{"id":34053,"date":"2025-01-27T18:31:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T22:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=34053"},"modified":"2025-01-27T18:31:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T22:31:39","slug":"trumps-welcome-rebukes-of-the-biden-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/trumps-welcome-rebukes-of-the-biden-era","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Welcome Rebukes of the Biden Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
Several early Trump executive orders have already begun reversing some of the worst leftist excesses of the past four years.<\/div>\n
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Detroit<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Threatened speech, shuttered businesses, reduced consumer choice.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve borne witness to all. The U.S. is emerging from a dark era in which politics spread into every corner of our daily lives \u2014 darkness that ultimately enraged the working class, rekindled core Republican groups like small business, renewed civil liberties, and returned Trump to office.<\/p>\n

On a grassroots level, I have engaged with everyone from autoworkers to restaurateurs who have felt the cold hand of government in chilling ways, and I\u2019ve experienced it personally (as a cartoonist, businessman, and consumer). Those lessons have given new energy to restore liberty and government accountability, as seen in the first executive acts of the Trump administration, on January 20.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has watched aghast as California\u2019s misguided forestry policies made Los Angeles a tinderbox. California regulatory policies are spreading across the nation like wildfire.<\/p>\n

In the past four years, the climate cult, led by California regulators and the federal EPA, declared war on our most personal possessions. Gas-powered cars, gas stoves, incandescent light bulbs, and diesel trucks were targeted for elimination. Automakers drowned in EV losses, laying off thousands. Autoworkers, once the base of the Democratic Party, swung to the GOP in the key swing states of Michigan and Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cEVs were probably the No. 1 issue among autoworkers,\u201d Autoworkers for Trump founder Brian Pannebecker \u2014 a fixture at Michigan rallies introducing Trump \u2014 told me. The incoming EPA chief, he said, \u201cknows what Donald Trump wants, and a lot of it is easing regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ending EV mandates is central to Trump\u2019s \u201cUnleashing American Energy\u201d Executive Order signed Monday: \u201cIt is the policy of the United States. . . to eliminate the \u2018electric vehicle (EV) mandate\u2019 and promote true consumer choice. . . by removing regulatory barriers [and] terminating state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cancel culture engulfed newspapers, satirical websites, and cartoonists. I\u2019ve been a writer and syndicated cartoonist for 40 years, lampooning everyone from Trump to Al Sharpton. Yet I was never threatened with personal harm until the fall of 2024, when I penned a cartoon lampooning Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.).<\/p>\n

Fiercely anti-Israel, Tlaib has defended the slogan \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d and has tacitly supported Hamas and Hezbollah hostilities against the Jewish state. When Israel blew up Hezbollah pagers, I penned a caricature of a quizzical Tlaib with a damaged pager on her desk.<\/p>\n

The cartoon ran in client publications across the country, including\u00a0National Review<\/span>. She and her supporters triggered a national, robo-email campaign against me and NR demanding the cartoon\u2019s retraction. My inbox was buried under hundreds of copycat emails that read:<\/p>\n

I am appalled by the dangerous cartoon published by National Review, drawn by Henry Payne, that targets Rep. Rashida Tlaib for her identity as a Palestinian and a Muslim. I demand a retraction and apology from both National Review and the cartoonist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The campaign spread across social media, with Democratic politicians piling on including Representative Anastasia Ocasio Cortez (N.Y.), Representative Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), Senator Gary Peters (Mich.), and more. The email\u2019s inflammatory language provoked much worse. I received hate mail promising violence:<\/p>\n

You nasty mother****** for writing that cartoon of Rashida. I hope your mother gets f***** in the ass you b****. FREE Palestine!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And another:<\/p>\n

I know people like you think you\u2019re untouchable, but one day you WILL have to meet your maker. Oh, I can\u2019t wait until . . . you suffer unspeakable loss. I will find you and remind you karma is kicking you in the balls and you deserve everything that is coming to you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We cartoonists are all too aware of the fate of twelve staffers of the satirical French satirical magazine\u00a0Charlie Hebdo<\/em>\u00a0who were murdered for lampooning Islamic extremists. I moved quickly to protect my family, calling local police to step up patrols around my house.<\/p>\n

I received dozens of emails in support, and\u00a0National Review<\/span>\u00a0stood firm. So did the\u00a0New York Post<\/em>\u00a0despite censorship pressure from Big Tech and the Biden White House. So did Elon Musk, when he rescued Twitter.<\/p>\n

The \u201cRestoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship\u201d Executive Order signed Monday exalts the First Amendment as \u201cessential to the success of our Republic\u201d and says that it \u201censhrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of small businesses unnecessarily went under during Covid as government crippled commerce with absurd, unscientific mandates. My family\u2019s business was one of them.<\/p>\n

Payne Controls, a West Virginia\u2013based engineering firm started by my father 65 years ago, had survived recessions and his passing. But it would not survive Covid shutdowns in 2020\u201321. Economic and medical experts argued for a commonsense approach to restrictions on schools and businesses but were censored and silenced.<\/p>\n