By Bill O'Reilly

Like him or not, you have to accept that Donald Trump is now setting the political agenda in the USA.

Think about that. Could anyone have predicted that Mr. Trump, a celebrity, would be driving the political discourse nine months before the presidential primaries?

Stripping away all the BS, Trump's message is simple: America is in decline, we are not the country we used to be, and it is the fault of President Obama and the Democratic Party.

That's it. That's his main theme. The beauty is everybody can understand it. The country's going downhill. It is a simple but powerful message.

However, some in the Republican Party see danger ahead because Donald Trump is so bombastic. GOP intellectual Charles Krauthammer put it this way:

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CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST: Trump is the Al Sharpton of the Republican Party: provocateur and clown, unserious. I think he's going to harm the party if he runs, for the same reason that Sharpton harmed the Democrats.

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After hearing that, Donald Trump picked up the phone and called Krauthammer:

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KRAUTHAMMER: When my secretary told me, I put on a helmet and a flak jacket as I answered the phone. I expected a tirade, which he would have had every right to do given what I have been saying about him. In fact, he was courteous, but very calm, and he made his case rather than sort of attacking everything I said about him. He simply made his case: "I'm a serious businessman, I'm a serious man and I'm a serious candidate."

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Charles wrote a column before that phone call that Trump is not a serious candidate and will not win the Republican nomination.

"Talking Points" believes that like Patrick Buchanan, who won the New Hampshire primary in 1996, Donald Trump can have an impact on the primary vote. His populist message will appeal to Americans fed up with phony politicians, and there is no Republican candidate who will go after President Obama as hard as Trump will. That also has an appeal to some conservatives.

So there is no question that Donald Trump has emerged as a political force in the country. He's eclipsing most of the Republican establishment candidates and injecting unbridled passion, and perhaps chaos, into the upcoming campaign.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Last week I got some flak for saying stuff like this:

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BILL O'REILLY: For America, we don't recognize this. We don't have royalty in this country.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Let me ask you this. How...

O'REILLY: People like you try to foist it upon us.

MACCALLUM: I'm not foisting anything upon anybody. But let me ask you this. If you heard that, you know, the royal family, that it was over, right, that they were not going to be supported anymore.

O'REILLY: Yes.

MACCALLUM: There's no more monarchy in Great Britain. It's over.

O'REILLY: Yes.

MACCALLUM: Would that dishearten you at all?

O'REILLY: Only if Manchester United lost that night, all right? I couldn't care less about these dopey people in the carriage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So am I, your pal -- remember, I'm your pal -- a pinhead or a patriot for that assessment? Please vote on BillOReilly.com.

Now, on Friday we brought you Reese Witherspoon:

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REESE WITHERSPOON, ACTRESS: I got to take a picture with Obama, and I'm pretty sure we're kind of like good friends. Because I, you know, like he waved at me, and he kind of winked, and my friend was like, "Oh my god, he winked at you." And then he hugged me and said, "Hi, Reese," and I was like, "Yes, I'm into it."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Ms. Witherspoon is in that elephant movie. Sixty-four percent of you felt she was a pinhead for that and 36 percent patriotic.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.