Thomas Friedman agrees with the Trump agenda

Steven Hayward calls it a “stopped clock moment” but in his latest New York Times column Thomas Friedman basically comes out as agreeing with key parts of the Trump agenda.  Imagine that from one of Minnesota’s own and perhaps the most celebrated liberal columnist in America.  It remains to be seen how the horde of Friedman worshipers will take this new revelation from their oracle.  Here’s Friedman’s surprising list of issues:

We can’t take in every immigrant who wants to come here; we need, metaphorically speaking, a high wall that assures Americans we can control our border with a big gate that lets as many people in legally as we can effectively absorb as citizens.

The Muslim world does have a problem with pluralism — gender pluralism, religious pluralism and intellectual pluralism — and suggesting that terrorism has nothing to do with that fact is naïve; countering violent extremism means constructively engaging with Muslim leaders on this issue.

Americans want a president focused on growing the economic pie, not just redistributing it. We do have a trade problem with China, which has reformed and closed instead of reformed and opened. We have an even bigger problem with automation wiping out middle-skilled work and we need to generate more blue-collar jobs to anchor communities.

Political correctness on college campuses has run ridiculously riot. Americans want leaders to be comfortable expressing patriotism and love of country when globalization is erasing national identities. America is not perfect, but it is, more often than not, a force for good in the world.

Hayward suggests it’s a good thing Friedman doesn’t work for Google.  John Hinderaker wonders if we have finally stumbled upon a firing offense for a New York Times columnist – articulating agreement with major parts of President Trump’s agenda.

Peter Zeller is Director of Operations at Center of the American Experiment.