Triumphant Launch of Trump's Superpower

What a send-off. More than 50 conservatives gathered in Charleston, South Carolina over the weekend to hear my first book talk about Trump’s Superpower: A Historical Novel About the Founding Fathers & One Founding Mother. I had arranged for the publisher to send 35 early copies. We sold out. And several, on reading the first chapters, have contacted me to buy more for friends and relatives.

Big thank you to my brother-in-law Bill Lyddan for planning a brilliant success.

His gorgeous home in the historic district, first built in 1778, served as a fitting tribute to the book’s themes. Outside his front door hangs a replica of the Betsy Ross flag. It would not have flown at this house in those days. Charleston was founded by the English in 1670 as Charles Town, named in honor of King Charles II. And when this house was built, just after the Declaration of Independence was signed, a lot of the town’s British sympathizers who would have shunned this flag.

During my remarks, I talked about the book’s themes — my fanciful fantasy of bringing the founders down from heaven to celebrate our 250th birthday. I talked about their funny encounters with 21st century Americans — Ben Franklin getting arrested for misgendering someone, Alexander Hamilton lunching with his counterpart, Scott Bessent, at the Fed — and also the serious debate they had among themselves about whether this was the America they meant to leave us.

For me there are key themes in the book.

One is that contrary to the assaults from Left-wing critics in the academy and in the press over the last century, the founders actually resonated to freedom. They have been ridiculed for over 100 years for being motivated by economic greed or slave ownership. But in fact these founders knew they were risking their names, their reputations and their necks to declare independence from the British crown. In the book, they walk somberly to the desk at Philadelphia Hall to sign Thomas Jefferson’s brilliant Declaration of Independence, wondering who would hang first.

The other great lesson of this history is that the Declaration’s principles — that our rights come not from man or government but from the Creator, and are therefore inalienable — is something to be treasured. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas rarely gives public speeches, but he did the other day. In a speech at UT Austin Law School, Thomas said progressivism is incompatible with the Declaration’s truths that “all men are created equal.” Popularized by Woodrow Wilson in 1913 and reinvigorated by Zohran Mamdani in 2026, progressivism encourages government tyranny by experts who ignore individual will, and constitutional constraints.

“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence our form of government. It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government.”

The central understanding of my book, and the reason I titled it Trump’s Superpower, is that President Trump understands that unless he rescues the founders — and the founding — from their critics, the mission to Make America Great Again will falter.

When the Declaration was signed in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail,

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Day’s Transaction, even though we should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

Trump is marshaling a mighty party for the 250th. He is is building a neoclassical arch near Arlington Cemetery, 250’ high, to mark the occasion, even as he set up a commission in every state to engage speakers and events to publicize the event.

The Left, of course, is trying to douse the occasion, and I will have more to say about this in a subsequent blog post. This is no surprise, because they loathe America.

But Trump is investing his presidency in making John Adams’ prophecy come true.

Thanks to those who have already purchased the book. Those who are interested can purchase it on Amazon or at TrumpsSuperpower.com, where you can also find videos of the founders, developed by an artist who specializes in AI, talking about the book.

To the Fourth!