ve dumbed down the curriculum to the lowest common denominator; in many schools, we’ve eliminated grading entirely and diplomas have been practically devalued into certificates of attendance.
Our schools, our teachers, and our kids are capable of more. A lot more.
The problem is we’re taking the easy way out. Instead of creating high standards and demanding more, we’re expecting less. We have to get tougher. Forget that self-esteem stuff; we need to start challenging kids. We need to allow them to fail when they don’t work hard.