I’ve always wanted to work for President Donald Trump, so being back in California feels like an interlude — a temporary pause between the work that matters most. 

I’m doing well, grateful for the time with my family, and more determined than ever that I will never stop fighting for President Trump and the America First agenda in whatever capacity I’m given. 

The president deserves a press corps that reports his results straight — instead of feeding the incurable Trump Derangement Syndrome that fake news keeps alive.

“Never quit and always hit back.” That’s what Donald Trump wrote in “The Art of the Comeback.”

Those words continue to guide me, and I have watched the president live by them on the campaign trail.

Traveling with the greatest president earlier this month, I saw him stand for the candidates he endorsed, speak for hours, and refuse to treat the midterms as a managed decline. 

What I saw was pure, unrelenting energy and enthusiasm. Crowds stood for hours, and still roared when he walked onstage. 

I made this point to Mark Levin, Jesse Watters, Greg Kelly, and anyone who would listen: Trump is fighting.

President Trump is working harder than any president in American history to elect America First candidates across the country. He is on the trail because Republican candidates need the turnout boost only he can deliver, and he is supplying it at a pace and intensity the White House has never seen before.

His energy matches his record. For 17 months, there has been almost no illegal border crossing at all — an historic achievement that ended the chaos of the prior era. No other president has secured the border like President Trump. 

The president has used tariff policy to generate substantial customs revenue, and to create the leverage that has drawn trillions of dollars in announced investment and purchase commitments from allies and trading partners. 

The president’s diplomatic efforts have ended eight conflicts in eight months. His Gaza ceasefire framework ended the immediate fighting and freed the hostages. He has mediated other conflicts — while showing he will use force to protect American interests. 

The rewards are clear in the industrial and energy deals President Trump has locked in across many states. In Iowa, Mesabi Metallics is advancing a $15 billion fully integrated steel complex, the largest steel plant ever built in the United States. The plant will create 1,750 permanent jobs, support up to 6,000 construction jobs, and generate an estimated $95 billion in economic output, powered by American iron ore and the administration’s steel tariffs. 

The president has also facilitated energy investments from South Korea worth up to $200 billion, including up to $120 billion to build eight large-scale nuclear plants; $54 billion tied to the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline (with Taiwan committing an additional $4.4 billion); and $22.3 billion for a six-gigawatt natural-gas power facility in Texas. 

In Maryland, the Navy and Anduril Industries are investing $6.6 billion in Arsenal-2, a new shipyard at Sparrows Point that will produce critical components for Virginia-class submarines. The shipyard will create roughly 3,100 direct jobs, plus more than 11,000 indirect jobs — the largest new American shipbuilding push in generations — while Cleveland, Ohio, will host the new U.S. Submarine Component Repair Center. 

These are the concrete returns of Trump’s “never quit” philosophy: Steel, nuclear power, LNG, submarines, and shipbuilding restored to American soil.

There is a certain irony in watching Trump’s critics on the Republican side cheer for the opposition. Karl Rove continues to pontificate across all major network shows about what President Trump should and shouldn’t be doing, while undermining Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas. 

We should not forget that Rove lost the 2006 midterms for President George W. Bush. I was an intern in the Bush White House; there was nothing like the will to win that President Trump has shown. The Bush Republicans accepted defeat before the first ballots were cast.

Theodore Roosevelt warned that the poorest way to handle life is to face it with a sneer. The role of the sideline critic is easy. 

President Trump’s approach has been the opposite — working harder than any president, bringing enthusiasm to races across the country, despite resistance from the mainstream media. 

That is “the comeback” in action — never quitting, always hitting back.

This is not the flat, procedural posture of earlier midterms. Thanks to President Trump, the midterm election fight is a sustained effort that treats voters as participants rather than an audience to be managed. 

The people packing the rallies; the communities seeing the border secured; and the workers benefiting from new investments know what is at stake. 

They are with him, in the arena. 

Show up. Vote for the candidates President Trump has endorsed. Fight, fight, fight.

He never quits. Neither should we.

Katie Zacharia is the former White House Press Secretary for President Donald J. Trump

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