New Yorkers have been lining up since dawn for President Trump’s big rally this evening at Madison Square Garden — a nice moment for an endorsement. In 1904, the editors then flying the flag of The New York Sun endorsed President Theodore Roosevelt in a five-word editorial that might be the shortest in newspaper history: “Theodore! with all thy faults — .” That’s the spirit in which the Sun today endorses Trump for a second term in the White House.

We do so on the Republican principles that animated our endorsements in 2016 and 2020. We also see a vote for Trump as a repudiation of the way the Biden administration, Democratic prosecutors, and Congress have traduced his due process rights. Few, if any, of the liberal papers defended him on this head. We share, though, the admiration of millions for Trump’s fortitude, if not for all of his underlying conduct, during the legal onslaught.

We don’t mind saying that this is a bit of a surprise for us. On the day after January 6, 2021, we issued an editorial calling on President Trump to take responsibility for the fiasco at the Capitol and resign, relinquishing the powers vested in him to Vice President Pence. It might, or might not, have led to a pardon. If he had taken that course, though, he might have been in a stronger position than he is today, with the Republic less at loggerheads.

Trump, in any event, pursued a different course — hewing to his own concept of what honor and duty demand. When impeached, he was found not guilty, only to have the Justice Department name a special prosecutor to pursue him again. It did that two days after the 45th president declared he would stand in the 2024 election. He has maintained his innocence in multiple criminal cases — and in face of a J6 committee that reeked of forbidden attainder.

The criminal cases — Trump was convicted in New York — are an example of prosecutors finding a person they don’t like and then seeking a law under which to charge him. That abuse — famously marked by Attorney General Robert Jackson — will burden the Democrats. It took a unanimous Supreme Court to stop the Democrats from using the 14th Amendment to deny Trump the standing to run at all. The Nine also backed presidential immunity.

The legal assault on President Trump did have a startling and encouraging result. With each passing charge, in both federal and state courts, Candidate Trump soared in the polls. We don’t mind saying that we share the sentiment. It reminds us all that the American people, in their millions, can see past their government. They see the political nature of the prosecution for what it is — a test of Trump’s courage and commitment.

As to the merits, Trump far outshines Ms. Harris — and President Biden — on foreign policy. Trump may have treated with the Taliban, but he did not surrender to it, abandoning to the enemy our bases, equipment, and loyal Afghan employees. On Israel, Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem and launched, in the Abraham Accords, a historic peace process. Ms. Harris boycotted Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress.

Ms. Harris has offered in foreign policy little beyond President Biden’s instinct for appeasement, most notably with Iran. The mullahs take the Democratic administration as weak. That helped beget the current crisis. The Russians and Chinese have been building their war machines as the Democrats have, in real terms, let our Navy dwindle and Army shrink. The crisis on our southern and northern borders now belongs to Ms. Harris. 

Then there’s the biggest issue, the economy. Here President Trump towers over Vice President Harris. The 45th president favors supply-side policies — tax cuts, deregulation, and, we see grounds to hope, monetary reform. He suggests his radical tariffs might yet lead to a bigger tax reform. He may not yet be ready, as we are, for an attempt to restore a stable dollar defined in terms of specie, but he is on record as reckoning that a gold standard is ideal.

When the Sun endorsed TR in 1904, it was at the beginning of the Progressive Era. Progressive errors were eventually corrected by Presidents Harding and Coolidge. It can be said that Trump is seeking to establish a populist era with a conservative streak. Success might not be certain, but it looks like a far better bet than the socialism of today’s Democrats. So let the famous formulation go out: “Donald! with all thy faults — and thy virtues, too.”