• Most days of vacation
• Most games of golf
• Most lies told
• Lowest approval rating
• Most cabinet resignations
• Most criminal convictions
The above list reminds me of Socrates’ famous quote to the effect that when one has lost an argument, he resorts to slander. The most lies told? I think that one person’s lie is another person’s statement of obvious common sense. How would you verify such a metric? Most days of vacation? First, how do you define vacation? If one is playing golf with the Prime Minister of Japan, is that a day of vacation? If one is working out of a vacation destination facility because he happens to own it and feels more comfortable there than in the White House, does that count as vacation? And why should I even care? Does Sue think that we voted for President Trump to taker fewer days of vacation than Obama? Does she think we are that vapid, or is she that vapid herself? Most games of golf? Well, first of all, again, why should I care? Did I vote for this President to play less golf? I think not. President Obama apparently played 306 rounds of golf during his presidency. Woodrow Wilson played 1200 rounds. So what? Statistics that you read compare Obama’s rounds of golf to Trump’s “visits to golf courses.” That sounds misleading to me. After all, Trump owns golf courses everywhere and certainly is entitled to visit them. As far as I can tell, Trump visited a golf course that he didn’t own exactly one time in his first year, and that was to play with the Japanese Prime Minister. Again, who cares? These metrics are frivolous. They don’t matter. They are a resort to slander by liberals who have lost the argument. Liberals are fanatically fixated on metrics that simply do not matter because they can not deny metrics that greatly matter.
I have a different perspective about Donald Trump than my fanatic liberal friends. I voted for Donald Trump by absentee ballot from my deathbed. I expected to be dead by election day. I was physically unable to fill out the absentee ballot and had to dictate it to my wife. But I took the trouble. Then I had my end-of-life family conference and took my last spontaneous breath. Little did I expect what would follow. I was drugged and placed on a ventilator machine. When that didn’t work, and the family consented to withdraw ventilatory life support, I was placed on a lung bypass machine. This made breathing unnecessary. Then they woke me up for another family conference. Unable to speak or write, I nevertheless communicated to my family that I did not agree to die and wished to fight on. By some miracle, although I technically didn’t qualify, someone else died and a pair of matching lungs became available. My transplant was performed as an emergency procedure (which is unheard of) and left me a complete invalid physically and mentally. Over the next year, I recovered a little, learning to feed myself, to get into a wheelchair, eventually learning to dress myself, to not need diapering, and basic things like that. About a year after my transplant, my mental faculties suddenly returned. After this Rip van Winkle awakening, I was able to see how President Trump’s performance had measured against my hopes. He has done well by the metrics that matter..
These metrics fall into 2 categories. First, there are metrics that definitely happened and Trump is definitely responsible. . Second, there are metrics that definitely happened but liberals may argue that President Trump does not deserve credit. Everything in this list of first-year metrics definitely happened and definitely matters.
Trump Accomplishments, Year 1
CATEGORY 1 - DEFINITELY HAPPENED, BUT LIBERALS MIGHT NOT LIKE
• Eliminated Obamacare’s individual mandate, as promised during the election.
• Nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme court, from his as-promised list of 25 possible nominees.
• Showed a strong and mature balance between strength and restraint in dealing with the Syrian nerve gas massacre episode.
• Advocated and signed the most expansive income tax reform since 1986.
• Opened Federal lands to liberalized oil exploration and drilling after a 40-year ban, as promised
• Moved the US Embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, as promised during the election (and as also promised by most recent presidents)
• Obtained Senate approval of 12 Federal appeals court justices, more than any other president his US history
• Eliminated 22 Federal regulations for every new regulation created, far exceeding his campaign promise
• Re-established the National Space Council and gave NASA the goal of exploring the solar system
• Advocated and signed the VA Accountability and Whistleblowers Protection Act, which helps protect whistleblowers and makes it easier to fire incompetent VA employees, as promised
• Advocated and signed the Veterans Affairs Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017, making it easier for vets to get the quality medical care of their choice, as promised
• Signed 81 pieces of legislation, the most since Harry Truman
• Achieved appointment of 23 Federal judges, 12 appellate judges, and 10 district court judges, as well as 1 Supreme Court judge
• Pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, as promised
• Obtained China’s agreement to help with the North Korean nuclear problem
• Made measurable progress on building his promised border wall, including construction of prototypes
• Repealed Obama’s extreme expansion of net neutrality rules
• Pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, at promised during the election
CATEGORY 2: DEFINITELY HAPPENED BUT LIBERALS MAY ARGUE THAT TRUMP DESERVES NO CREDIT:
• Achieved the lowest level of illegal border crossings in American history
• Captured the ISIS capital of Raga.
• Recaptured 98% of ISIS territory, as promised
• Reduced the number of ISIS fighters from 45,000 under President Obama to 1,000 Deported 31% more criminal gang members from the US compared to 2016
• Arrested 800 illegal immigrant MS13 members, an 81% increase
• Achieved GDP growth of >3% for 3 or more months in a row for the first time in decades
• Between deregulation and tax reform, the economy boomed, with overall unemployment at a 16 year low, and value of the stock market (and your 401k, on average) up 31%
• Achieved the lowest level of black unemployment and Latino unemployment in American history, and the lowest women’s unemployment and overall unemployment rate in many, many years, with more jobs available than people to apply for them. What a blessing!!
Now in year 2, Trump a few of Trump’s accomplishments include.
• Got the 2 Korean presidents to actually meet and talk, wish is astonishing
• Got North Korea to release several US hostages as a show of good will, which is astonishing
• Nominated another Supreme Court justice from the list of 25 that he published during the election
• Got North Korea to return the remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean war, again astohishing
• Achieved the highest labor participation rate in American history
I originally voted for Trump to build a border wall and get the Mexican border under control, to make rational Supreme Court nominations, to safeguard the Second Amendment, to stimulate the economy with a combination of intelligent deregulation, tax reform and increasing energy production especially with liberalized oil exploration. By my priorities, President Trump has done a splendid job in his first year and a half of service.
You may or may not like everything President Trump has accomplished, but he has been AMAZINGLY effective during his first year and a half in office. Furthermore, his bluntness and sometimes lack of artificial polish is both refreshing and entertaining. The craziness of his opponents even more entertaining, but also sad because so much of it is so ill informed, ugly, and destructive to civil conversation. In his firsst year and a half of office, Donald Trump has been the most effective president in my lifetime.
