Trump’s endorsements won big in last night’s primary elections in Arizona, Missouri, Kansas and Michigan! He is the most powerful kingmaker in politics today!

Or, depending on what/who you read:

Trump failed to carry the day in all the races in which he endorsed a candidate! His star is on the wane!

Celebrations, recriminations, admonitions. De facto First Daughter of Arizona Meghan McCain bemoaned conservative candidate Kari Lake’s victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary. McCain tweeted, “Congratulations to my home state for full making the transition to full blown MAGA/conspiracy theory/fraudster. The voters have spoken — be careful what you wish for …”

That anyone would use the term “conspiracy theory” without a sense of irony at this point is high camp. Remember these jewels?

— The FBI spied on Trump.

— Hillary Clinton’s campaign funded “opposition research” that was completely fabricated.

— Trump never “colluded” with Russia and the FBI knew it.

— The FBI lied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get a warrant.

— COVID-19 originated in a lab.

— The U.S. government was funding “gain-of-function” research.

— mRNA vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmission of the COVID-19 virus.

— A laptop belonging to Hunter Biden contained emails suggesting that his family has long been engaged in “pay-to-play” political scandals, as well as photos and videos of Biden taking drugs and engaged in sexual activities with prostitutes.

All of the above were proclaimed to be “conspiracy theories” (or the less inflammatory version, “misinformation”). All were subsequently proven to be true.

And as for the November 2020 election? The last chapter of that particular story has yet to be written. Even as its defenders continue to insist that it was “the most secure election in history,” evidence continues to be unearthed demonstrating that there was misconduct that affected the outcome across multiple battleground states, including massive private contributions to public election offices in Democrat strongholds, illegal ballot harvesting and illegal drop boxes. It is even more damning that Democrats oppose every effort to ensure election integrity, including and especially voter identification and ballot verification. There is no reason to oppose those safeguards except for the ease of cheating without them.

If the last five years have proved anything, it’s that “conspiracy theory” is a label the establishment slaps onto anything they don’t want the public to know the truth about. If McCain can’t connect those dots, she’s disconnected from reality.

I don’t know how many times this needs to be said before the politterati will get it: Trump didn’t create the “red wave,” he rode it. There are plenty of reasons why Democrat voters are fleeing the party their families belonged to for generations, and why Republican voters are tossing out candidates who run to the right but abandon the promises they made once they get to Washington, D.C.

Americans are tired of being lied to. They are tired of a government that puts them last. They are fed up with high taxes and bailouts of multinational corporations while family businesses struggle. They are gobsmacked by a government that sends hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars abroad, while crippling our own energy production. They are furious at skyrocketing gas prices created by this administration’s policies and the resulting inflation that is sending the prices of household needs through the roof. They are angry that millions of illegal immigrants are permitted to enter the country in violation of our laws and then bused or flown all over the country under cover of night. They are sick of the theft and violence created by lax attitudes toward crime and criminals. They do not want pornographic materials or curricula about gender identity in their children’s grade schools.

More than anything else, Americans have no intention of being governed by a shadow cabal of globalists whose pie-in-the-sky ideologies promise utopia while they destroy our standard of living, our liberty and our national sovereignty, while making those few (and their minions) staggeringly wealthy.

It’s not that Americans listen to Trump; it’s that he listens to them.

——

Laura Hollis is a nationally syndicated columnist.