BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE WEDNESDAY FEB. 18, 2026) — First, a tip of THE PLANET doiby to the Pittsfield Police Department for their great work in nabbing the man suspected of the recent, horrific hit-and-run fatality. Job well done.

Donald Trump has always been an acquired taste, like all the great ones of modernity–Nietzsche, Bierce, Mencken, Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, Picasso, Shostakovich, Mussolini, Mao, Ruth, Eisenhower, Nixon, and so on. Like then, he posts down a large footprint then says, “Fill it.”

He made his chops in business, became a TV star, then a non-politician politician. He shoots not just from the hip but the tailbone. He speaks not just off the cuff but off the entire sleeve. He’s outrageous, temperamental, frank, and outspoken, which is the absolute best that democracy can produce–an honest crook. He has no “off” switch.

He’s precisely the type of person America needed, a creature of and for his time.

———- ooo ———-

First time he ran, THE PLANET needn’t remind you, after first being taken as a joke, Trump outslugged a field of more than a dozen, seasoned GOP hopefuls and went on to smok Hilary Clinton. Second time, the Democrats cooked the books, nominating a senile has-been then inventing a “pandemic” to shut down the rest of America.  After four years of prosecution and hounding by the young, loon, largely feminized leftists, once again Trump defined all odds and rose from the ashes and asses to overwhelm an aimless, leaderless opposition. Kamela Harris?! Seriously?!

If Bill “It Depends on the Definition of Is” Clinton was the Comeback Kid, Trump is the Return of the Native. He’s outrageous, a walking sound bite, and not for the timid or feint of heart. He talks big and acts bigger, pushing boldness to the point of recklessness.

If America didn’t have a man like this, it would have had to invent him, if nothing else than for sheer survival. His is the type of precipitous behavior that takes two steps forward and one back. After four years of Autopen-Harris and endless steps back in an engine that had only one gear, reverse, the turnaround has caused whiplash to the right people in politics.

———- ooo ———-

Let’s take this chance to look at the first year of  Trump’s second time around. What a difference year makes.

Let’s take a look from 40,000 feet. Since his second-term inauguration:

You know who.

• Median household income rose to an all-time high of $86,000. Every income and ethnic group had on average more money in their pockets. After inflation, median home income jumped $1,250.
• Incomes rose nearly twice as fast as inflation. This includes the bottom 25% of the income brackets.
• Trump’s Education Savings Accounts will mean more access the better-performing public school. THE PLANET needn’t remind you that this will not include Bitchfield’s sochols.
• Under Biden, average 401K plans dropped $20,000. Under Trump, 401Ks were up $21K.
• On Jan. 1. the president’s No Tax on Tips legislation will put more dollars in the pockets of millions of workers.
• Trump tax cuts will do the same for millions of families.
• In the first two months of FY26, America trimmed $170 billion off its dangerous deficit.
• Every man and woman in the armed forces got a year-end bonus of $1,776 as a “Thank you for your service.”
• Crime is down and public safety up compared to the Biden years … except in big cities run by Democrats.
• Trump cut the influx of illegals by 92%.
• Biden’s gasoline prices of $4+ are down, at the end of the year at $2.89 a gallon.
• The bloated and corrupt Federal government saw 300,000 fat jobs terminated. Draining the swamp.
• More than 400 government regs have been cut.
• Racial quotas imposed by the federal government have been sent to the dust bin.
• No more ridiculous “loan forgiveness” for student loans. You borrow, you pay back. Be an adult.
• The S&P, Nasdaq, and the Dow all set records for all-time highs.
• The country’s porous borders, slit opened by Biden-Harris, have been sealed.
• Criminal aliens and illegals are being found and deported.

It’s not perfect. The debt monster continues to hulk over the future, among other problems.  Hostility has made Congress dysfunctional and hostage to the majority party. World hotspots continue to bubble. Nonetheless, Trump’s first year second time around was a good one.

It brought about change, largely positive, at a pace once thought unthinkable.

You make like it, love it, scorn it, or hate it.

You can’t, however, deny it.

THE PLANET‘s gotta go. Gotta get the doiby cleaned. Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“Better is better” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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