On October 7, President Donald J. Trump came to San Antonio to make the case that America First policies are strengthening Texas – and the nation. Unlike his recent predecessors, the president understands that for Texans, security, prosperity, and liberty are not abstract political ideas. In the Lone Star State, the words “Remember the Alamo” still speak to what it takes for a free people to flourish. And “America First” is a similar rallying cry – and commitment – for an entire nation.
America First policies are also on the ballot in next month’s midterms. And as President Trump makes his case to the country, Texas serves as a leading example of why and how those policies make Americans safer, freer, and more prosperous.
In March 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star to secure a border left all but defenseless. Texas stood up to the feckless Biden Administration and stepped into a very literal gap. At Eagle Pass, the Texas National Guard built a barrier to do what the federal government would not, protecting both Texans and the rest of the nation.
From the moment he returned to office, President Trump has stood with us, putting in place bold and decisive policies to protect our borders and restore American sovereignty. Under the president’s leadership, we have disrupted criminal networks, vastly reduced the scourge of human trafficking, and made communities safer on both sides of the Rio Grande.
A secure border is not the only guarantor of public safety. In Texas, we believe that no American should have to accept violent crime as the price of living in a major city. In 2021, we moved to shut the revolving jailhouse door that allowed career criminals back on the street. In 2025, President Trump took that fight to the national level, using executive action to challenge the reckless practice of cashless bail. The Trump administration has made restoring law and order a top priority, and Texas is one of many states across the nation that has seen violent crime decline. America First means safe neighborhoods — and zero tolerance for those who prey on American families.
Families also deserve a government that respects biological reality. In 2021, Texas was among the first states in the nation to enact legislation protecting girls’ high school sports. In 2023, we extended that safeguard to college athletes. That same year, we banned sex change surgery for children, protecting our most vulnerable citizens. Upon resuming office in 2025, President Trump took similar executive action to save women’s sports and to restrict federal support for irreversible medical procedures intended to alter a young person’s sex.
American families depend on the nation’s hardworking farmers and ranchers. In Texas, agriculture sustains the communities and traditions that make the Lone Star State unique. President Trump has made supporting American agriculture a national priority, from lowering the costs of farming and ranching to cutting burdensome regulations – all while fighting to secure the Rio Grande water on which Texas producers depend.
Lately, American families have been voting with their feet. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Americans have moved to Texas from other states. They come for opportunity and to raise their children as they see fit. And they come for the chance to flourish as free Americans. Their choice tells us something about the enduring appeal of the Texas way of life. When government gets these fundamentals right, Americans are freer to work, raise families, build businesses, and pursue the American Dream without Washington standing in their way.
In San Antonio, President Trump reminded us of government’s duty to the American people. It is a duty rooted in the very principles for which Texas has fought from its birth. Nearly two hundred years ago, writing from the Alamo, Colonel William Travis appealed to his countrymen in the name of “Liberty, patriotism & every thing dear to the American character.” Travis understood that the cause of Texas was bound up with something larger than Texas itself.
President Trump understands that same truth. What Texans fought to defend at the Alamo is at the heart of the America First agenda. And America First means what it says: a promise to put everything dear to the American character — safety, freedom, dignity, and the chance to pursue prosperity – ahead of political fashion.
Greg Sindelar is the CEO at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.