Of course I'm happy Ross is free, and it's worth celebrating the pardon. Trump deserves credit for keeping this promise, and it's not nothing. To him and his family, it's everything.

No, it's not a vindication and it doesn't make me regret not voting for Trump. Ross is one man who deserved freedom and was imprisoned unjustly, but that's gotta be weighed against the effects of Trump's Presidency on 350 million or so other Americans. And my movement more than most should understand concentrated benefits versus dispersed costs.

The "I told you sos" from libertarians who supported him don't have enough to hang that hat on with one presidential pardon alone.

I'm not one of those paranoid TDS people who think Trump's the next Hitler and will end our Republic and install a racist dictatorship or something. I'm opposed to Trump because he's untrustworthy, authoritarian, fiscally populist, and because I'm opposed to his trade and immigration policies. Of all the things he promised, being more restrictionist on trade and immigration are the things I think he's most motivated by and most likely to do. Both are inherently inflationary at a time when the battle against inflation is important and isn't even close to over. Being opposed to entitlement reform alone is enough to be a deal breaker for me when major programs are less than a decade out from bankruptcy and time is running out.

I understand why people who think like me voted for him. Compared to Kamala, he was far less likely to get us into a new war. Less people are likely to be killed and more people are likely to live under relative peace. If I lived in a swing state, that might have been enough to not go third party, because it was such a stark difference between him and her and affected millions and millions of people. Compared to the amount of lives likely saved on the war and peace front, Ross just seems like a drop in the bucket. But I don't live in a swing state, and I still worry about how he'll go about any tariff and deportation plans, even if he's a mixed bag.

I'm glad Ross is free, and I hope Trump does other stuff that's good as well. Maybe he won't be as bad as I think this time around. If it turns out my pessimism is misplaced on him overall, I welcome that. If the tariffs are just a negotiating tactic and immigration restrictions no worse than his first term, awesome. If DOGE convinces him that entitlements deserve to be saved from their unsustainable structure, I'd be ecstatic. I'd rather be wrong than be able to say I told you so.