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By Rep. Bradley Byrne 

Last week was President Donald Trump’s best since moving into the White House. 

After giving a well-received State of the Union address, the president was acquitted by the United States Senate, announced the killing of a major terrorist and received a great jobs report. On the other hand, Democrats suffered several significant embarrassments. 

It began Monday at the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.  Despite months of work to manufacture enthusiasm, Democrats experienced extremely low turnout across the state. Things went from bad to worse as a host of errors prevented the counting and reporting of votes. Of course, it isn’t hard to see why the people of Iowa were not eager to support Democrat priorities. Policies like the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and confiscation of firearms are radical and dangerous, and most Americans reject them.

In contrast, the next day, Trump presented a clear vision for keeping America great in a rousing State of the Union speech. I left my seat many times to applaud the president and his many guests, each of whom had inspiring stories.  Two of his guests were Stephanie Davis and her daughter Janiyah from Pennsylvania. Janiyah had been on a waitlist of over half a million students to receive a scholarship to go to a better school. Trump shocked the crowd by awarding her a scholarship right then and there. 

The story of Janiyah was especially important to me because the President called on Congress to pass my bill, the Education Freedom Scholarship and Opportunity Act, so that one million American children could have the same opportunity for a scholarship. I developed this bill with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Senator Ted Cruz. Trump is right that no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government school, and I am proud to lead this important Trump administration priority. 

The State of the Union ended on an embarrassing note for Democrats as Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up her copy of the president’s speech. They simply cannot stand to see President Trump succeed. They are in crisis after their impeachment plan failed. In fact, it backfired and lost support as their rigged process was exposed. Realizing her mistake, Pelosi appealed to Facebook and Twitter to have videos of her ripping the speech taken down. 

I was proud to be a leader in that fight against the sham impeachment. Thursday, a day after the President was exonerated, I was among a handful of House members invited to the White House to celebrate. It was an amazing honor and surprise to receive Trump’s personal thanks for fighting by his side throughout this process. 

Later Thursday, the president announced that an American airstrike had killed Qassim al-Rimi, a terrorist and the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. AQAP claimed credit for the December 2019 shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station that took the lives of three servicemembers, including Ensign Joshua Watson from Coffee. Trump has made clear that our enemies will pay for taking American lives, and terrorists across the globe now know that he isn’t messing around. 

Finally, an excellent January jobs report was released.  Employers added 225,000 jobs as the economy continues to strengthen. Importantly, wages for working Americans are rising.

Put it all together and its obvious why the President’s approval rating is at the highest levels of his administration. Clearly the Democrats’ misguided prioritization of an unpopular impeachment scheme has them in dire straits. I vow to keep fighting with the President against radical socialism and to support his America First agenda.