This article first appeared on the History News Network.
Karl Rove wrote in the WSJ that, “If President Trump could control himself, people might notice his accomplishments.”
Accomplishments are defined by campaign and post-election promises, not each person’s opinion of what is good and what is bad, a legitimate but different topic. Presidential accomplishments also include actions taken by subordinates that have at least presidential approval.
With that in mind, Mr. Trump’s accomplishments through December 2017 include at least the following 82:
Nominated one Supreme Court judge, who was confirmed
Obtained release of Aya Hijazi after three years in Egyptian prison
Obtained release of Caitlan Coleman and husband from Haqqani
Obtained release of UCLA basketball players from China
Raised awareness of Opioid addiction crisis
Recognized Jerusalem as Israeli capital and announced plan to move 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
Repeal of ACA mandate included in tax change bill
Requested 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Rescinded (temporarily) the Jones Act, facilitating speedier emergency shipments to Puerto Rico
Rescinded 2015 Waters of the United States rule
Rescinded ban drilling in the Arctic and coastal areas
Rescinded coal mining ban on public lands
Rescinded criminalization of accidental killing of migratory birds
Rescinded Cuban cash give-away
Rescinded the “Clean Power Plan”
Rescinded the “War on Coal”
Rescinded threat to pull funds from schools that prohibit transgenders picking their bathrooms
Rescinded Title IX “guidance letter” on sexual harassment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, assigning ambitious new objectives
Revised rules for screening potential terrorist tourists
Sanctioned Venezuela for human rights violations
Sanctuary cities legislation passed House pending in Senate
Signed 74 legislative bills (13 reversing executive orders) and 23 joint resolutions into law
Signed comprehensive tax change bill containing most of the changes he proposed
Signed legislation opening Arctic Natural Wildlife Reserve [ANWR] to oil drilling
Signed legislation to expedite firing of incompetent VA officials
Supreme Court largely upheld ban on selected travelers
Taking steps to control the rogue Consumer Finance Protection Agency
Targeted MS13 gang members for priority deportation
The president’s lawyers announced a framework for restoring the separation of powers:
Congress should cease delegating its legislative power to the executive branch
Courts should stop rubber-stamping regulations and orders that lack force of law
Executive will end informal “guidance documents” that undermine due process
U.S. energy production is on the upswing
U.S. sorties and assisted forces reduced ISIS to 2 percent of the area controlled in 2016
Unemployment is at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low
Withdrew from Paris Climate Accord
Withdrew from UNESCO (a warning to other wasteful, overstaffed UN agencies
Generalizing, under Mr. Trump we’re seeing a wide-ranging reduction of regulatory overreach and restoration of the separation of powers now specified in speeches to the Federalist Society, elements in a coherent policy aimed at making the US the dominant center for investment globally.
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. Overall, like it or not, Mr. Trump has enacted many of his campaign promises and is working to implement others. Perhaps of greatest distress to the Democrats, he has done so by turning the Alinsky playbook against the left which had thought of them as exclusively its own.
Trump's top 9 accomplishments of 2017 by Sarah Westwood & Gabby Morrongiello December 28, 2017
President Trump in October said "perhaps no administration" had done more in its first nine months than his. That was before he succeeded in overhauling the decades-old tax code and repealing Obamacare's individual mandate.
Despite all the criticism Trump received during his first year in office for inflammatory tweets, West Wing feuds, controversial policies, and diplomatic stumbles, he will nevertheless enter year two with a laundry list of achievements.
Below are nine major accomplishments the Trump administration saw in 2017:
1. Judicial appointments
President Trump shattered an all-time record earlier this month when the Senate confirmed his 12th federal appeals court nominee, marking the only time in history a U.S. president has made more than 11 appellate appointments during his first year in office.
With those appellate appointments, a new Supreme Court justice, and his investiture of several other low-court judges, Trump has rapidly and radically changed the federal judiciary this year. The president’s close relationship with conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society has ensured that nearly all of his judicial nominees fit the mold of Justice Neil Gorsuch, a strict originalist who succeeded the iconic conservative Justice Antonin Scalia after being confirmed by the Senate last April.
“There’s been a serious effort to identify people who are seriously committed to doctrines and modes of analysis rather than just being seen as conservatives or Republicans,” Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute wrote recently.
Many conservatives see the president’s judicial appointments as his biggest accomplishment yet, noting that Trump’s progress in this area will likely be the most enduring element of his post-presidential legacy. With 59 nominations (including U.S. Attorneys) and 19 confirmations in the Senate so far, even legal conservatives who begrudgingly voted for Trump are likely to be pleased. 2. Tax reform
Very few political strategists thought Trump could pass a tax bill earlier this fall after congressional Republicans failed to fulfill their promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare. (McCain campaigned on repealing Obamacare but lied to his constituents.)
Months of intreparty squabbling, disagreements between Republican leaders and White House officials, and provocative tweets from the president ultimately doomed GOP efforts to undo healthcare law. But when it came to overhauling the tax code – a top priority for Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan – things changed on Capitol Hill.
Stricter messaging by Trump and the threat of entering a midterm year without one major legislative victory led to the president’s signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Dec. 22. In addition to slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, the landmark legislation cut individual rates for all income tax levels, doubled the child tax credit to $2,000, and dramatically increased the standard deduction.
In the end, the bill negotiated by House and Senate conferees and passed by Congress just before Christmas featured the largest tax cuts since 1986.
3. Individual mandate repeal
Through tax reform, Trump fulfilled another key campaign promise: repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate.
Senate Republicans included a measure to kill the mandate in their initial tax bill, paving the way for its subsequent inclusion in the final tax reform package that cleared the president’s desk. The mandate, which required Americans to carry health insurance or pay an annual penalty as part of Obamacare, was long seen by GOP voters as the worst element of the 2010 healthcare law.
Public opinion polls taken in the months leading up to the final healthcare vote showed between 51 and 65 percent of self-identified Republicans opposed the individual mandate.
The White House has already signaled its eagerness to undo the rest of the healthcare law when Trump returns to Washington for his second year in office.
4. Deregulation
During its monthslong legislative dry spell, the Trump administration touted deregulation as an area in which the president continued to make progress despite congressional gridlock.
Trump came into office promising to slash two existing regulations for each new one his administration enacts. The president has since said the White House beat its goal “by a lot” this year, as officials canceled or delayed more than 1,500 regulations in the first 11 months of Trump’s presidency.
The administration has said Trump ultimately cut 22 regulations for each new one enacted this year, saving taxpayers billions of dollars over the coming years.
Trump has repeatedly credited his deregulation push with the economic growth that has flourished during his first year in office. 5. Cutting government waste
Less than three months into his presidency, Trump issued an executive order directing every federal agency to determine “where money is being wasted [and] how services can be improved.” Though the order never set a desired number for the cuts, several Cabinet-level departments have since found ways to shrink their payroll and consolidate internal programs.
The most attention-grabbing reforms have occurred at the State Department, where Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has eliminated several coordinators for sanctions policy, offered early retirement incentives to hundreds of career employees, and promised to “redesign” the agency.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has also been busy overseeing the reduction of duplicative programs and wasteful spending. His agency killed 59 guidance and policy documents in June that officials had deemed “obsolete” or inefficient.
Not everything Trump has done, however, has helped cut bureaucracy or reduce government spending. Both the president and several Cabinet secretaries have come under fire for continuing to live lavish lifestyles – sometimes on the taxpayer dime. Department of Air Force records obtained last week by the conservative group Judicial Watch showed that American taxpayers paid approximately $6.6 million just in airfare this year for Trump to visit his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Fla. (That's about the same as it cost to fly Obama and family to Hawaii and back.)
And it’s hard to forget former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, whom the president fired in late September after he was caught chartering private planes on the federal dime. 6. Travel ban
Despite initially attracting criticism from across the political spectrum for its botched rollout, Trump’s so-called travel ban scored a major victory later this year when the Supreme Court ruled to allow the entire policy to take effect.
The administration was forced to revise the policy in September following several lawsuits in federal court and a partial ruling by the Supreme Court. Administration officials added North Korea, Venezuela, and Chad to its list of countries from which immigrants would temporarily be blocked from entering the U.S., and removed Sudan. The original ban had drawn scrutiny from liberal critics of the administration for imposing a “religious test,” as it exclusively targeted seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
Such legal complaints — brought by the state of Hawaii and the American Civil Liberties Union — failed to hold up when the revised version of the ban came before the nine-member Supreme Court in early December. Despite previous moves by lower-court judges to limit its scope, the high court permitted the updated ban to be implemented pending appeal.
“The Constitution and acts of Congress confer on the President broad authority to prevent aliens abroad from entering this country when he deems it in the nation’s interest,” U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco had argued in court papers ahead of the decision. 7. Defeating the Islamic State
Trump repeatedly credited his decision to ease restrictions on the rules of engagement with the military’s victory over the Islamic State in key strongholds this year.
When U.S.-backed coalition forces drove Islamic State fighters from their headquarters in Raqqa, Syria in October, the White House highlighted Trump’s efforts to give commanders on the ground more decision-making authority than his predecessor gave them. The liberation of Raqqa marked a pivotal moment in the war against the Islamic State.
Critics have claimed the defeat of the Islamic State came as a result of the strategy Trump’s predecessor put in place. However, the Trump administration made a series of strategic decisions that supporters say made the difference in the years-long battle against the extremist group in Iraq and Syria.
For example, Trump decided in March to arm the Syrian Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State, a move the Obama administration had considered but never executed due to Turkey’s strong objections. The Trump administration has since pulled support from the group.
The terror organization saw its numbers and territorial holdings decimated this year. A U.S-led coalition helped to free Mosul from the Islamic State in July, a victory that denied the extremist group the largest city under their control. In early October, coalition forces notched another victory when 1,000 Islamic State fighters surrendered as Iraqi Security Forces closed in on Hawija, the last of the terror group’s strongholds in Iraq. 8. Recognition of Jerusalem
Despite pressure to preserve a status quo that his predecessors had left untouched for decades in Israel, Trump made waves on the international stage this month when he formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced plans to move the U.S. embassy there from its present location in Tel Aviv.
Trump had vowed as a presidential candidate to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and the White House framed his decision in early December as the fulfillment of a campaign promise. But administration officials also characterized the move as a natural step for a president who ascribes to a no-nonsense worldview, given the reality that Israel’s government is located in the city it has long recognized as its own capital.
Former presidents from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama had granted waivers that allowed the U.S. embassy in Israel to remain in Tel Aviv despite legislation Congress passed in 1995 that required the embassy to move to Jerusalem. Previous administrations cited concerns about the effects such a move would have on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process when delaying the embassy relocation effort for more than 20 years.
Trump, however, decided he could not sign the second waiver to arrive at his desk since taking office without signaling a policy change toward Jerusalem. Although Trump’s critics warned that his recognition of the contested city as Israel’s capital would spark violence and instability across the Arab world, the administration ultimately calculated that the move was worth any potential backlash.
Addressing criticism of the policy change in a speech earlier this month, Trump questioned why his administration should deny Israel recognition of its capital in an effort to preserve peace talks when years of following that exact strategy had yielded no progress.
9. Withdrawal from Paris climate agreement
Trump’s decision in June to pull the U.S. out of a sweeping international climate pact drew some of the loudest and most pointed criticisms from his liberal detractors to date. Proponents of the climate deal claimed the U.S. would forever lose prestige in the global community if it walked away from the agreement, which former President Obama had negotiated without congressional input.
But Trump ultimately followed through on a campaign promise to withdraw from the agreement despite objections from several of his closest advisers. The internal negotiations pitted his daughter and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, against some of his more populist advisers, such as then-chief strategist Steve Bannon and EPA chief Scott Pruitt.
The outcome of the battle behind closed doors in the West Wing was viewed at the time as a major victory for the nationalist wing of the White House staff, which had counseled Trump not to cave under pressure to soften his hardline position on the Paris deal by simply criticizing it or offering to renegotiate it.
The media won't admit it, but President Trump has had a great 2018
President Donald J. Trump has had a great 2018 but you would not know it if you listened to cable talking heads obsess about Roseanne Barr’s latest tweet or the latest “breaking news” coming from a White House press briefing. The media seems obsessed with gossip and conjecture about what is going on at the White House staff level while they ignore the growing number of landmark achievements of the Trump administration. This has been a great year so far and Americans can expect much more in the months to come.
When Mike Pompeo was confirmed to be secretary of State recently, he had already achieved much in his talks with North Korea to leverage a historic summit to discuss peace for that region of the world. Secretary Pompeo ended up garnering the support of many Democratic senators who are looking over their political shoulders this fall like Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). Even these Democrats know that they must support the president or lose their jobs.
Historic tax cuts kicked in this year and Americans have more money to spend on housing, travel and food. On April 17, 2018, also known as “Tax Day,” President Trump wrote an editorial in USA Today promoting his tax cuts for all Americans: “ I signed one of the largest tax cuts in history and the most sweeping tax reform in a generation.” The corporate tax reform will keep jobs at home and make sure that more Americans are working this year.
April also saw the president reform welfare and end the practice of releasing illegal immigrants upon capture at the border. Early in April, the president issued an executive order on welfare reform promoting economic mobility that will encourage more people to enter the workforce. The president ordered a report to end the practice of “Catch and Release” with illegal immigrants and deployed the National Guard to the border to enhance border security. Both of these actions had to be taken by the executive branch because Congress has failed to take decisive action on reforming entitlement programs and fixing our broken immigration system.
The stealing of intellectual property by foreign governments was a hot issue in March, yet comparatively little was written about that issue by the media obsessed with palace intrigue. In March, the president announced steps to stop China from stealing American intellectual property. Also, in that month, President Trump announced efforts to protect America’s schools, including partnering the Department of Homeland Security with states to harden at-risk schools. The months of March and April were loaded with achievements that were largely ignored by journalists More Americans are back at work this year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 2018’s average monthly job growth was the strongest since 1997 with 2.5 million jobs added to the U.S. economy. The most important issue for Americans is the creation of new jobs and stopping American jobs from going overseas. The U.S. economy is booming, yet one would have to go right to the White House website to read about this news, because the mainstream media is ignoring historic job growth enabled by President Trump’s business- and worker-friendly government policies.
After years of past presidents promising, while running for office, to recognize Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, President Trump did it. In February, the State Department announced that the opening of an interim embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel. This was yet another foreign policy promise kept.
Infrastructure was front-and-center this year, with the president announcing his detailed framework to rebuild American roads and bridges. In addition, the Trump administration rolled out an FY 2019 budget that saved $3 trillion over the next ten years for American taxpayers. During President Trump’s State of the Union, he spoke of his first-year accomplishments and provided a vision for a safe, strong and proud America going forward.
The president kicked off the year by going to Davos, Switzerland, to announced that “America is open for business” and gave a strongly pro-America message to the world. This is a president who has accomplished much so far this year, yet you would not know it if you only got your news from the mainstream media. It is obsessed with gossip, yet the American people know better and the polls indicate that the American people are feeling great about the future.
President Donald Trump is leading America to a more peaceful world and a prosperous America with his “America First” policies.
Denying Trump's Accomplishments Is Increasingly Irrational
Some people still can't stomach the idea of a Donald Trump presidency and so remain in denial about his mounting policy successes, but their resistance is looking increasingly proud and petty.
It's risky to predict future trends, especially the political fortunes of government leaders and the results they might achieve, because there are so many moving parts. We've seen so much volatility and fluidity, and we have a plethora of unknowns. So I admit that it would be foolish to take for granted that President Trump will continue to rack up remarkable, substantive policy achievements, but it would be just as foolish to deny the significance of his accomplishments already, on a variety of fronts -- or to pretend that it wouldn't have mattered much if Hillary Clinton had won the election.
Could we at least acknowledge that a third Obama term via Clinton would have been "A Nightmare on Elm Street"?
To fully appreciate this, we Republicans should admit that even when our party is in office, we often fail to appreciably advance the conservative agenda -- and sometimes don't even temporarily halt the relentless advancement of the progressive agenda, which is virtually on autopilot these days.
There has been a prevailing attitude of deference among garden-variety GOP officeholders that inhibits them from reversing liberal policies, no matter how disastrous they are or how illegally they were implemented. It was in recognition of this institutional cowardice and apathy that Obama ran roughshod over them and the Constitution -- knowing that if he signed legislation or implemented executive orders, no matter how unconstitutional, they would most likely remain in perpetuity. Most Republican candidates talk like Ronald Reagan when campaigning but act like feckless centrists in office.
The Trump presidency, so far, has been dramatically different. He has aggressively attacked Obama's statist achievements and affirmatively promoted conservative policies on multiple fronts -- and it's immensely gratifying to behold.
He is taking action on all the branches of government -- the legislative, executive and judicial branches and the unrecognized administrative branch. Considering its unaccountability and its reach, the administrative state might as well be a branch. It is a progressive's dream because it expands government irrespective of which party is in power.
Until now, it was as if Republicans had resigned themselves to the inevitable expansion of the regulatory state and their powerlessness to curb it, much less reverse it. But refreshingly, Trump, with his newness to politics, has shown that he isn't paralyzed by such assumptions. He is eradicating regulations at an unprecedented pace and has reversed some of the more egregious Obama power abuses, such as the Environmental Protection Agency's draconian carbon emission standards that he crammed through.
What might have been unthinkable before Trump has become not only thinkable but also doable -- and done -- and this is true despite grudging criticisms of naysayers, including those on the right.
Some say that Trump doesn't deserve credit for his accomplishments because his subordinates accomplished them or because they would have happened under any Republican president. And besides, they huff, no matter what successes he's had, they're not worth it, considering the alleged damage to the GOP and conservative brands he is doing.
I strongly doubt that many of these accomplishments would have occurred under any Republican president. Many of them wouldn't have even been tried. And the idea that Trump doesn't deserve credit for major policy accomplishments occurring under his watch, especially those he promised to implement during the campaign, is ludicrous.
I also reject that he's damaging the Republican brand. For the most part, he has not promoted a so-called populist agenda as some feared but is gravitating more every day toward mainstream conservatism. Talking about conservatism doesn't enhance the brand nearly so much as action, and we're seeing a lot of action.
Let's look at some of his achievements, acknowledging at the outset that he has been remarkably true to his campaign promises and that had he lost, there is no telling what kind of corruption would have continued undetected by a deep state protected under the impenetrable umbrella of a Clinton presidency. The economy is robust and growing, with unemployment at 3.9 percent, the lowest since 2000. Manufacturing is up. The promised tax law is producing record revenues, despite cynics' predictions to the contrary, and it has led to a wave of optimism throughout the business sector and widespread employee wage hikes and bonuses.
Though -- regrettably -- we have yet to make inroads in congressional spending, at least the ailing defense sector is receiving a needed shot in the arm, the importance of which cannot be overstated in these tumultuous times.
Trump continues to rack up foreign policy wins, from North Korea (nukes and hostages) to the Islamic State group to Afghanistan to NATO to Iran (keeping his promise to withdraw from Obama's disastrous deal) to Israel (recognizing Jerusalem, announcing his plan to move our embassy there and finally treating the country as an ally instead of an enemy). South Korea and Japan have increased their defense budgets. Gloriously, we've withdrawn from the Paris climate accord.
His judicial appointments have been stellar across the board. There has been a substantial decline in southern border crossings. The EPA administrator has rescinded scores of regulations. Trump has eliminated prohibition of interstate health insurance sales and has cashiered the Obamacare employer mandate. The FCC is torpedoing the left's net neutrality agenda.
He approved the Keystone XL pipeline, which was beginning to look more like a pipedream than a pipeline. He rescinded the Arctic drilling ban and the coal mining ban on public lands. He has increased energy production and ended Obama's abominable war on coal.
He's made advances on religious liberty and restored the ban on the federal funding of abortion overseas, begun to revamp the space program, and targeted MS-13 gang members for deportation.
You don't need to idolize President Trump, approve of all his tweets or celebrate his former playboy lifestyle to acknowledge this stunning string of accomplishments.
But if you think that America isn't dramatically better off than under Obama or that things aren't immensely better than they would have been under Clinton, I'm not sure we're on the same planet.
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