30 Good Things President Trump Has Done for America
President Trump receives non-stop criticism in the press. I agree that criticism is necessary when a
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My favorites:
1. Judges (edited): Trump appointed
three Supreme Court justices, over 53 federal appellate judges, and over
146 District Court judges (as well as two judges for the
Court of International Trade) who have been confirmed by the Senate so far. All of them are committed to interpreting the Constitution and laws according to the original meaning of the words, rather than according to what a modern liberal judge thinks the law should have said.
2. Historic tax cuts and deregulation: After eight years of high unemployment and meager growth under President Obamaās administration, the Trump tax cuts of 2017 and Trumpās extensive canceling of excessive government regulations on businesses have given a tremendous boost to the American economy. An estimated
25,000 pages of regulations have been canceled, resulting in a savings of $3,100 per household per year. Another result of tax cuts combined with deregulation has been the addition of thousands of new jobs, so that unemployment (before the coronavirus crisis) fell to the
lowest point in 50 years, and unemployment among African-American and Hispanic workers was the
lowest it has ever been in history.
On election day, 2016 (11-8-16), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18,332.74.
This afternoon (8-21-20 at 2:29 p.m.) it stands at 27, 898.82, which is an increase of 52% in 3.5 years, even including several months of the coronavirus epidemic. This is remarkable.
These economic changes affect ordinary peopleās everyday lives, not just wealthy people. Tens of thousands of people who were unemployed have recovered the dignity of steady employment (including getting paid during the coronavirus crisis). Millions of ordinary Americans whose retirement savings are partially invested in the stock market (including my wife and me) are finally receiving some protection and even growth in their savings.
3. Building a stronger U.S. military: Reversing the massive budget cuts that had seriously weakened our military under the Obama administration, President Trump has increased military spending by nearly $150 billion per year from $605 billion in 2016 to
$750 billion, steadily rebuilding U.S. military readiness.
4. Protecting unborn babies: Numerous executive orders have
increasingly restricted government funding for abortions (such as the reinstatement of the Mexico City policy). On February 22, 2019, the Trump administration
announced that it would not allow organizations that provide referrals for abortions to receive federal family-planning money, which implies a cut in funding for Planned Parenthood (the nationās largest abortion provider) unless they perform abortions in a separate facility and not refer patients to it. And on May 2, 2019, the Trump administrationās Department of Health and Human Services
issued a new rule protecting healthcare workers who decline on the basis of conscience or religious conviction to participate in procedures such as abortion or assisted suicide. Trump was the first president ever to personally attend the pro-life March for Life in Washington, D.C. on January 24, 2020.
5. Expanding educational freedom: President Trump appointed Betsy DeVos, one of Americaās leading advocates for greater school choice, to be Secretary of Education, resulting in
rising support for charter schools, taxpayer-funded vouchers, and tax credits for private-school vouchers, programs aimed at expanding options for parents looking beyond traditional public schools as she brings attention to them.
6. Standing with Israel: Reversing President Obamaās repeated marginalization and shunning of Israel, President Trump has reaffirmed our commitment to support and defend Israel. He decisively moved the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. He recognized the
Golan Heights as part of Israel. He has welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House several times and has repeatedly reaffirmed our support for Israel. I recently read in the
Jerusalem Post a statement that Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than Donald Trump.
7. Negotiating a historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates: On August 13, 2020, President Trump announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had come to a historic
agreement to establish full diplomatic relations between the two countries, including the establishment of permanent embassies and the beginning of direct airline flights between the two countries. This is important because Dubai, the largest city in the UAE, is the leading financial center in the Middle East and plays a paramount role in world air travel and tourism. The
agreement will āstrengthen regional checks on Iranian power.ā It also has the potential to set a pattern for future
agreements establishing peaceful relations between Israel and other Arab countries in the Middle East.
8. Actually building a border wall: President Trump has relentlessly battled against Democratic stonewalling and liberal federal judges to build an effective, secure
border wall along more than
200 miles of our southern border, and it could possibly reach as much as 450 miles by the end of 2020. Critics object that most of this construction is simply replacing old barriers that were already in place, but they fail to recognize that the governmentās first priority has been to secure the highest traffic areas, and in many of those areas the old fence was not up to the job. An effective border wall is absolutely necessary to keep our nation secure and to gain some control over an immigration crisis that has spiraled out of control. It wonāt put an end to all illegal immigration, but eventually it will likely stop over 95 percent of people who try to enter on foot.
This is important because once the American people feel that the border is secure, it will be much easier to gain the political consensus necessary for a humane and just solution regarding the undocumented immigrants who are already here, and for widespread support for the
legal entry of large numbers of immigrants who will contribute much value to this great nation.
9. Comprehensive immigration reform proposals : President Trump has proposed and worked for sensible, comprehensive reform of our broken immigration system that would change our
policy on
legal immigration from a system based on extended family connections and randomness to a system based on merit, so that we prioritize admitting people who will be most likely to contribute positively to American society (as well as those who are escaping from genuine threats to their lives in their homelands).
10. Religious freedom and freedom of conscience: President Trumpās administration has repeatedly and continually worked to defend religious freedom, and his Justice Department has defended religious freedom in numerous court cases, such as supporting the case of Colorado cake designer
Jack Phillips at the Supreme Court (Phillips faced massive fines for politely declining to design a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding), and the
right of faith-based organizations not to be required to provide access to abortifacients through their health care plans, overturning the Obamacare HHS regulation that had forced them to do so.
In addition, in the first year of Trumpās presidency, the Department of Justice issued a strongly-worded, 25-page
memorandum detailing exceptionally strong protections for religious liberty.
11. Withdrawing from the Paris climate accord: President Trump wisely and decisively removed the United States from the Paris climate accord, a radical environmentalist program which, according to a Heritage Foundation study, would have
brought massive increases to U.S. energy prices with no statistically significant benefit to the environment. Doubling or tripling of U.S. energy costs (as under the Paris climate accord, according to the Heritage Foundation) would have harmed the poor most of all as they spend the highest portion of their budgets on energy. In addition, it would have
cost America more than 206,000 jobs by 2040.
12. Energy production and energy independence: President Trump gave
approval to the Keystone pipeline, the Dakota access pipeline, and
oil production from the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, a vast uninhabited region that could
produce up to 20 percent of our petroleum needs. His administration has also granted more
permits for mining of oil, gas, and coal from federal lands.The result has been lower energy prices (which benefits everyone) and also U.S. energy independence so that we are now becoming
the leading exporter rather than a net importer of energy.
14. Halting the increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards: The Trump administration decision halted the Obama-imposed harsh annual increases in
projected average miles per gallon required in new cars every year. This decision will lead to more consumer choice and less expensive and safer cars, which is much better than the Democratic policy of ever-higher mileage goals, requiring ever-lighter and smaller cars, which means more dangerous cars and less consumer choice.
15. Defeating ISIS: President Trump gave our military forces the freedom to
defeat ISIS and drive them out of large sections of Iraq and Syria, which they did. This is far superior to the Democratic policy of inaction and appeasement, which had allowed ISIS to take over large areas of the Middle East. Under President Trumpās leadership, U.S. military forces located and
killed ISIS founder and terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Oct. 26-27, 2019. President Trump also directed the
killing of Iranian terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 2, 2020.
16. Persuading European nations to pay more for NATO: President Trump has insisted that NATO countries start to pay their fair share of defense costs, and some NATO countries have responded by increasing their defense budgets. In 2017, five countries met the goal of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense and that has now increased to nine, according to the alliance's
latest budgetary data. The U.S. is set to spend over $750 billion (3.7 percent of GDP)
on its military this year and
leads the āabove 2%ā group, which now includes Bulgaria (3.25 percent), Greece (2.28 percent), the United Kingdom (2.14 percent), Estonia (2.14 percent), Romania (2.04 percent), Lithuania (2.03 percent), Latvia (2.01 percent) and Poland (2 percent).
19. Protecting boysā and girlsā bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams: On February 22, 2017, President Trump directed the Department of Education to revoke the Obama administrationās guidance letter that had directed schools to allow children who claim to be ātransgenderā to use the bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers of their choice, and to join sports teams of their choice, even when their choices differed from their biological sex. In a related decision, President Trump issued an executive order banning transgender persons from entering our military forces, which would have allowed biological males free access to womenās bathrooms, locker rooms and showers, and similarly allowed biological females to enter menās facilities. Present Trumpās order was
upheld by the Supreme Court, which lifted the block on the order by a 5-4 vote. While litigation will continue, the
order stands for now.
20. Negotiating new trade agreements that are more favorable to the United States: President Trump has negotiated new trade agreements with
Mexico, Canada, and
China, and all of them give more favorable treatment to the United States than the previous treaties did.
24. Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal: President Trump
withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action, which would have allowed Iran to build a nuclear bomb within the next few years.
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