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Handwringing over America defending itself is an exclusively elite phenomenon — and the rest of the country isn’t buying it.
Working-class voters, not the expert class, grasped the danger of former President Joe Biden’s lawless open border policy. That’s why the nation, including heavily Latino border counties in Texas that hadn’t voted Republican since Grover Cleveland, broke hard for President Donald Trump on immigration. It wasn’t that these voters were unsympathetic to the plight of migrants — evidence suggests that Americans on the whole are exceptionally generous. They simply understood the danger of allowing tens of thousands of criminals, including hundreds on the terrorist watch list, entry into their communities. So, they granted Trump decisive authority to crack down on illegal immigration.
The laptop class attempted to silence and shame these voters during the campaign by branding them as racists and xenophobes. But common sense won out. And despite a dip in support on his handling of immigration (more on this later), a majority continue to support Trump over the Democrats.
Defending the shores
The same dynamic holds today in the controversy over Trump’s Venezuelan drug boat strikes. Ordinary people, whose communities have been ravaged by deadly drugs imported from Latin America, see American missiles sinking ships carrying thousands of pounds of narcotics and think, ‘about damn time.’ The logic at work here is so clear that only an overeducated elite could miss it: an invading force approaches our shores carrying deadly drugs destined for our streets, and in response, the military obliterates them.
After all, who among us would allow a malicious force to invade our own homes without so much as raising a fist?
And now, these same elites accuse Trump of circumventing the War Powers Resolution and War Secretary Pete Hegseth of being a “war criminal” based on the false report that he ordered a “double-tap” strike that killed shipwrecked survivors.
But here, too, voters are more discerning than the elite class gives them credit for. They remember all the military actions of the past century that came without a formal declaration of war, including Barack Obama’s liberal use of unauthorized drone strikes. And while some may have frowned at the false reports of Hegseth’s alleged “double tap” order, no one believes that this would be the worst thing our military has done in modern times and, therefore, worthy of a public tribunal.
Of course, it’s important to hold the military to the highest ethical standards. But if sinking a narco-boat is a “war crime,” what do you call vaporizing a Yemeni wedding, exactly? That’s what Obama did in 2013, with women and children among the casualties — and no one called him a war criminal.
Incredibly, the neocon-turned-Democrats now wailing over the drug-boat strikes once issued full-throated approval of the torture programs at Abu Ghraib.
A slew of recent polls show that voters see through it, with a majority of Americans supporting the use of military force to attack boats suspected of bringing drugs into the U.S. A recent CBS/YouGov poll shows the split 53%-47% in favor of striking boats in the Caribbean, while the newly released Reagan National Defense Survey of over 2,500 Americans finds 62% support the strikes.
But the public’s support here hinges on a few key guardrails. Above all, voters want the Trump administration to offer clear evidence that these boats are indeed carrying deadly drugs and to adhere to the established rules of military engagement. However, on the general principle of defending our shores, Americans remain supportive of the president, just as they do on securing the southern border and deporting illegal immigrants. They grasp the clear logic of self-defense at work and reject the elite hysteria for the opportunistic politicking that it is.
Torching the moral high ground
Which makes it all the more infuriating that parts of the Trump administration are torching their own moral authority on these issues. On both illegal immigration and narco-trafficking, the administration has a clear mandate to act. But the boorish behavior of key members of the administration, including whoever is running the X account at the Department of Homeland Security, is turning what should be sober and decisive national security wins into the kinds of spectacles the laptop class prays for. And as a result, support for Trump’s immigration crackdown has fallen steadily this year. If they aren’t careful, support for defending our shores will head for a similar fate.
When it comes to removing the most dangerous illegal immigrants, the Trump administration is doing work that genuinely saves lives. The DHS has done phenomenal work in 2025 — a quick glance through the list of vicious criminal illegal aliens captured this year confirms that American communities are far safer than they were in 2024. Thousands of the worst of the worst, Tren de Aragua members, child sexual predators, and murderers have been taken off the streets, all thanks to the tireless dedication of ICE and CBP officers. Operations such as Operation Dirtbag in Florida led to the arrest of more than 150 illegal alien sex offenders. These aren’t mere statistics; they are children protected, communities secured.
But instead of deploying a highly effective and authoritative messaging campaign trumpeting these unassailable victories, the DHS’s communications team is making cringey memes and picking fights with pop stars.
In early December, the DHS’s X account decided to make itself the story by posting a slickly edited video montage of ICE agents chasing down suspects, slapping on handcuffs, and hauling people into vans set to the soundtrack of an upbeat Sabrina Carpenter song. The video shows the blonde pop-star during her recent Saturday Night Live appearance, during which she said, “I think I might need to arrest someone for being too hot.” But on the DHS video, her voice is altered to say, “I think I might need to arrest someone for being too illegal.” As a result, the country spent three days debating the Carpenter feud instead of talking about the 150 child rapists just taken off the street or the 394 Tren de Aragua terrorists already in cuffs.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to more thoroughly cheapen the heroic, life-saving work ICE officers are doing on the streets. Worse, the video gave the false impression of malevolence at the DHS. Set to an upbeat pop song, the sight of masked agents chasing down targets looks less like justice served and more like some twisted, dehumanizing game.
Similarly, Hegseth has cheapened the grave and solemn business of firing American missiles at human beings through impulsive tweeting. The war secretary has, of course, dealt with the false smear that he ordered to “kill everyone,” so his lack of patience is understandable. But that doesn’t excuse him playing directly into the elite caricature of him as a hothead and a neophyte.
In response to a post by Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet last week, who wrote that “Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean,” Hegseth wrote, “Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.”
This post also lit up the Very Online Right, eliciting fire emojis and approving responses from right-wing influencers. But Hegseth only reinforced the elite caricature of the Trump administration as a pack of reckless, bloodthirsty frat boys. In a single post, Hegseth transformed a strike that 62% of the country supports into the kind of boast that makes the morally justified use of force feel gratuitous, even ghoulish. The policy was exactly right, but the presentation handed every hand-wringing senator, cable news anchor, and suburban swing voter a reason to recoil.
It’s not too late for these childish elements of the administration to grow up, nor is it too late to retain the nation’s hearts and minds on the logic of self-defense in the long term. But the hour is quickly approaching when public opinion will sour on common-sense self-defense — and when it happens, it will be because the public no longer trusts the Trump administration to take itself or the mission seriously.