I have been repeatedly told, as I’m sure you have, that Donald Trump “was the worst President the United States has ever had.” Except for his “racism,” “Nazism,” “mean tweets,” and “all the stupid things he said and did,” I have never been told what specific accomplishments of his administration these folks don’t like. Granted, maybe the man is arrogant and narcissistic, but he isn’t the only such person who ever occupied the White House. Maybe he said some stupid things; I wonder how many human beings have never done the same. But only Donald Trump is guilty. Fairness and justice are virtues the Left is far removed from.
Mr. Trump, like all of us, including his liberal detractors, isn’t close to perfection. I didn’t agree with his every policy, action, word, or deed, but what I want to do in three articles is look at his record: what did his administration accomplish for the United States. Frankly, I will mention only bare essentials; the total list is very, very long, and at the end of this review, I will refer the reader to a website where a full list can be obtained and post the entire record on my personal blog.
The reader can decide, for himself/herself, if these actions of the Trump administration were good for America. I will, of course, comment along the way, but only briefly.
1. Unemployment and economic growth.
•Unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those without a high school diploma all reached record lows.
•Unemployment for women hit its lowest rate in nearly 70 years.
•Lifted nearly 7 million people off food stamps.
•Poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanic Americans reached record lows.
•Income inequality fell for two straight years, and by the largest amount in over a decade.
•The bottom 50 percent of American households saw a 40 percent increase in net worth.
•Wages rose fastest for low-income and blue-collar workers – a 16 percent pay increase.
•African American homeownership increased from 41.7 percent to 46.4 percent.
Trump, of course, is a “racist” and “sexist” to liberals; it is one of their prime charges against him, with absolutely no proof. It is hard to understand, though, why a man who hates minorities and women so much would institute policies that would be so beneficial to them.
2. Tax Relief
•Strengthened America’s rural economy by investing over $1.3 billion through the Agriculture Department’s ReConnect Program to bring high-speed broadband infrastructure to rural America.
•More than 6 million American workers received wage increases, bonuses, and increased benefits thanks to the tax cuts.
•A typical family of four earning $75,000 received an income tax cut of more than $2,000 – slashing their tax bill in half.
•Doubled the standard deduction – making the first $24,000 earned by a married couple completely tax-free.
•Doubled the child tax credit.
•Since the passage of tax cuts, the share of total wealth held by the bottom half of households has increased, while the share held by the top 1 percent has decreased.
•Over $1.5 trillion was repatriated into the United States from overseas.
•Created nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones where capital gains on long-term investments are taxed at zero.
Americans were able to keep more of the money they earned. Only a Marxist (yes, Democrat) would object to that.
3. Regulations
•Instead of 2-for-1, Trump eliminated 8 old regulations for every 1 new regulation adopted.
•Provided the average American household an extra $3,100 every year.
•Removed nearly 25,000 pages from the Federal Register – more than any other president. The previous administration added over 16,000 pages.
Mr. Trump was very pro-business, something else that is anathema to the Left. Yet, the removal of onerous, needless regulations, not only helped small business owners, but cheapened costs and provided more money for average Americans.
4. Trade
•Immediately withdrew from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
•Ended the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and replaced it with the brand new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
•The USMCA contains powerful new protections for American manufacturers, auto-makers, farmers, dairy producers, and workers.
•Negotiated another deal with Japan to boost $40 billion worth of digital trade.
•China agreed to purchase an additional $200 billion worth of United States exports and opened market access for over 4,000 American facilities to exports while all tariffs remained in effect.
•Imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of Chinese goods to protect American jobs and stop China’s abuses under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
•Achieved a mutual agreement with the European Union (EU) that addresses unfair trade practices and increases duty-free exports by 180 percent to $420 million.
•Successfully negotiated more than 50 agreements with countries around the world to increase foreign market access and boost exports of American agriculture products, supporting more than 1 million American jobs.
Economics is not something most Americans understand very well, thus the benefits of the above are not easily understood, or quickly perceived or felt, by most. Yet, the list is clear enough to make the Left angry. Mr. Trump negotiated trade deals that benefitted the United States. He still had much to do in that regard, but he was denied another four years in which to do it. Obviously, the country has suffered greatly the last two years because of that.
More Trump accomplishments will follow in part two of this series.
Don’t miss out on some good American reading from the good ol’ days. My western novels, Whitewater and River Bend, are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Eliva.com. A third western, Allie’s Dilemma, is available for Kindle only. And read some different posts on my blog at thailandlewis.blogspot.com.