On Pat Sajak's last Wheel of Fortune show, a tribute to the beloved host who liberal snobs tried and FAILED to destroy after he was outed as a Trump fan, writes DAVID MARCUS

Close your eyes and picture a game show host.

Readers of a certain age will see Pat Sajak; mild-manned yet witty, benign but unflappable, good-looking enough without being too attractive.

Americans happily invited the Wheel of Fortune host into their homes every weeknight for four decades.

In the mid-1980s, the puzzle show with the big wheel and the showgirl assistant pulled in more than 40 million viewers every night. And it holds the record as one of the most-watched syndicated shows in history.

That's quite the achievement for a program anchored by a deplorable.

Yes, that's right. Sajak is MAGA – and probably voted for Donald Trump.

Friday evening, when Sajak, 77, takes his final bow in a pre-recorded episode – ending the longest-ever run by a host of a nationally syndicated game show – liberal fans will be forced to contend with the fact that for four decades they've been bamboozled.

They thought Pat Sajak was safe.

Americans happily invited the Wheel of Fortune host into their homes every weeknight for four decades.

In the mid-1980s, the puzzle show with the big wheel and the showgirl assistant pulled in more than 40 million viewers every night.

But they have also been told that Trump voters are knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, slobbering buffoons intent on destroying democracy.

Imagine their confusion - because Sajak is none of those things.

The ordinary vowel salesman with the sparking smile was so even kneeled that the smallest hint of personality or subversiveness would send audiences into hysterics.

Remember the episode when Sajak turned to co-host Vanna White for some pre-scheduled banter and asked, 'Are you an opera buff?'

'I'm not a buff, but I like opera,' Vanna replied.

'Have you ever watched opera in the buff? I'm just curious,' Sajak joked.

The gag falls somewhere between Knock-Knock and Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road. That was all part of Sajak's appeal.

As Martin Short's Saturday Night Live character 'Ed Grimley' said in the 1980s, 'It seems to me that [Sajak] would be a pretty decent guy, I must say.'

Truer words were never spoken.

Sajak is the normal guy trying his best to keep up with the times, the friendly neighbor with the tidy yard and well-behaved kids, the person you'd want living next door.

Sure, the dynamic of a mostly mute Vanna nodding and smiling along to Pat's musings may have seemed a bit dated by the 2000s, but the show got a pass.

Sajak and Wheel of Fortune provided something that Americans increasingly needed – a break.

In a world of Light Beer culture wars, it was a half-hour (minus the commercials) breath of freedom from the acrimony.

The ordinary vowel salesman with the sparking smile was so even kneeled that the smallest hint of personality or subversiveness would send audiences into hysterics.

Sajak and Wheel of Fortune provided something that Americans increasingly needed – a break.

Sure, the dynamic of a mostly mute Vanna nodding and smiling along to Pat's musing may have seemed a bit dated by the 2000s, but the show got a pass.

Who doesn't yearn for the days when The Price Is Right host Bob Barker signed off every episode by advising viewers to get their pets 'spayed and neutered'?

Today, we're lucky not to be told to spay and neuter our kids.

Sajak's hosting was a throwback to that simpler time - what American entertainment used to be, what it is supposed to be and what it was before pervasive progressivism infected our minds and made every waking moment an exercise in virtue-signaling.

Perhaps that's why liberal Americans were so shocked and appalled to learn that their loveable riddle master was – gasp – a Trump-loving monster in 2016.

But it wasn't until after Sajak announced last year that he planned to retire that the liberal mediatruly exploded.

'You may want to tap the brakes on pouring one out for the familiar face,' wrote The New Republic in June 2023. 'Turns out when he wasn't busy adorning our television screens, he was on the front lines of advancing a right-wing agenda.'

Who knew? Very few, I can safely assume, because Sajak never gave viewers any hint as to what his politics were.

In his private life – as is the right of every American – he pursued traditionally-conservative causes.

Sajak has served as a board member at prominent right-leaning institutions and spoke at a Christian college.

He questioned the wisdom of 'climate change alarmism,' criticized the creeping influence of politics on public school education and even attended dinners with the likes of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

After Sajak announced last year that he planned to retire this year the liberal media couldn't help themselves.

His greatest sin of all to those who see life through blue-tinted glasses is that he once took a picture with Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

'First Chuck Woolery. Now Pat Sajak. Are all game show hosts trash?' spat BET host Marc Lamont Hill on Twitter in September 2022 – referencing Wheel's first-ever host, who was also outed as a Republican.

Woolery and Sajak aren't the problem here.

Their lunatic critics are.

The loving embrace of Sajak by millions of Americans for decades proves that the Left's snobbish caricature of their political opponents is complete and utter nonsense.

Farewell Pat – you'll be missed at 7:30 p.m. local time.