President Trump Accomplishments as of August 2018:
- Nominated Supreme Court Judge Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed
- Nominated Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who is about to be confirmed
- 113,000 illegal immigrant arrests, 90 percent convicted of additional crimes, 52,169 expelled
- Illegal immigration down 70 percent
- Signed comprehensive tax change bill containing most of the changes he proposed, including 21 percent business income tax, reduced personal income tax rate, and doubling of child tax credit
- S. stock markets at highest in history
- Cutting two regulations for each new one created (cutting regulations that were suffocating small businesses and reduced business uncertainty associated with new regulations)
- Reviewed all trade agreements to ensure they reflect “America First”
- Adopted a resolute policy on Afghanistan
- Designated North Korea as a state-sponsor of terrorism
- Participated in executive summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, emphasizing denuclearization
- Conducting top-level negotiations with Chinese “president” Xi Jinping
- Implemented tariffs on Chinese goods and tightened control on Chinese stealing of U.S. intellectual property
- Held “mini” summit with Russian “president” Vladimir Putin
- Withdrew from TPP
- American companies now expanding rather than shipping jobs overseas
- Announced sanctions targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
- Appointed a Transportation Secretary who is modernizing air traffic control
- Appointed an Education Secretary who is correcting abuses of Title IX
- Appointed an EPA administrator who has rescinded over 30 regulations
- Appointed an FDA director who is facilitating generic drug competition
- Appointed new VA director
- Allowed VA to terminate bad employees per Whistleblowers Act
- Denied a new building for FBI
- Approved Veterans Choice program, giving veterans option to seek care from other providers when VA non-responsive
- Appointed an Interior Secretary to improve forest management and expand users of public lands
- Approved the Keystone pipeline
- Created commission on child trafficking
- Created commission on voter fraud
- Called for international support of Iranian protesters
- Canceled school lunch program that failed to force children to eat unpopular foods
- Constructed test models of the border fence
- Convinced Japan and South Korea to increase defense spending
- Convinced NATO members to honor minimum financial commitments, boosting contribution by 4.3 percent
- Cut $600 million from UN peacekeeping budget
- Saved $700 million by renegotiating F-35 contract
- Saved $22 million by reducing White House payroll
- Treasury Department reported $182 million surplus (2nd largest in history)
- Reversed Dodd-Frank (relief to community/local banks and credit unions)
- Decertified Iranian nuclear treaty and sent it to Senate as constitutionally required
- Eliminated prohibition on interstate health insurance sales
- Ended abuses of the student loan forgiveness program
- Ended forced provision of contraception by Catholic nunneries
- Ended requirement for state funding of Planned Parenthood
- Ended research into Y2K preparedness
- Ended rule requiring employers to report pay data by gender and race
- Expanded school-choice efforts
- FCC has begun to dismantle unnecessary Internet “Neutrality” regulations
- Foreign firms building plants and creating jobs in the U.S.
- Improved rules of engagement for military in combat situations
- Initiated resistance “sue and settle” tactics against EPA
- Initiated sanctions on Venezuelan dictatorship
- Introduced regulatory budgeting requiring agencies to rescind two rules to issue a new one
- ISIS bombing ramped up from about 20 to 500 or more airstrikes per week
- ISIS ground campaign intensified; Raqqa captured, its fighters surrendering in large numbers
- Issued a National Security Strategy
- President Trump signed legislation to provide $700 billion in defense spending for fiscal year (FY) 2018 and $716 billion for FY 2019.
- Leveraged U.S. contribution to UN budget to force 5 percent budget cut and reduce staffs
- NLRB reversed rule making indirect employee control sufficient to be “joint employees”
- Nominated more than 100 judges, 41 confirmed, none yet denied
- Nominated a new Federal Reserve Chief who was confirmed
- Obtained release of Aya Hijazi after 3 years in Egyptian prison
- Obtained release of Caitlan Coleman and husband from Haqqani
- Obtained release of UCLA basketball players from China
- Negotiated release of six U.S. humanitarian workers held captive in Egypt
- Signed Executive Order to promote U.S. energy independence and economic growth
- Raised awareness of and launched aggressive attack on Opioid addictions
- Recognized Jerusalem as Israeli capital and moved U.S. embassy there
- Reduced excess size of two national parks in Utah
- Reduced permanent staff in all Cabinet agencies except VA, HS, and Interior
- Reduced White House staff by 110
- Repealed Affordable Care Act mandate included in tax change bill
- Obtained increased funding for missile defense in face of North Korean and Iranian threats.
- Rescinded (temporarily) the Jones Act, facilitating speedier emergency shipments to Puerto Rico
- Rescinded 2015 Waters of the United States rule
- Rescinded ban on drilling in the Arctic and coastal areas
- Rescinded coal mining ban on public lands
- Rescinded criminalization of accidental killing of migratory birds
- Rescinded Cuban cash give-away
- Rescinded the “Clean Power Plan”
- Rescinded threat to pull funds from schools that prohibit transgenders picking their bathrooms
- Rescinded Title IX “guidance letter” on sexual harassment
- Restored policy barring federal funding of abortions overseas
- Restoring military capability in the face of personnel shortages and equipment failures
- Revamped U.S. space program, including establishing U.S. Space Corps.
- Revised rules for screening potential terrorist tourists
- Sanctioned Venezuela for human rights violations
- Signed 74 legislative bills (13 reversing executive orders of Obama Administration) and 23 joint resolutions into law
- Signed legislation opening Arctic Natural Wildlife Reserve [ANWR] to oil drilling
- Signed legislation to expedite firing of incompetent VA officials
- Supreme Court upheld travel ban on selected travelers
- Taking steps to control the rogue Consumer Finance Protection Agency
- Targeted MS13 gang members for priority deportation
- Increased U.S. energy production (coal, oil, and gas)
- Reduced ISIS to 2 percent of Area it controlled in 2016
- Dropped MOAB on ISIS/Al Queda stronghold.
- Delivered 59 cruise missiles on Syria in response to gassing its own citizens
- Reduced unemployment to 3.9 percent
- Averaging more than 200,000 jobs created monthly (3,000,000 total jobs created)
- Executive order prioritizing workforce development and job training
- Increased workforce participation to more than 63 percent
- Mortgage applications for new homes rose to 7-year high
- Consumer confidence highest since 2000
- Withdrew from Paris Climate Accord
- Withdrew from UNESCO
- Reached trade agreement in principle with Mexico as replacement for NAFTA.
- Reached agreement with European Union to import U.S. natural gas
- Reduced food stamp claims by more than 3 million
- Refused his presidential paychecks (donated to charitable causes)
Generalizing, under President Trump we’re seeing a wide-ranging reduction of regulatory overreach and restoration of the separation of powers elements in a coherent policy aimed at making the US the dominant center for investment globally. Perhaps of greatest distress to the Democrats, he has done so by turning the Alinsky playbook against the left which had thought of it as exclusively its own.
The National Security Policy concentrates on two areas: In the Near East, it focuses on Iran and drops the long-moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations until the latter become more realistic, less violent, and more dependable in keeping agreements in favor of the quietly emerging alliance of several Arab states with Israel. In the Far East, it seeks increased cooperation with Australia, India, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam in efforts to halt Chinese imperialism in the South China Sea and stop Korean nuclearization.
Overall, like it or not, Mr. Trump has enacted many of his campaign promises and is working to implement others.