President Donald J. Trump: As Long As He Keeps Winning, America Keeps Winning
January 24, 2020
President Donald J. Trump has just completed his third year in office as President of the United States. Thus far in his tenure he has managed to compile an extensive and impressive list of accomplishments. This list is long and covers a wide variety of categories.
Perhaps the most noteworthy and impactful of all these accomplishments is the aptly named Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The President’s reason for choosing that name would seem to be that the tax cuts, along with the other economic policies he implemented, have resulted in the creation of over 7 million new jobs since his inauguration, most of which have come since this legislation was passed.
This economic boom, which was precipitated by the policies implemented by President Trump, has resulted in the lowest overall unemployment rate in over fifty years and it may go even lower. In addition, the country is experiencing record-low unemployment in several key demographics. These demographics include black and Hispanic unemployment, as well as unemployment for women and Asians. Youth unemployment is now at its lowest level in over fifty years and unemployment for veterans is now at its lowest point in almost twenty years.
There are several other statistics that show how strong and vibrant the US economy has become under Donald Trump’s leadership. For example, since inauguration day, over 400,000 jobs in manufacturing and in the oil and gas sectors of our economy have been created.
Another area where increased economic growth can be seen is the level of median household income. According to Sentier Research Media, median household income has risen to $65,976. This is the highest level ever recorded in the US. Add to that the average tax cut of between $1000 and $2000 provided by the TCJA, and that number rises to over $67K per year.
In addition to the 7 million new jobs that have been created since Trump took office, there are now just under 160 million people that are currently employed in the US. This is the highest number of working people ever recorded in the US. Also for the first time in my recollection there are more jobs available than there are people to fill them. When this kind of situation occurs, wages will tend to rise because employers have to compete for the best people. This boom in the job market is benefiting virtually people of all backgrounds and all income levels, with the biggest gains being seen at the lower end of the wage spectrum.
Further evidence of the optimism that the business community has in the Trump economy came at the end of 2017 and at the beginning of 2018. After President Trump signed the TCJA into law many companies decided to give their employees bonuses, pay raises, or increased benefits. In some cases, like with Walmart, employees received bonuses plus pay raises. Exactly how many people received this increased compensation I have no way of knowing. According to PolitiFact, President Trump’s claim that 3 million people got bonuses as a result of the tax cuts was judged to be “mostly accurate.” From what I’ve heard on newscasts, the total amount of additional remuneration paid was between 5 and 7 billion dollars.
In addition to the TCJA, the president has declared war on government regulation. These regulations have been put in place over the course of several administrations to the detriment of the business community, job creation, and the economy as a whole. There were thousands upon thousands of these job-killing, economy-slowing directives that, little by little, strangled large and small businesses alike. The repeal of these regulations has been taking place by the thousands. As a matter of fact, for every twenty two of these regulations that have been repealed, only one new regulation has been put in place. The repeal of these regulations along with the TCJA has spurred economic growth and has resulted in increased tax revenue to the federal government.
One part of the budget that was neglected by the Obama Administration was in the area of funding for the military. During his presidential campaign Donald Trump made rebuilding our military one of his major priorities. Our military, by way of sequestration, was being bled almost to the point of being ineffective. Over the last three years President Trump has increased defense spending and rebuilt our military so that it is now better able to fulfill its mission.
Our military at the end of the Obama Administration was not worthy of a country that is supposed to be the leader of the free world. After three years of increased funding by President Trump and Congress, we are finally at a point where our military is well on the way to again being the best-equipped and best-trained military in the world. This increase in military spending came at a price. In order to properly fund the military, the President had to agree to trade off increases in military spending with increases in domestic spending. These increases, for the most part, are in the area of entitlements. As I have written many times on this blog, if the rate of growth in entitlements is not controlled, and controlled quickly, the US will become financially unviable.
A major win for the Trump presidency has come in the area of the federal judiciary. During his short time in office, President Trump has nominated 192 federal judges. Of that number, 187 (including two nominees to the Supreme Court) have been confirmed by the full Senate. There are currently an additional five nominees who have won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee and who are now awaiting confirmation by the full Senate. Now that this impeachment charade has come to an end, the remaining five nominees will be confirmed.
The confirmation of these federal judges is critical when you consider that many of the federal judges currently on the bench have decided to ignore the constitution as written and interpret it through their own political lens, which, in many cases, is based on their own biased beliefs.
One of the main issues that Donald Trump ran on was the unfair and lopsided trade relationships that the US had with many of our trading partners. Before Trump took office everyone, friends and enemies alike, in one way or another, were taking advantage of the US. Let me be clear. I’m not condemning our trading partners for this. These were self-inflicted wounds. They would have been foolish not to take advantage of the situation. I blame our elected officials who were obviously really bad negotiators. The other possibilities were that these negotiators were paid off by lobbyists, or worse yet, by the foreign governments that they were negotiating with. Whatever the reason, Trump put an end to it and America is better off for it.
In addition to our political enemies taking advantage of us, we allowed our allies to do the same. Countries like Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and Canada were all enjoying a trade relationship with the US that was biased in their favor.
Even the European Union—whose members are mostly NATO allies—were taking advantage of the US on trade. When Donald Trump took office business as usual came to an end. Imposing tariffs on the exports of our trading partners provided the impetus for these countries to come to the table and negotiate new trade deals that were based on a level playing field for both parties. It is not as if the US was looking to gain an advantage over these countries. Trump’s only demand was that any new trade deals should be based on free and fair trade. That was it. It was unfortunate that tariffs had to be imposed to get these countries to the table. But if that’s what it takes, so be it. This was a situation where the US had to stand strong for as long as it took. Sometimes it is necessary to endure some pain to achieve your goal. Remember the old adage, “No pain, no gain.”
The US now has new and much improved trade deals with South Korea, Japan, and also Mexico and Canada. We have also finally come to a trade agreement with China after many months of going forward three steps and then backwards for two. The Phase One part of this trade agreement was signed this month and negotiations have already begun with talks on Phase Two.
These new trade deals are a win for the country and for President Trump, who ran on this very issue. These trade deals will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for American workers and will have a very positive impact on our overall trade imbalance with the world.
Two years ago trade relations between the US and the EU were tenuous at best. President Trump was not happy with the unfair trade practices of the EU. In response, the US imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum in the name of national security.
There was also the issue of government subsidies to Airbus from the French government—another unfair trade practice. Other trade practices by the EU that the US regards as unfair are the trade restrictions imposed on US agricultural products and the proposed tax on US digital companies doing business in Europe.
For years the US was forced to compete for the European market with one hand tied behind its back. Trade was neither free nor fair. It was bad enough that our NATO allies were shortchanging the alliance, leaving the US to carry an unfair share of the burden. In addition our European allies were beating us up on trade as well.
There are now ongoing trade talks between the US and the EU. We will just have to wait and see if accommodations can be made on both sides to avert a trade war with our closest political allies. Since it would be extremely foolish for both parties not to reach an agreement, I feel it is only a matter of time before an equitable deal is reached.
All the trade deals mentioned above were negotiated and, for the most part, completed with one main premise in mind. That premise is that, given a level playing field, the US can compete with any country on earth and prosper. That said, trade agreements should be made with the idea that both sides will benefit. Prior to Donald Trump taking office this was not the case. These trade agreements prior to Trump were not free and fair; they were one-sided. They resulted in a massive trade imbalance against the US. This imbalance caused American companies to lose profits and resulted in jobs leaving the country.
Another positive benefit that has occurred as a result of the Trump economy is the meteoric rise of our equity markets over the last three years. To be fair the US stock markets began to come back during the Obama Administration. However, I don’t think that anyone can disagree that the TCJA,. along with the massive amount of deregulation that has taken place over the last three years, has had a significant impact on the US stock market and the economy as a whole.
The beginning of the upward trend in the stock market for the Trump presidency began on election night 2016. If you recall as I do, Hillary Clinton was not only expected to win, but was considered to be a shoe-in. That said, the financial markets agreed with all the newscasters and political pundits that it was only a matter of time until the announcement of Hillary Clinton’s victory hit the airwaves. At this point, the Dow Futures market was down roughly 500 points.
As soon as it was announced that Donald Trump had won the presidency, the futures markets began to creep upward. By the time the markets closed on Wednesday afternoon, the market had erased the 500 point deficit and had closed up 700 points. That was a twelve hundred point swing in just fifteen hours. It all came about as the result of Donald Trump winning the presidency.
For those of you who are not familiar with the workings of the stock market, a basic rule of thumb is that when investors are confident that the economy is going to improve and corporate profits will increase, the stock market will trend upward. If the opposite is true, the market will most likely trend downward or remain flat. It should be quite clear to all that the market and the American public as a whole believed that the financial markets would thrive under a Trump presidency. This upward trend is continuing and should extend well into the next year.
Within the last eighteen months the US became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. We are now also the world’s largest exporter of oil and natural gas. Overall US exports are expected to grow in the future, in large part due to the increase in energy exports. This will lower the very large annual trade deficits that the US has been experiencing.
Trump signs landmark trade deal with China to fix ‘errors of the past’
The NATO alliance has existed for just over seventy five years. NATO’s mission is to protect our NATO partners (which is now most of Europe) from Russian aggression. One problem that has become a sore spot for the alliance is the nonpayment of dues by some member nations. This is illogical when you consider that NATO exists for the protection of our European allies from the Russians. As a member of NATO, the US is sworn to help defend members of the alliance.
It is the policy of NATO that member countries support the alliance financially by contributing 2% of their country’s GDP annually. The last time I checked only seven out of the twenty nine member nations were current with their annual dues. This is not acceptable. As I said above, NATO was formed for the protection of our European allies. It is therefore reasonable and imperative that they contribute their fair share for the support of their own protection.
When Donald Trump took office, he made it known that he was not happy that the majority of NATO members were delinquent in the payment of their dues. It became necessary for the President to hold our fellow NATO members up to public disesteem to convince them to meet their financial responsibility to the alliance. I believe that it was during the most recent State of the Union address that the President said that our NATO allies had contributed an additional $400B towards their support of NATO since he took office. These member nations are still delinquent, but at least we are off to a good start.
It would seem that former Presidents were content to let the neglect of our allies towards their financial responsibilities go on unabated. President Trump was not. He took a stand and persuaded those NATO partners, who were in arrears, to begin shouldering their responsibility to fund the alliance.
For the last three decades illegal immigrants have been streaming into our country uninvited and taking advantage of taxpayer-funded benefits that should have been reserved for US citizens only. Although the vast majority of these people are hardworking and law-abiding, there are those who come here as criminals only to take advantage of US taxpayers and prey on unsuspecting US citizens.
The result of this is that there is hardly a day that goes by when an American citizen is not murdered or otherwise killed by an illegal alien. There is also hardly a day when an American woman or child is not brutally raped, in some cases multiple times, by illegals.
I could go on and discuss the armed robberies, assaults, and other crimes committed by these people, but most of you are already aware of that. There is already more than enough crime in America. We don’t need to import it. As Americans, we are entitled to live safely in our country, and it is the responsibility of our government and our elected representatives to pass new laws if necessary or to at least uphold the laws that are already on the books. It’s getting to the point where we may all have to resort to carrying sidearms.
During his first three years in office, President Trump has instituted policies that were designed to protect Americans from crimes committed by illegal immigrants. During this time he has been forced to go to court repeatedly to defend against lawsuits brought by people who are more concerned with the rights of illegals than with the rights of taxpaying Americans. Finally after trudging through this legal marathon, he has been able to significantly reduce the number of illegals entering our country by roughly 75%. The President, almost single handedly, has led the fight to protect American citizens from harm. This is one of his jobs as President—and like many other issues on his plate, he is getting it done.
Since taking office the President has expanded and reformed programs that provide veterans with greater access to healthcare, whether by pushing Congress or by executive order. One such program allows these veterans to seek medical help from private sector physicians locally. He has also made it possible to dismiss VA employees who are not performing their jobs at an acceptable level. Thus far over eight thousand VA employees have either been dismissed or have been forced into retirement.
I could continue citing examples of the accomplishments of the Trump Administration that have made life better for American citizens. The Washington Examiner recently published an article in which it listed over three hundred examples of what the Trump Administration has accomplished during its short tenure.
Any fair-minded person would admit that the Trump Administration has compiled a record of achievement that is second to none. These accomplishments have happened despite the fact that he has been in office for only three years. Most former presidents, even those who have occupied the office for two full terms, would be envious of what Donald Trump has been able to achieve in three short years.
It bears repeating: During his tenure in office, the President has put over 7 million Americans back to work. Not only has he been able to lower the overall unemployment rate to an almost record level, he has lowered the unemployment rate in virtually all key demographics and wage groups. He has rebuilt our military to the point where it is again able to carry out its mission. The President has also been able to nominate 192 federal judges, including two Supreme Court Justices.
Thanks to the President, new trade agreements with Japan, South Korea, China, and the USMCA with Mexico and Canada have been signed, and will result in free and fair trade and the creation of thousands of new American jobs. It will also open both Mexican and Canadian markets to American-made products.
The American stock market is soaring, and median household income is at its highest level in US history. President Trump has convinced our NATO allies to step up and begin to shoulder more responsibility for their own defense against Russian Aggression. That said, it makes perfect sense that they should contribute their fair share to that end.
President Trump has achieved all this in a relatively short period of time with little, if any help from the Democrats. Not only did the Democrats not help the President to put his agenda in place, they openly worked to thwart his efforts. These policies, in addition to making life better for Americans, were also put in place to keep America safe.
There have been hundreds of thousands of felonies committed by illegal immigrants who have entered our country unvetted and uninvited. They have murdered, raped, robbed and assaulted American citizens as though we were fair game for them to prey upon. This cannot be allowed to continue. Even if we as Americans were to accept the fact that billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to support these people, we cannot accept the hundreds of thousands of murders, rapes, and other felonies that have been committed by these people.
The President is succeeding in raising the economic well-being of the country, as well as making America a better and a safer place to live. Despite the hurricane force headwinds that he has had to endure over the last three years, he has managed to prevail on almost every issue. This being the case, I can say without any reservation that the president’s victories are victories for America.
There has been a lot of hype about Donald Trump’s fitness to serve as president. He has been called a liar and a womanizer and it has been said that he was unfaithful to his former spouses. As if all that wasn’t bad enough, the President is reputed to have used bad language on occasion. It is considered unbecoming for the President of the United States to use bad language. Can you imagine that? What will they say next? Maybe he beats his dog too.
Just to set the record straight, Donald Trump is not the only President to lie or to cheat on his wife. Bill Clinton cheated on his wife—numerous times with numerous women and lied about it. Not only did President Clinton cheat on his wife, he did it in the oval office, with a twenty year intern, and then lied about it to Congress. President Clinton was charged with eleven felonies, which included lying to Congress and witness tampering. He was impeached for lying to Congress and he was impeached “forever.” How’s all that for unbecoming?
John F Kennedy cheated on his wife, supposedly with Marilyn Monroe (I really can’t hold that against him), and more than likely, he lied about it. He also smoked Cuban cigars, which at the time were under embargo and illegal in the US. This is pure speculation on my part, but I bet that he also used bad language. He just didn’t do it in public. So what we have here is another example of a President that acted in manner that was unbecoming of the office of the President of the United States.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also known to have cheated on his wife. In spite of that he was elected to the presidency four times. He also weaponized the FBI and the DOJ against his political enemies. His most egregious act was that during WW2 he ordered the internment of 120,000 American citizens who just happened to be of Japanese descent. There was no other reason. They were Japanese and that was enough to put them in jail. If you prefer, I can use the radical left-wing vernacular, and say that they were put in “cages.” These people were not tried, convicted, or given any rights of due process. That was not necessary. They were Japanese and that was all that mattered.
Since the day he rode down the elevator at Trump Tower and announced his candidacy, the radical left has branded Donald Trump a racist. He is not. It was Trump who convinced Congress to pass the First Step Act, which gave many convicted felons, many of whom were black, a second chance at life. He has also passed policies that have lowered black and Hispanic unemployment to record levels. These are not the actions of a racist. Putting 120,000 people in “cages” because they were of a specific race, that is racism. This is what communists do.
Despite all this, FDR was considered to have been a great President. To this day my father-in-law, who is 95 years old, thinks FDR was the greatest president of all time. So much for being unbecoming as FDR was. So much for walking all over the constitution as FDR did. FDR was a racist and as such, he was unfit to serve, yet he was elected four times. That should tell you all you need to know. And that is that all this vitriolic, biased rhetoric is nothing more than left-wing propaganda.
In the tradition of JFK, FDR, and Bill Clinton, just to name a few, Donald Trump is no saint. I guess the real question is whether or not he is trying to do better. I can’t answer that because I don’t know what’s in his mind or in his heart. All I can say for sure is that he is making life better for a lot of people in America and that’s why we hired him.
Even though Donald Trump is no saint he is still a successful President. Whether his success comes from his policies or from the daily prayers of Nancy Pelosi, I am unable to answer. I can only say how much more he could have accomplished if he would have had so much as a modicum of help from the other side.
For a man who does not speak the language of diplomacy well and is known to be brutally blunt, he seems to be having a very successful presidency. It has been said about the President that, “He says what he means, and he means what he says.” After talking to someone like President Trump there would probably be no doubt in your mind as to where he stands on an issue. That is rare in today’s political environment. It is also a welcome change.
This kind of frankness is not welcome in the realm of diplomacy. Politicians are expected to behave and speak in a manner that sugar coats everything. They talk and they talk, and much of the time that’s all that they do. Donald Trump has blown all that nonsense out of the water. It is my opinion that Trump considers talking as a means to achieve success, not as an alternative for it. To put it bluntly, “Trump gets things done,” and America is better for it.
