I spent four years attempting a defense of President Trump’s bad behavior and since I don’t like bad human behavior, it was exhausting.
No more!
Donald J. Trump is no longer my President, so I personally feel liberated to switch from defense to offense.
Now looking beyond the bad behavior, since I am a center conservative in every phase of my life, I like most of the policy decisions that President Trump and his administration brought to the table over the past four years.
Were the policies perfect? No!
Were mistakes made? Of course! Big job, big country, big world, lot of potential for mistakes. The key is to recognize the mistakes as quickly as possible, and correct them in a prudent and timely fashion.
Were the mistakes of the President Trump administration addressed and corrected in a timely manner? I believe most of them were.
President is a big and important job with a lot of concurrent moving parts that impact people around the world 24 hours a day. So, no matter who is occupying the WH Oval Office at any point in time, I believe all citizens of the United States must “cut some slack” for that President, i.e., give him/her room to make mistakes and correct them.
If the President doesn’t correct the mistakes, then “slack time” is over and questioning begins.
Overall, I was very pleased with the implementation of President Trump’s policies because of the accomplished and high character cabinet members who groomed and rolled out the policies.
A few of my favorites are VP Mike Pence, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, AG Bill Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Many, scratch that, virtually all of the liberal folks in the US will have impassioned arguments against the policies/actions by President Trump and his staff. So be it.
I welcome such arguments in the conversation about whether Trump’s center conservative policies were good or bad for the country and its people. It makes me “step up my game” to reshape and improve my logical and relevant arguments.
There is one fact about President Trump’s persona on which I believe both liberals and conservatives in the US can agree — He has a very high energy level!
Therefore, in four short years in office, he was able to make advancements concerning all of the issues on which he campaigned sans two — (1) signing a Major US Infrastructure Bill and (2) signing a Replace Obamacare Medical Insurance Bill.
He tried on those two issues, but the Congress, which always controls the appropriation of funds for the Executive Branch projects, would not cooperate.
Like an effective CEO, Trump recognized the Congressional resistance quickly and moved on to his plethora of other campaign promises by focusing on Military, Immigration, National Security, Law & Order, Economics, Religious Freedom, Employee Wages, Unemployment Reduction, Pro Life Movement, Tax Relief for all – individual and business, Climate & Energy, Foreign Affairs and Federal Courts.
I’m sure I’ve left something out of this issues list. However, this is a list that is quite impressive. Especially, since President Trump actually made significant progress in all of these areas.
It has been rare in my lifetime to see Presidential candidates’ promises during the election cycle being converted to actual deliverables during his first term in elected office.
President Trump did it.
Here are some of my impressions of how President Trump addressed twenty-five (25) of the major issues he faced as President. While I do not agree 100% with President Trump’s decisions on these issues, as a body of work, I believe he did a good job carrying out the duties of the office of the US Presidency.
Operation Warp Speed (OWS) Fights Covid-19
I believe President Trump’s premier achievement recorded in history will be Operation Warp Speed (OWS). I also believe that he could have appointed no better person to lead this project than Vice President Mike Pence.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, recorded the formation of this project like this: “Operation Warp Speed ( OWS) was a public–private partnership initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. The first news report of OWS was on April 29, 2020, and the program was officially announced on May 15, 2020.” This OWS project team has diligently and urgently carried out the US efforts to fight the Coronavirus pandemic which began officially on March 11, 2020, as announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Under President Trump’s and VP Pence’s hands-on attention, the implemented pandemic solutions started with vaccine development and manufacturing through distribution and all the way to working with the states’ governors and Departments of Health to get the vaccine into people’s arms.
To assure the states would have enough vaccines to inoculate all their people [there are approximately 330,000,000 people in the United States], the OWS ordered 200,000,000 doses and options on 400,000,000 doses in December 2020 from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna (both vaccines require two shots, 3-4 weeks apart to be inoculated fully).
This greased the skids for the President Biden administration to very quickly order enough vaccine doses to stay consistent with the demand in the states as each state rapidly ramped up delivery of shots into its citizens’ arms.
Two vaccines [Moderna and Pfizer] were developed in record time and large trials of these vaccines were completed and approved by the FDA with Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in approximately 10 months.
Distribution to the state governments’ health departments began immediately with UPS and FedEx stepping up big time.
All of this was done in less than a year and people began receiving vaccinations in December 2020.
Literally, never in the recorded history of infectious diseases in the world has such a feat been accomplished in less than a year. Not even close. Also, the OWS team and President Trump worked with medical professionals and state governors, e.g., NY, to make sure the states received the PPE, ventilators, and portable hospital housing/beds they needed to support the capacity-busting numbers of COVID patient hospitalizations.
On Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021, almost 1 million people received a COVID vaccination. The total Americans who had been vaccinated prior to President Trump leaving office was 15,000,000 [Newsweek].
This is short of the 35,000,000 number President Trump’ team projected, but still a phenomenal accomplishment from the world knowing little to nothing about this virus to 15 million being fully vaccinated in the US in less than 12 months.
As of this writing, that number has grown to be close to 2.5 million people a day receiving shots with 41,000,000 being fully vaccinated.
While President Trump and his OWS team developed and put the overall plan in motion to defeat COVID19, President Biden was handed the baton January 20, 2021, to carry it across the finish line. So far, so good.
The trajectory for number increased per day of vaccination doses being delivered into arms has not changed since Trump, so that is good on President Biden.
As the distribution plan for vaccinations put in place by Trump’s OWS team continues to ramp up to full capacity under President Biden and team, the number of people vaccinated per day continues to grow at an excellent, steady pace. Also, the availability of vaccines manufactured and shipped throughout the US seems to be increasing at an excellent pace.
Economic Growth
Revitalized steady, positive growth in the US economy, highlighted by a steady increase with year-over-year GDP and jobs creation numbers as well as unemployment numbers reaching historic lows.
Reduction of debilitating regulations on businesses — small to large. After working 45 years in private and state/federal public sector “businesses;” I believe that most of these regulations were overreach.
They were so extensive, e.g., Dodd Frank financial regulations, that most large business corporations did not, could not efficiently or effectively implement a majority of them. They were just too constraining to allow companies to stay competitive.
Ultimately, instead of trying to implement the debilitating regulations, the businesses just paid the less expensive Federal fines. And yet, the businesses’ financial performance and safety-net environmental protection for the employees and consumers in the US showed steady improvement over the four years of Trump’s Presidency.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA): Lower taxes for businesses and individuals
The TCJA was signed by President Trump at the end of his first year in office on December 22, 2017.
This act cut individual income tax rates, doubled the standard deduction, and eliminated personal exemptions from the tax code (effectively, counterbalanced in favor of the taxpayer with the much larger standard deduction).
The top individual tax rate dropped from 39.6% to 37%. Numerous itemized deductions were eliminated or affected as well, but the net effect on taxes paid was reduced because of the much larger standard deduction for all taxpayers in all tax brackets.
The net result of the TCJA made the filing of taxes simpler as well as gave a tax break to all individual taxpayers in all seven (7) marginal tax brackets.
The messaging for all tax bills can be “spun” to promote whatever success or failure story one’s political party wants to promote, but in general, it is hard to deny that this tax bill acted as a significant stimulus on the US economy over the next several years prior to the arrival of the Covid19 pandemic in the US.
Another part of the TCJA was to reduce the federal tax on US businesses to create a robust business environment that is competitive with world businesses. The corporate income tax was reduced from 35% down to 21%.
Not only could businesses keep 14% more of their annual profit due to the lower tax rate, they could roll these savings back into the business to grow the business and create more jobs for people in the US.
The lower business income tax rate also allowed almost 2 trillion dollars held overseas by US based businesses to be repatriated to the US and used for business growth.
This return of US dollars to America added significantly to the boon for USA main street businesses during the Trump Presidency.
Of course, with business growth comes more jobs for Americans.
Win win!
All in all, the business section of the TCJA act was a resounding success and the US economy was off and running until the pandemic at or about an average 3% US GDP growth rate year over year.
Main Street Growth Leads to Low Unemployment and Stellar Wall Street Growth
By creating a positive Main Street businesses environment and financial picture, Wall Street was able to leverage that positivity with tremendous growth in President Trump’s tenure in the WH.
At the end of 2016, President Obama’s last full year in office, the Wall Street DJIA index was 19,751. On President Joe Biden’s inauguration day, the DJIA index was 31,188.
The growth of the stock market (referred to here as Wall Street) over time and on average is heavily dependent on the health of private businesses (referred to here as Main Street) that are publicly traded on Wall Street.
Over the period of President Trump in the WH, the growth of the DJIA was approximately 57%. Quite remarkable.
This high economic growth on Main Street and on Wall Street led to more jobs being created, which led to a labor unemployment rate at its lowest during President Trump’s term of around 3.5% on average across all employee demographics.
This was a 50 year low for the unemployment rate in the US for men and women. For Hispanics and blacks, the unemployment rate was the lowest rate ever recorded in the US.
Business Opportunity Zones in Struggling Inner City Neighborhoods
With Dr. Ben Carson, President Trump created Business Opportunity Zones in large inner cities infusing Federal dollars to create new businesses that significantly stimulated growth of businesses in these struggling inner city neighborhoods.
This effort was a catalyst that helped reduce the US poverty percentage to 10.5%, the lowest such percentage since this statistical measure was introduced in 1959. As a comparison, during the two (2) term Obama Presidency, the range of poverty in the US was 13-15%.
Each percentage point drop represents approximately 3.5 million people being lifted out of poverty.
Defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
Trump was the US Commander in Chief when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist caliphate was literally destroyed.
This caliphate was the governance structure of a Radical Islamic state of around 100,000 radical Muslims in the middle east at its peak.
The land part of the caliphate had quickly emerged and grown in the Obama days to include a significant combined land mass of 40% of Iraq and 33% of Syria.
Literally, all of the land grab was reversed within the first year of the Trump Presidency with land returned to the sovereign states of Iraq and Syria respectively.
USA Entered No New Long-Lasting Military Conflicts
President Trump did not get the USA into any new long-lasting military conflicts. Not true with the three Presidents immediately preceding Trump.
“During the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations, the Middle East was a hotbed for American military activity with no clear end in sight. Bill Clinton was involved in airstrikes against Serbia and Iraq, George Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq during the infamous War on Terror, and Barack Obama launched airstrikes and military raids in at least seven different countries around the world; Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.” The Daily Wire
While President Trump wanted to draw down the number of US troops in the Middle East hotbed, he found that it was not simple and really couldn’t significantly change the footprint of US troops in the Middle East.
However, just the rapid defeat of ISIS in his first year of office went a long way toward not having to permanently increase the US military footprint in the Middle East during his term in office.
Supported Health & Human Services (HHS) “2018 Protect Life Rule“
Strong supporter of the US Health and Human Services (HHS) department’s 2018 “Protect Life Rule.” Also, supporter of the Congressional Hyde Amendment which required abortion businesses to both fiscally and physically separate family planning/birth control services from their abortion-related business.
The 2018 “Protect Life Rule” also stated that family planning centers must stop referring patients for abortions in order to receive Title X funding. Title X states, “None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” HHS under Trump worked to ensure this was properly enforced.
Planned Parenthood (PP) chose not to get Title X funds, because they did not want to follow the guideline of not recommending abortion as a means of family planning. That is $170M annually they refused.
Although, annually PP gets approximately $500M from another Federal budget line item (actually paid by reimbursements through Medicaid) for the direct delivery of reproductive rights services, e.g., contraceptives.
However, the Hyde amendment prevents these federal tax dollars from being used for direct abortion services.
PP is responsible for about 350,000 elective abortions a year.
Appointed 287 Federal Judges Including Three to the US Supreme Court
Appointed three extremely capable US Constitutional Originalists to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) — Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Filled 54 federal circuit court of appeals judge positions and 174 federal district court judges.
In terms of Article I courts, Trump made 26 appointments: 10 for the United States Court of Federal Claims, 7 for the United States Tax Court, 6 for the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, 2 for the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and 1 for the United States Court of Military Commission Review.
President Trump designated Susan G. Braden, Margaret M. Sweeney, and Eleni M. Roumel as chief judges of the Court of Federal Claims.
On the Article IV territorial courts, President Trump made 1 appointment.
Supported Immigration Policies that Stabilized the US Southern Border
Implemented strong and effective immigration policies through Presidential Executive Orders. Funding had to be reallocated from other line items in the current Federal Budget in effect, since Congress was unable to come together in a bipartisan manner and fund such a new immigration bill.
The last comprehensive immigration bill passed by the full US Congress was on November 6, 1986, with President Reagan.
Under the Trump administration, new southern border walls (80 miles) were built. Grossly ineffective walls in the hot spots on the US-Mexico border (373 miles) were replaced with hi-tech, modern, effective walls. This improved the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency’s ability to funnel prospective illegal immigrants through CBP checkpoints rather than allow them to become illegal immigrants by crossing through a much more unprotected part of the US-Mexico border.
Disallowed illegal immigrants to be released into the US for a future date hearing in a US Immigration Court just by declaring they are seeking asylum in the US. A very small percentage (~10%) of those requesting asylum actually met the criteria for becoming an asylee. The criteria for becoming an asylee must be that the person is “…fleeing death or persecution by their country’s government officials for their race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
The primary common reason for migrants fleeing their home country is economic conditions are not amenable to living above the poverty line with no real chance of improving anytime soon.
By US law and international law, this is not a criterion for becoming an asylee in the US.
It is undisputed that law and order conditions in the migrants’ home countries are untenable for a good quality of life. Criminal gangs control the neighborhoods in which these people live and often their lives and their children’s lives are threatened by the gangs who require “payments” from the residents.
Also, not a criterion for becoming an asylee in the US.
Over the past 20 years, multi-billions of US dollars of aid money from the US to Central American countries just seems to end up in corrupt country leaders’ pockets, and not in the hands of the citizens to improve their living conditions.
I believe a large majority of Americans, liberal and conservative, sympathize with the poor living conditions of these Central American citizens, yet prefer that these migrants use the proper channel to enter the US as legal immigrants.
However, I also believe that the progressive wing of the liberal party sees the unsettled circumstances at the US southern border as a positive step toward implementing their preference for open borders.
Just as President Obama deported violent criminals that are illegal immigrants, so did President Trump. Actually, President Obama is the President on record that deported more illegal immigrants than any other President in recent history.
President Trump eliminated the Obama “catch and release” policy that allowed illegal immigrants to be released into the US for a promise (rarely kept) of making an appearance at a future date/place before a US immigration judge.
Trump worked with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador government officials to encourage them to use their own border laws and asylum laws. That actually was working pretty well in the last year of Trump’s term.
One point that is never discussed is that many of the high integrity leaders of these Latin American countries do not want their citizens to emigrate to the US. They are trying to improve the economic and “law and order” conditions of the countries to encourage their people to stay in their home countries. Unfortunately, they simultaneously have to fight corruption in their own leadership ranks.
Trump attempted to expand the President Obama policy of separating a child from his/her “parent” only if human trafficking were suspected by an illegal immigrant. Under President Obama, inadequately provisioned facilities were used to house the separated children. There was a time limit that these children could stay at this CBP facility. After the time limit, HHS would get involved to house these children in more permanent facilities and try and locate family members in the US with which to place these children.
President Trump ultimately implemented a “zero tolerance” policy that expelled all adults who illegally crossed the border. However, in many cases their kids had already been separated, and thus were left as unaccompanied minors in the US.
President Trump had to quickly reverse this policy since there was tremendous public outrage against this policy for humanitarian reasons. But, not before some 3,000 unaccompanied children were in the custody of HHS.
Which is more immoral, putting children in jail with “parents” who entered the US illegally, or separating children into more amenable holding facilities?
It seems plausible to me that a large number of the “parents” were really not the parents of the separated children. Out of the 628 remaining in the US today (3,000 total were separated) who remain estranged from a parent (circa January 2021), the “parents” are no where to be found and are not seeking to find their easily found “kids” like a caring parent would work tirelessly to do.
Unfortunately, the separation of children from their families is still happening at the border today (March 23, 2021) under the President Biden administration. It is not happening on the US side of the border, rather on the Mexico side in the border migrant camps. This, in itself, is a humanitarian crisis.
Please read this Politico Magazine article for details: (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/20/border-family-separation-mexico-biden-477309) to get the full picture of this very complex and insolvable problem over the past 20 years and three US Presidents.
Personally, I believe the only way to solve this problem on earth is for every human being in the human race to follow Jesus’ command: “Love God, love your neighbor as yourself.”
Sadly, not going to happen. But, I believe those of us who believe and try to live this command have the responsibility to continue to spread this truth as far and wide as we can.
Supported Passage of Prison Reform – The First Step Act
Supported the passage of prison reform by Congress, the First Step Act.
Spearheaded by Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina, in the US Senate. For an overview of this Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) reform act, please review this link BOP: First Step Act Overview .
Provided Support for Expanding/Modernizing the US Military
Financially supported an expansion/modernization of the US military personnel and equipment which were significantly diminished prior to the Trump Presidency.
President Obama’s final year budget for the US DOD was $605B and President Trump’s was $740B.
Recognized Jerusalem as Capital of Israel
The US has always been the most steadfast and strongest ally of Israel since President Truman recognized its creation: “U.S. President Harry Truman was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state on May 14, 1948, only eleven minutes after its creation.”
President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Jerusalem was a long awaited step by Israel.
Even though the capital of Israel has always been Jerusalem since its creation, because of the general unrest between Israel and Palestinians with Jerusalem being the Holy City for both Judaism and Islam, the US embassy was built in 1966 in Tel Aviv.
Many of the modern day US Presidents during their election campaigns said they would make this move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, but none did until Trump.
This was an amazing move and provided an enormous boost to the US-Israel relationship. It seems like a simple move, and it is on the surface, but the message that was sent to Israelis and around the world with this move was very, very loud.
For Israel alone, it lifted the spirit of the nation and its leaders tremendously.
Stood Strong with Israel Against Iran
By their own admission, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has a primary goal to annihilate Israel from the face of the earth.
“A website with close ties to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has outlined why it would be acceptable to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel.” Dailymail.com
Iran leaders, of course, also have the United States in their nuclear weapons sights.
In 2015, during President Obama’s 2nd term, Iran agreed to a long-term deal on its nuclear program with a group of world powers known as the P5+1 – the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. This accord was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
With the $4B dollars President Obama delivered to Iran leaders via the JCPOA, Iran has never stopped its development of fuel for nuclear weapons and the missile delivery systems. Also, they have used much of the $4B given to them by President Obama’s administration, not to help the people of Iran, but to support the terrorist groups in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine/Gaza, and Yemen.
Of course, all of the Iran backed terrorist groups sharing a border with Israel continue to bomb Israel with impunity.
President Trump stood strong with Israel against Iran backed militia/terrorist activity in the region — e.g., Syria (President al-Assad and impoverished Syrian people propped up by Iran’s money and militia), Lebanon (Hezbollah), and Gaza (Hamas).
He has also stood by Saudi Arabia and their conflict in Yemen with the Houthi’s, another Iranian backed terrorist group.
Facilitated Israel Alliance with Arab Countries
Facilitated establishing Peace/Alliance agreements with Israel and several Arab/northeastern African countries, i.e., UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan.
This is a major change in the middle east and northeastern Africa landscape. Israel and these countries made historic peace agreements in the region during the last year of President Trump’s term in office.
The most recent previous such agreements were in 1979, Egypt-Israel, President Jimmy Carter; and 1994, Jordan-Israel, President Bill Clinton. This is a long time (a quarter of a century) since the last Israeli-Arab/northeastern Africa country peace/partnership agreement.
This long period without an agreement was not due to lack of effort of the US Presidents’ staffs, but none was able to pull it off until President Trump with the on-the-ground leadership of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Forced NATO Member Countries to be Better Contributors to the Cause
Applied pressure on the European member countries of NATO who benefit tremendously from the protections of NATO against Russia, pressuring them to actually pay their 2% of GDP fair share for NATO protections.
Today, NATO is stronger than ever, and most of the European countries are now making attempts to or are paying their fair share of the costs for NATO.
Before President Trump, these European countries just expected the US to pay the bulk of the costs for NATO.
Put Intense Pressure on China Communist Party (CCP)
Pressured China Communist Party (CCP) to stop stealing US technology innovation secrets through every means possible including Cyber Warfare.
Pressured CCP to improve egregious humanitarian treatment of their citizens and nonresidents, e.g., brain washing, political incarceration, daily gang rapes by “prison” guards.
Implemented US sanctions against CCP for aggressive, imperialistic behavior in the region, e.g., (1) mistreatment of citizens in Hong Kong by not respecting their agreement to be an autonomous and free city-state of China, (2) repeated attempts to re-acquire Taiwan as a province of the CCP, (3) and building Chinese islands and military bases in the South China Sea international waters.
Imposed US tariffs on China imports to correct CCP monopolistic controls on trade between US and China.
Pressured China to revise the cornerstone of its economic policy of managing the yuan (Chinese dollar) exchange rate to benefit its exports. China does not have a floating exchange rate that is determined by market forces, as is the case with most advanced economies. Instead it pegs its dollar, the yuan (or renminbi), to the U.S. dollar, always positioning China’s dollar to benefit its exports to the US.
This is a total disregard by the CCP for currency fluctuations due to market forces between the USD and other world currencies.
Pulled US Out of Iran Deal – Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
Reversed the US involvement in the JCPOA with Iran by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear weapons deal with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany) together with the European Union.
The JCPOA agreement was brokered by President Obama’s Secretary of State, John Kerry.
One of the first actions of the Obama deal was to air transport $4B US dollars in cash to the Iranian government. Iran was not required to fully stop the development of nuclear capabilities, at least not the enrichment of low-grade uranium. They were only expected to slow down the enrichment development and upon request by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), allow full and immediate inspections of their R&D sites.
The idea was Iran could not enrich weapons-grade uranium. But, the full extent of the spirit of the deal was to stop development of all activities that would assist or accelerate Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons.
Immediate, on-demand inspections never were granted by Iran to the JCPOA partners via the IAEA.
And, Iran continued to do development and testing of ballistic missiles. Missiles testing was overlooked when the JCPOA was written, and Iran wasn’t about to give up any weapons development of any sort. They just did it covertly.
Of course, ballistic missiles were being tested with conventional warheads, which could easily be converted to carry nuclear payloads.
The premier provision of the JCPOA for Iran was they would be able to continue nuclear weapons development unrestricted after 15 years from the start of the JCPOA.
Based on the preponderance of news reports from Iran, the exorbitant amount of cash of $4B from President Obama was not used for the intended purpose of helping Iran’s economy to benefit the quality of life for the Iranian people.
As best we in the USA can tell, the cash has been used to fund terrorist activity in the Middle East, e.g., Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Yemen.
Most of this terrorist activity has been directed against Israel.
Pressured Russia Over its Bad World Citizen Behavior
Extreme sanctions on Russia due to egregious domestic and world stage behavior, e.g., interfering with US elections, killing or imprisoning domestic political opposition leaders by the Russian communist party, imperialistic activity internationally — for example a landgrab of Crimea from Ukraine.
Pulled out of Paris Climate Accord (PCA) and the World Health Organization (WHO)
I don’t think these were good moves per se for the US.
I do believe it is very important to have the US voice central to the conversations about world Anthropogenic Climate Change and world health issues that affect every country in the world, e.g., the Covid19 pandemic.
These organizations do not make binding decisions for its member organizations, but they do help orchestrate the development of solutions and the dissemination of such solutions to its members for large, world-size problems.
However, both of these organizations need a “disruptive” voice such as the United States in the conversation to encourage them to put pressure on the bad actors of the world such as the CCP of China to be better world citizens relative to climate and human health.
Led USA to become Energy Independent
Led the charge for the US to become energy independent by working with the Energy private sector to increase US energy exploration, fracking (natural gas), and drilling on US public lands.
Very good for stabilizing and lowering gasoline prices and heating fuel costs in the US.
Also, extremely important for National Security.
Overturned President Obama’s Decision to Stop XL Pipeline Development
Allowed resumption of XL Pipeline development that had been stymied by President Obama.
This was extremely important to one of our most important geopolitical allies, Canada.
Also, very good for the US labor force that is highly skilled in the Energy Sector, specifically the Oil Industry.
The XL Pipeline is a much more environmentally friendly and safe solution then the rail cars that currently transport this oil to Canada from the US.
“According to a study in 2014 performed by Karen Clay, a professor of public policy and economics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, transporting oil by rail: (1) Causes about 50% more GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions than doing so via pipeline; (2) Results in 2x the health and environmental costs when compared to those associated with shipping oil via pipeline; and (3) Sees 8x greater costs than pipeline accidents and spills.” Pipelines vs. Rail: Which Method is Safer for Transporting Oil? – Canada Action
Strong Supporter of USA Working Class
President Trump is an extremely strong advocate of the working class American.
He built strong relationships and support for the working class folks of the US, especially in business sectors such as Manufacturing and Energy.
Ballast to North Korea’s Nuclear Weapon Aggression in the World
Attempted to normalize relations with North Korea. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much long term good, which has been typical for a long time since the Kim family dynasty came to power in 1948.
But President Trump’s symbiotic relationship with Kim Jong Un, the current North Korea Supreme Leader, did stabilize and calm the relationship of North Korea in the world community during his four year term.
For a “moment in time” in history, the nuclear weapon development and delivery threat of North Korea has been silent.
Of course, North Korea with the Kim family dynasty in power is always “out there smoldering.”
Established US Space Force
Establishment of the US Space Force branch of the military to complement the current branches of the US military.
This is absolutely critical to the National Security of the US in the future.
Space seems to be more and more a territory in which the US will have to protect its assets and security interests in space as they relate to US territory on earth.
Organizationally in the US Armed Forces, the US Space Force reports to the US Department of the Air Force along with its sister branch, the US Air Force.
The mission of the United States Space Force is:
“The United States Space Force Act codified the Space Force as organized, trained, and equipped to “provide freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space” and “provide prompt and sustained space operations,” with its stated duties enumerated as to “protect the interests of the United States in space, deter aggression in, from, and to space, and conduct space operations.”
Center Conservative Opinion 