ALEX BERENSON: Why I'm voting for Donald J. Trump

I wasn’t planning to write this.

Two years ago, I said I would vote for a Democrat over Donald Trump in 2024. I wrote that during a Republican primary I hoped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would win; DeSantis had stood almost alone against COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates, forever earning my respect.

But Trump crushed DeSantis in the primary. Ever since, I have struggled over what to do in this election.

In one sense, my vote doesn’t matter. I live in New York, which Kamala Harris is sure to win. But it must matter at least a little, because many of you - a surprising number - have asked or urged me to repudiate my 2022 words and endorse Trump.

With three days left in this most brutal of campaigns, I am.

In some ways, this choice pains me.

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Donald Trump’s rhetoric is vicious. His unwillingness to promise to abide by the results of Tuesday’s election is dangerous. His friendly attitude towards dictators like Vladimir Putin disheartens me. And though I hate abortion, I do not support overturning Roe v Wade.

Yet.

Yet when I pull back and consider the issues, I see:

It is the Democratic Party that stands against free speech; that forced mRNA vaccines on tens of millions of healthy adults; that opened America’s southern border until public outcry forced it closed; that supports decriminalization of drugs and "decarceration" of violent criminals; that presides over one giveaway after another to its favored interest groups; and that is willing to risk the American economy over its fears of climate change - it has, with little notice, pushed through regulations that will make gasoline-powered vehicles all but unaffordable within a decade.

What exactly does Kamala Harris stand for, if not more of the same?

That’s not a rhetorical question. I truly don’t know. But she is happy to take the endorsement of Dick Cheney, the chickenhawk warmonger who for 50 years has stood for everything wrong with American elites and American politics.

And if Donald Trump’s words have grown more vicious, he has his reasons.

In the last year, prosecutors in his former home state launched not one but two trials against him, the first aimed at bankrupting him over loans he repaid in full, the second at imprisoning him for the crime of winning in 2016. In front of juries in Manhattan, a county that voted against Trump by nearly 9 to 1 in 2020, both succeeded.

And - though the media rarely sees fit to mention this - Trump was almost assassinated in July, under circumstances that remain somewhat murky.

In response, Trump did NOT stop campaigning.

He is working harder to win votes than he ever has, in the face of an elite media that hates him more than ever. For all his complaints about rigged elections, he wants to win this one quite badly.

So, yes, Donald Trump is angry. He has the right to be.

We ALL have the right to be. For too long, our self-appointed betters - in the media, in public health, in academia - have told us they know best. They have told us that men can be women if they just click their heels three times, that the United States is an evil nation founded mostly to protect slavery, that there’s no such thing as an illegal immigrant. Most of all they have tried to shut down - to cancel, to censor -anyone who disagrees.

They’ve gone too far. And with their lawfare, they have proven that they will do anything to stop the man they abhor.

So I will be voting for Donald Trump.

It is not an easy choice - not for me, anyway - but it is the only choice.