After the sickening sight last week of the FBI’s raid on former President Trump’s home, it seemed that the United States of America really had morphed into something unrecognizable. A dangerous corner had been turned.

That reminded me of something I wrote during the 2020 campaign, exactly two years ago by coincidence; it appeared in the Huckabee newsletter on August 14, 2020. You might remember this: the speech I wished Trump would give before the election. (One idea was that he give it as an opening statement at the Presidential debate, so everyone would hear it live and uncut. It’s a little long for that, though and would’ve had to be delivered as a paid political ad.) This speech warned about what our country might become if Trump lost to Biden and the DNC, and today I think most of us would sadly agree that as a nation we are there. It has come to pass.

Election Day 2020 And Its Aftermath

My fantasy speech acknowledged that this might happen simply because many voters didn’t like Trump’s style, or him personally, and it reached out and asked for their support in spite of that. But Trump never gave a speech like this, and the disaster of which it spoke is exactly what happened on Election Day and its aftermath — with a little help, of course, from Covid, mass mail-in voting, unsupervised drop-boxes, unconstitutional changes in state voting rules, etc. etc. etc.

I’m wondering if this time, candidate Trump, knowing what’s at stake for our country now, might be more “presidential,” more measured in his tone and less likely to be distracted by pettiness as he focuses like a laser beam on reforms. His statement about “lowering the temperature” now suggests he might be. He was baptized by fire when he entered politics, he now knows how deep the Deep State truly is, he should know by now who his allies are (and are not), and on the theory that what does not kill us makes us stronger — which certainly seems true in Trump’s case — he might be unstoppable now. (Of course, he’ll have to have the best attorneys on Planet Earth to defend against the relentless lawfare.)

Trump’s rights under the 4th Amendment clearly have been violated, under the cover of an outrageous search warrant that allowed the feds to take every scrap of paper from his entire presidency. The rights of his associates continue to be similarly violated. I admit, this is far worse than what I had anticipated when writing the original piece two years ago. Trump’s adversaries are determined to crush anyone who gets in their way. If a newly re-elected President Trump can’t stop these goons from ripping up the Constitution, who can?

A Speech That Is Still Needed

Anyway, here’s the text of the speech I still wish then-candidate Trump had given before the 2020 election:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:

“My fellow Americans, I love my country — I love America, with all my heart. I always have. And I feel really bad right now, because millions of Americans, just because they don’t like ME — don’t like my style, don’t like my tweets, don’t like things they think I’ve said (most of which are twisted-up versions that convey something I never intended) –- are ready to vote for anybody but me. Anybody. I mean……..ANYBODY. That’s what “never-Trumper” means, after all; I know that. And that means, right now, this country is in big trouble.

“Because they don’t like ME, some Americans might unwittingly put into power a radical political machine that will decimate their most basic freedoms, with ruthless, violent tactics and a long list of demands that will change America into something unrecognizable, probably forever. (Some of this has been a long time coming, but because the virus hit, they’re jumping on the crisis as a way to take control quickly.)

“Because they don’t like ME, some Americans might unwittingly offer inroads to groups that literally want to destroy American cities — that are already destroying American cities, great American cities.

“Because they don’t like ME, some in our government abused our own justice system to try to bring me down, and if they get away with what they did, mark my word, they’ll do it again to the next leader they don’t like. They went so far as to accuse me, with no evidence at all except for what was falsified, of working as an agent of Russia. It was crazy — 2020 will go down in history as “the year America went crazy.” Who needs Russia to interfere in our elections when we’ve got our own bureaucracy to do it, as well as various outside influences with virtually limitless resources, pouring money into radical leftist anti-American groups?

“Because they don’t like ME, some Americans ignore all that I did — before the virus arrived from China to at least temporarily undo much of it — to bring the economy back like gangbusters after years of weak semi-recovery. They ignore the incredible benefit that came out of that to hard-working Americans, men and women, of all races, in all walks of life.

“Because they don’t like ME, some Americans even ignore the legitimate work of some doctors and researchers because they think it’s more important to believe I’m wrong. And they forget that I was the one to stop incoming travel from China and Europe, which likely saved thousands of American lives, when my opponents ridiculed that.

“Because they don’t like ME, some Americans paint me as someone I don’t even know. Really, I don’t even recognize myself from what they say. If I met that person, I wouldn’t like him, either! They’ve said I only care about myself, when that is such a lie. I know, I know, it’s just politics. Say whatever you need to, right? (Like Kamala, she knows all about that.) But those of you who don’t like me need to understand: the object of your hatred is a phantom, something made up. My own style — which can be misinterpreted, I know — may have helped fixate that in your mind, as I’m obviously not a slick politician, but it’s still false.

“I don’t care a whole lot about that part of it, because I knew when I got into politics that it would be rough. I got into it anyway because I love my country and had a beautiful vision of what we could do. I kind of expected the lies from the politicians, but the media — you have a lot to answer for. Because YOU don’t like me, you have become a shameful propaganda machine for my opponents. You are to journalism what potted meat is to chateaubriand. And it doesn’t seem to matter to you how this might damage our country in the long run. You just wanted Americans to hate me.

“And now, because you did your job and some of them DO hate me, they may be on the verge of putting into power a group of people, those on the far left, who don’t know what in h*** they are doing. I mean, they don’t. We can all see they don’t, unless pure anarchy really is what they want. They’ve shown they can’t run cities. They can’t run states. They won’t enforce the law. They’ll gladly take away your police AND your means to defend yourself.

“And everywhere they look, they see racism that in most cases isn’t even there, except in their own minds. They don’t understand that in our country, in just the past several decades, most hearts and minds have changed drastically about race, which is fantastic. And it was only going to get better. It’s as if for some reason they weren’t comfortable with that and wanted to do something, quite deliberately, to make it worse again. I wonder why that is?

“These people don’t care about law and order. They don’t care about your personal freedom. They don’t care about learning from history; they want to rewrite it to fit their own agenda, which is to tear down the results of hundreds of years of hard work and incredible advancement.

“Now, simply because some Americans don’t like ME, America is in jeopardy of losing everything that makes it…America. I want you to be aware of this when you cast your vote. PLEASE don’t put our beloved country into the hands of people who are set on destroying its very foundation, and I am not exaggerating, not one bit. I love this country. I’ve shown you the kinds of things I can do for this country, to make it better for all. We’ll get through this virus, and you know I’m the one who needs to be in charge of the vibrant recovery we’ll need afterwards.

“So I’m asking for your vote. Remember, it has to be a landslide vote that can be counted right away because so many people will be mailing in their ballots — vote in person! — and it has be decisive to save this country from even more chaos. More is at stake now than almost ever before in the history of our country, and I know you realize that. Thank you with all my heart, and God bless America.

Laura Ainsworth is a Staff Writer for MikeHuckabee.com.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.