So these past few years have been extremely frustrating. It’s true that Trump has made a number of mistakes due to his inexperience, like being tricked by congressional republicans, and also his own inability to pluck even the lowest hanging of fruit (just stop tweeting!!)
Many of his recent moves only make one question “why the hell was this not done on January 21st, 2017” such as cutting off taxpayer funding to the anti white agitation/propaganda known as critical race theory. Still, I think this has been a modestly successful presidency. Compared to anyone else in the last thirty years, he gets extremely high marks. Here’s why:
1) He didn’t start any new wars
First president not to do so in a long time. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to see the “strange new respect” people have for George W. Bush because he’s capable of conducting himself as a gentlemen. He started a war based on faulty information that nearly bankrupted the country and cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives. Obama’s foreign policy wasn’t quite as bad, but his Libyan adventure still resulted in the toppling of a stable government, that the United States has sworn not to topple, and its replacement with anarchy and the return of open air slave markets in North Africa. And with the benefit of hindsight we now know that is isn’t a coincidence that ISIS cracked IMMEDIATELY after Trump stopped funding the “moderate rebels” that our foreign policy establishment was so fond of.
President Trump has been a force for peace, his administration has brokered several peace deals between Israel and its neighbors, and he tried unsuccessfully to do the same between North and South Korea. It looks like those countries are slowly moving to peace on their own terms, but the blessing of the United States is extremely significant. Trump has also known when to put down the sword. After Iran shot a US drone down, the military establishment planned a retaliatory strike that would’ve resulted in around 150 deaths. Trump, recognizing that making 150 widows over an unmanned drone was not a just or proportionate response, canceled the strike.
It’s really unbelievable how much better his foreign policy has been than his predecessors. He actually deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
2) TRADE
Trump has started the long, slow process of chipping away at untold decades of propaganda regarding free trade and globalization. And it seems that the policy establishment is actually waking up to how foolish it is to play free trade with a mercantilist country like China.
BY FAR the most important “issue” in the United States is: who will make it easier for 25 year olds to lead a stable enough life to get married and have children? The party that best answers that question will win for at least a generation, and they will deserve the win. The protection of current high paying, high skilled blue collar jobs, and the return of as many as possible, is a giant piece in that puzzle.
I don’t want to undersell Trump here. People really are waking up to what a menace China is and what a mistake it was to outsource our entire industrial base to them. His positions and policies are a big reason why. I actually have some hope that Biden might be a decent President when it comes to trade issues, even though the administration he served under wasn't.
3) Conservative Supreme Court Justices
Enough said.