This has been an interesting couple of days.

We are all used to Donald Trump's defense of the American way of life and Western values. And entirely too familiar with the sneers with which his message has been received by the ruling elite both here and in Europe since gliding down that New York City escalator years ago.

As American president and leader of the free world, he was a pretty ronery guy when it came to Europe supporting him.  That famous picture of Merkel practically climbing over a table at Trump illustrates it beautifully to this day.

GAWD, I love this photo (And God bless Shinzo Abe's memory.).

For the intervening, Trump-free years, the ineffectual, intellectual, cultured political aristocracy has held sway in the halls of power. Busy ceding their countries' sovereignty and power to wealthy, unelected manipulators in toney European resort cities or bastions of old world power like Davos and Brussels while Trump railed in the background.

There's been a shift in the paradigm, though, and the haut monde have found it disconcerting, to say the least. There's been a rise in populist plain speakers - and they're being elected to positions of authority.

The first to make an impact was Georgia Meloni, an unabashed populist leader who was elected prime minister of Italy in 2022...and immediately iced out of the cozy country club that was the G-7. 

 ...Elected Italy's prime minister in the fall of 2022, Meloni was the first mainstream European populist shocker. Who did this anti-immigration, making her own energy deals, working-class nationalist champion think she was?

Von der Leyen, Macron, and the Brussels elites LOATHED her equally as much as they had adored her effortlessly urbane predecessor, Mario Draghi.

So much so that they began to exclude her - and by that measure, Italy - from the everyday EU goings-on the country had always been a party to. The final straw that broke the camel's back was a very public diss by none other than the elfin and effete French president himself.

...Plus, she knows the Brussels cabal can’t stand the Italians. Look what happened just last week – unspeakably rude.

…Last week, for example, President Emmanuel Macron of France excluded Ms. Meloni from a dinner in Paris with Mr. Zelensky of Ukraine and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, a clear sign that Italy had been knocked down a notch from when Mr. Draghi was in office. But analysts said Mr. Macron also wanted to avoid indirectly legitimizing France’s own right-wing firebrand, Marine Le Pen.

Sadly for the Brussels cabal, Meloni forged ahead reinvigorating her country, and by the time of this year's G-7 meeting, which she was hosting, girlfriend was in the catbird's seat.

A couple of days ago, she delivered a barnburner at an awards ceremony that left no doubt about where she stood on Western values and preserving them.

It has to gnaw at the progressives like crazy that they can do nothing about her and "values."

Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni seems like a force to be reckoned with.

Common sense eventually prevails.

Having said that, I trust the media is plotting their next moves of how to go after her.pic.twitter.com/yZYFVCAj3w

— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) September 26, 2022

There's been another voice rising that has taken hold of his job, turning a malaise-stricken country on its ear and taking the diplomatic world by storm. The man is a complete showman who thoroughly enjoys rattling formerly comfortable elites on a world stage. His name is Javier Milei, the relatively new president of Argentina, who, contrary to progressive caricatures of him, holds two master's degrees in economics. 

The Argentine economy, for all the wailing predictions of doom and gloom under the populist president's immediately enacting reforms, is looking pretty spiffy at the moment.

Argentina’s economy posted a larger-than-expected upturn in July, a promising signal for President Javier Milei with the economy mired in its sixth recession in a decade.

Economic activity grew 1.7% in July from June, compared with the median estimate for 0.6% growth of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. From a year ago, activity fell 1.3%, according to government data published Wednesday.

South America’s second-biggest economy is showing incipient signs of recovery, with wage growth edging above inflation for three straight months in June and consumer spending and manufacturing showing gains in recent months.

One of the finest things about President Milei is his full-throated and unabashed love of freedom in all of its iterations.

Argentinian President Javier Milei sounds off on England's transformation into a dystopian socialist nightmare, where people are being imprisoned for their posts on X

Milei: "... we are undertaking a change of paradigm, not only economic, but also social, political and cultural.… pic.twitter.com/QNF9jddeqC

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 15, 2024

Milei: "... we are undertaking a change of paradigm, not only economic, but also social, political and cultural. And with this change we are going against the direction that in recent times many countries in the world are undertaking. While other countries propose censorship, we propose freedom of expression.

 Look at just what is happening in England, since the socialists came to power, they are putting people in jail for posting on social networks.  Well, the journalists here would also like it because, let's say, they don't like that they have lost the mic, the monopoly of the microphone and to be able to use that tool to distort and dirty, slander at no cost.

The social networks send them invoices and they don't like it. Stop looking for ghosts. They are receiving the same thing they did, but nothing more than people do it organically because they realized that many of them are criminals. In turn, while others are getting closer and closer to falling into cultural and religious wars, which will eventually expel people from their countries of origin, we invite the rest of the free world to participate in a country under reconstruction."

STOP LOOKING FOR GHOSTS

Milei makes no bones about how much he despises the authoritarians who hypocritically mouth peace, love, and happiness platitudes while enabling and abetting the worst abusers.

He has firmly chastised the smug plotters at Davos to their faces, and two days ago, he marched into the UN General Assembly for his first address and proceeded to light them on fire.

Javier Milei to the UN:

"In this very house, that claims to defend human rights, they have allowed the entry of bloody dictatorships, like those of Cuba and Venezuela, without the slightest reproach.

"In this very house, that claims to defend the rights of women, it allows… pic.twitter.com/DjYfpJiRwW

— Saul Sadka (@Saul_Sadka) September 26, 2024

..."In this very house, that claims to defend human rights, they have allowed the entry of bloody dictatorships, like those of Cuba and Venezuela, without the slightest reproach. 

"In this very house, that claims to defend the rights of women, it allows countries that punish their women for showing skin, to enter the committee for the elimination of discrimination against women. 

"In this very house, there has been systematic voting against the state of Israel, which is the only country in the Middle East that defends liberal democracy, while simultaneously demonstrating a total inability to respond to the scourge of terrorism."...

The entire speech, absolutely "lacing into the socialist UN," as Forbes (!) put it, is here:

Should the election gods be with us and Trump prevail, he will no longer be the lone man at the table staring back at a united front against him.

There are at least two major players who are now boldly singing from the same sheet of music on a world stage to join with him and fearlessly beating back the forces of progressive darkness. 

Victory loves company.