45th and 47th President of these United States

After a landslide reelection victory in 2024, President Donald J. Trump returned to the White House to build upon his previous successes and use his mandate to reject the extremist policies of the radical left while providing tangible quality of life improvements for the American people.

This includes putting a stop to endless wars, defending our nation’s borders, and unleashing the potential of the American economy, affording ALL Americans the opportunity to pursue THEIR version of the American dream.

In his first administration, President Trump passed record-setting tax cuts and regulation cuts, achieved energy independence, replaced NAFTA with the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, invested $2 trillion to completely rebuild the Military, launched the Space Force, obliterated the ISIS Caliphate, achieved a major breakthrough for peace in the Middle East, passed the most significant Veterans Affairs reforms in half a century, confirmed over 250 federal judges, including 3 Supreme Court Justices, signed bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform, lowered drug prices, protected Medicare and Social Security, and secured our nation’s borders in his first four years in office. This was only the beginning.

Donald J. Trump defines the American success story. Throughout his life he has continually set the standards of business and entrepreneurial excellence, especially in real estate, sports, and entertainment. President Trump built on his success in private life when he entered into politics and public service.

He remarkably won the Presidency in his first ever run for any political office. He won a second time despite several assassination attempts and the unprecedented weaponization of law fare against him. Time after time President Trump has defied the odds because he fundamentally believes in the exceptionalism of the American spirit and wants to see our great country succeed.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance, President Trump followed in his father’s footsteps into the world of real estate development, making his mark in New York City. There, the Trump name soon became synonymous with the most prestigious of addresses in Manhattan and, subsequently, throughout the world.

President Trump is also an accomplished author. He has written more than fourteen bestsellers. His first book, The Art of the Deal, is considered a business classic.

President Trump has five children, Barron, Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany, as well as 11 grandchildren.

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735, and died on July 4, 1826.

Perhaps no Founding Father better embodies American conservative thought than our first Vice President and second President, John Adams. Russell Kirk counted Adams as “the founder of true conservatism in America” in The Conservative Mind and Peter Viereck considered Adams to be America’s first conservative.

Ever the traditionalist, Adams understood the American Revolution to be a restoration of the rights and privileges enjoyed by English subjects of the Crown and not a populous uprising against all authority in favor of an entirely new and innovative system. As such, the American Revolution, with its deference to nature, reason, and tradition, was far more successful than its bloody and chaotic counterpart in the French Revolution. And to a great extent all Americans have John Adams to thank for the ordered liberties we enjoy today.

Benjamin Franklin

Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

Representative from the state of Pennsylvania

Oldest signer of our Constitution at the age of 70

Born 1/17/1706 in Boston, MA

Died 4/17/1790 at the age of 84

Those who’ve read my blog or listened to my podcast are no doubt already aware I throw in my lot with conservatives who look to 18th century British statesmen Edmund Burke as the foremost conservative who is most responsible for laying the foundations of the modern conservative worldview. Of course, not all conservatives agree on this matter. Burke’s most famous writing—Reflections on the Revolution in France—is one of the most eloquent and powerful counter-revolutionary texts ever written. It can be challenging, then, to wrestle with how one combines Burkean conservatism with the American Right, who draw inspiration from our own revolution.

The Straussians (Leo Strauss) may admire Burke but ultimately find fault with his beliefs and point to the ancients for their justification for a free and ordered regime. Others draw an irreconcilable chasm between American conservatism (as embodied by John Adams) and Burke’s supposed “European” conservatism that abhorred general principles and political actions justified solely on the grounds of natural rights. I side with Yuval Levin (noted later in the list) who wrote “the difference between Burke’s and Adams’s circumstances meant each man’s mix would have to differ some. Russell Kirk went too far when he argued…that ‘it is difficult to draw any clear line of demarcation’ between Adams and Burke, yet I do think he was right to suggest that ‘these two great conservatives occupy common ground, but they press their separate assaults against radicalism with different weapons’.”

Burke wrote eloquently, but his writings can be difficult to untangle as he deliberately avoided political “systems” or grand principles and instead spoke only in specific instances unique to each circumstance. Thus, to understand Burke one must understand the context in which he was writing. Burke abhorred what he called the “metaphysicians” of his day who devised complicated ideologies that ignored particulars and sought to impose their views universally. Some believe this suggests that Burke was a utilitarian at heart (caring not for which direction we were headed so long as it was gradual and prudent). But Burke scholar Peter J. Stanlis argues forcefully in the introduction to Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches this was not so. Burke’s views were deeply interwoven in his Christian theology and his admonition to seek gradual change was a reflection on his underlying faith in God’s Providence and trust in the wise statesman’s prudence and prescription.

For a more in-depth look at what Burke has to offer conservatives, check out the Saving Elephants Podcast episode 140 – Back to Burke.