One week from today, President Donald Trump will mark exactly one year into his second term. To say a lot has gone on in the world since January 20, 2025, would be an understatement. At home, there are mass deportations of illegal immigrants, and hordes of angry liberals attempting to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from doing their jobs. Abroad, there is the toppling of the socialist Maduro regime in Venezuela, and there is talk that Cuba could be next. Even further from home, thousands of Iranian citizens are standing up to another evil regime and fighting for their freedom. We are living in an amazing time. But through it all, a little something, understandably, got overlooked.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the late great Rush Limbaugh. pic.twitter.com/IUJsgT6TM2
— Maha Rushie 🇺🇸 (@LimbaughLegacy) January 12, 2026
Monday, January 12, would have been Rush Limbaugh's 75th birthday. It seems like he has been gone so much longer than just the almost five years he has. Many of us can still remember where we were when we heard the news. I was right here, where I am every morning, at my desk. I had Rush on in the background. I heard the familiar music, and then for a few seconds, silence. My first thought was, "Oh, Rush is back." We had all gotten used to Rush's guest hosts while he was out for cancer treatments. But then, I heard the calm, clear voice of Rush's wife, Katherine, telling us that Rush had passed earlier that morning. It was a helpless punch to the gut feeling. What would we do now? I couldn't help thinking that it was very reminiscent of the passing of Andrew Breitbart.
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Rush had always described himself as "just a kid from Cape Girardeau, Missouri who wanted to be on the radio." Missouri Republicans could not be more proud that he was a native son of the Show-Me State. But who could have ever guessed that that kid from Cape Girardeau would grow up to do what he did? He pioneered what it meant to "be on the radio," and single-handedly revolutionized what would become "talk radio."
But Rush didn't start with "one hand tied behind my back just to make it fair." He did what we all do: he worked his way up. From his beginning as a disc jockey in Pittsburgh, to a stint in marketing with the Kansas City Royals, to finally Sacramento, California, where he launched "The Rush Limbaugh Show" in 1988.
From the first moment of his show, listeners could tell that Rush was different. In 1988, there were three networks, and cable television news was in its infancy. CNN actually reported the news, and Fox News was still eight years away. The closest thing to conservative programming anywhere was William F. Buckley's "Firing Line" on PBS. Suddenly, here was a guy who was saying out loud what half of the country was thinking. He wrote two books and, for a while, brought what he did on the radio to a successful television series. The more popular he got, the more the left hated him and tried to stop him.
One of the best illustrations of what Rush Limbaugh was about happened after Barack Obama became President. He said that the Wall Street Journal has asked him to write 400 words about his hopes for the new president. In typical Rush style, he said that he didn't need 400 words, just four: "I hope he fails." Left-wing media went crazy, but once again, failed to look behind Rush's words. Rush was a student of history and the Founding Fathers of our nation, and the genius behind the documents they created. When Obama told a crowd shortly before the 2008 election, "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America," Rush knew exactly what he meant.
Happy birthday in heaven, Rush Limbaugh.
— 🇺🇸Sheri (@SheriCarter18) January 12, 2026
You are greatly missed. pic.twitter.com/WdUfL1YNAy
How many of us, multiple times a day, hear something in the news and think, "What would Rush be saying about all of this?" Rush loved Donald Trump, and he would absolutely love the boldness with which he has carried out the business of the country. He would no doubt have quite a chuckle at the increasing insanity of the left and poke fun at them daily. And, of course, he would continue to be the mainstream media's worst enemy. Sadly, they now get away with so much more than when Rush was still with us.
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What celebrating Rush's 75th birthday is really about is celebrating the legacy he left behind. And that legacy, in a nutshell, is conservative media. Fox News, Newsmax, conservative websites, and podcasting. It is all because of Rush. Those of us in conservative media may all have a bit of that kid from Cape Girardeau in us. We write, we podcast, we do what we do because we love the country and we want it to succeed.
But perhaps the best bit of advice we got from America's Anchorman was this:
“It's never time to panic, folks. It's never, ever gonna be time to give up on our country. It will never be time to give up on the United States. It will never be time to give up on yourselves.”
Happy Birthday, El Rushbo. Rest easy; we'll take it from here.
On your birthday, we are reminded how impactful one's life can be. Rush continues to inspire us all to make the very best of our time here.
— Official Rush Limbaugh (@OfficialRushUSA) January 12, 2026
With love,
Kathryn pic.twitter.com/ai5gQQAWCG
