I will concede that many of his appointments were busts, but as some of the commenters at AT pointed out : Most of the things on that list were things he did not have the authority to do or was blocked by Mitch/Ryan/Pelosi/Schumer.
The Democrats and their media allies used the entrenched government bureaucracy and a weaponized DOJ to undercut him at every turn. I actually remember the frustration of the fight against almost all of DC and the fact that he got anything done in the face of the opposition is amazing.
The author is guilty of the very same flaw he assigns to Trump supporters; namely: He expects that Trump should have had the success rate of a God. When one is constantly fending off sociopaths and Mandarins (eg, Pelosi & McConnell), expecting God-like outcomes from a mere mortal is asking too much. And did he mention that over 90% of the mainstream press continued to publish negative and fake news against him?
And here’s my other question — let’s say you vote for someone other than Trump, what guarantee do you have that this Republican President won’t encounter the same obstacles that Trump faced?
The author, having the benefit of hindsight, focuses on Trump’s minor mistakes and ignores his major accomplishments. He would have done more if he hadn’t been cheated out of a second term.
I smell a Ron DeSanctimonious supporter.
“Why did Trump willfully persist with a toxic persona, alienating suburban voters that cost him (and us) the House in 2018”
Paul Ryan leading over 50 Republicans out of the House caused this. Nice try, author. Not to mention the fact that it’s very normal for the opposition to gain seats in a presidents first midterm. But Ryan & co. WANTED the Democrats to take the House.
Great questions. Sure Trump did some good things, the first two years when he had both houses of Congress.
But Trump never fired ANY of his horrible appointments. The only one he ever fired was Michael Flynn!
Nor do I remember Trump ever vetoing ANYTHING. Certainly not all those Omnibus bills.
Executive orders that enacted new gun control measures, which was the first time an EO had ever been used for that. But used other EO’s to allow people to stop paying their rent, and stop paying their student loans.
Worst of all, Gain of Function research was re-instated under Trump. Which led to the biggest crisis of the last 50+ years, which he claims he resolved by releasing dangerous untested injections on everyone, that probably killed more people than Covid itself has.
But, none of that matters to his supporters. He’s a mean tweeter, don’t you know!
One of the most small examples, is how they treated Melania. Never once did a fashion magazine put her on the cover, with some puff piece story inside. Every other first lady I’ve ever heard of has one of those stories that makes you kind of like her. The venom and hatred for Trump and his entire family has never been paralleled.
I think Trump accomplished more than any other president in US history. He also promised more than anyone else, so there is still a list of unfinished tasks.
Well said
The deep state conspired against Trump. They would slow-walk or refuse his orders. That is why he was so furious at the end of the day and angrily tweeted his frustration. Nobody in DC had his back. They were only interested it preserving their fiefdoms and sinecures. This article, or at least the bit I read, is leftist or at minimum RINO propaganda.
Trump really stepped in it this time!
It’s all over for him now!
The walls are closing in!
The author seems ignorant of the three branches of government.
Politics is the art of the possible.
Trump likes to boast, brag, exaggerate. :Greatest”, “Biggest”, “Beautiful”.
That can work to get elected, and it can work to get a building built, but it doesn’t work when 4 years later people say “You said you were going to do X, Y, and Z”.
My main dislike of Trump is that I don’t like salesmen, at least not those who use hype, exaggeration, big promises; just give me the data.
Don’t promise *ANYTHING* you don’t already know you can do, 100 percent. Or get fired.
That said- best economy ever, made Europe pay their way, re-established our sovereignty over our borders, and many other things.
The other downfall: you are only as good as the worst person you hire. I was really disappointed at a lot of his selections; Everyone knew Sessions was an idiot; I get that loyalty matters to some people, but it seemed like ass-kissing sycophancy was more important than ability to execute.
Still, compared to the competition.....
Members of the Uni-party won’t face any opposition. That is what you are talking about. Members of the Uni-party put no opposition to the Progressives, they support open borders, don’t want a wall, they support the war in the Ukraine, they support the Progressive war on fossil fuel. They don’t really care about the economic war on middle America, they think that they are above it.
Heck, Mitch McConnel’s wife’s family co-owns, China Ocean Shipping, along with the Chinese military. Do you think that Mitch cares that Vhina is trying to supplant the US as the world leader?
Feed the flock for slaughter, whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt. ...
For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land. But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand. ...
Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh. ...
For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
From Zacharia 11
The idiot writer of this article doesn’t understand how the democrats won in 2020 and 2022.
Even if whoever is on this idiots secret wish list for republican nomination—wins...that person would still run into the same democrat vote machine as republicans encountered in 2020 and 2022.
No genuine fact-based truth is ever “inconvenient”. The inconvenience occurs when someone tries to DENY the truth.
Donald Trump does not deny truth, but he does his very best to winnow the chaff of lies from the kernel of truth that lies beneath, and sometimes that takes a powerful effort to separate the two versions of explanations for reality.
What is specious and plausible often comes disguised as “the truth”, but in the end, these explanations are the real inconvenience.
Oh STFU.
Trump, Best president since Washington.
After 4 more years, Best president EVER!
What load of horsesh$t.
This moron is a obviously a Never Trumper or establishment goon if he's making that argument.
Trump had no control over his choices for AG or FBI director. McConnell and the RINOs in the Senate blocked anyone he wanted to choose that would have cleaned up the corruption.
That argument is as ridiculous has condemning him for not getting more of the wall completed when Congress, including Republicans, blocked funding for the wall.
There is NO candidate that is more of a threat a bigger threat to Deep State and uniparty establishment as proven by the lengths they went to rig the 2020 election and the way they have and continue to desperately try to frame him for crimes he didn't commit.
I'd say stubborn NeverTrumpers are unwilling to ask the hard questions, admit that Trump actually did what the people they voted for for decades promised to do but were unwilling to do once in office, and refuse to admit the 2020 Election was clearly stolen.
Promises made, promises kept? Not when it mattered.
Overturning Roe doesn't matter? Since when? Conservatives had been aching for that for 50 years. Trump delivered. Energy Independence? That had been America's goal since the first oil shock of the 1970s. Trump delivered. Stay out of foreign wars? Trump delivered. Secure the border? Trump delivered - in the teeth of fierce opposition from the RINO establishment and the Democrat controlled Congress. Get fairer trade deals? Trump delivered. Those things all mattered.
Drain the swamp? Spinning around in an airboat.
Here you're correct. Trump had 2 big failings. He made some bad personnel choices and he thought he could work with the RINO Establishment. Like the rest of us, he didn't realize quite how corrupt they were. I think he's learned his lesson on that one as have we.
Trump never cleaned up the FBI, instead hired the Dem sympathizer Christopher Wray as Director, and except for a few gratuitous tweets about his incompetence, left him in place.
You can thank the Turtle and the rest of the RINO Establishment who recommended him. I think Trump has learned from this and will take a blowtorch to the FIB next time.
Gina Haspel, CIA chief, kept the job until the last day despite the likelihood she was knee-deep with John Brennan in the active sabotage of Trump’s 2015-2016 campaign and incoming president-elect transition.
Again, Trump's deference to the RINO Establishment is to blame here. I agree it was a big mistake but I blame the lying, backstabbing, corrupt weasels in the Romney/Bush/Cheney wing of the party far more.
Trump appointed, then tolerated clueless insubordinates and leakers like Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, JR McMaster, James Mattis, and Gary Cohn, until the damage was done, and Trump’s agenda crippled.
He fired/ran off all of the above.
When will unyielding Trump loyalists answer the following questions? Why did Trump endlessly rail against billions in federal budget giveaways to Dem darlings like Planned Parenthood, and Marxist countries, but signed the bills anyhow?
For the same reason that Reagan did. The President is not all powerful and you have to make some ugly deals to get what you want done. Why didn't the RINO Establishment eliminate those things when they had complete control of Congress?
Why couldn’t Trump get illegal immigration fixed -- beyond executive orders easily overturned
Because the RINOs in Congress wouldn't vote for it. He stopped the flood of illegals and built a helluva lot of wall despite Congress' obstruction. The president is not an all powerful dictator.
— and get Obamacare reversed when he had a Republican Senate and House?
The name is John McCain. You might want to look him up some time.
Why did Trump let Paul Ryan ruin his platform?
He didn't.
Why did Trump deliberately antagonize John McCain knowing McCain would undercut the final vote on debriding Obamacare?
Why was McCain such a Neocon and a tool? Why did the RINO Establishment support him?
Why did Trump willfully persist with a toxic persona, alienating suburban voters that cost him (and us) the House in 2018 and led to the first impeachment and a MAGA agenda declared morte by the Democrats?
Why are you asking dishonest questions? Its GOOD that Trump hits back at lying Leftists. That's exactly what they need. Its about Damn time we had a Republican who would actually stand and fight and gasp!....I hope you're standing next to your fainting couch lest you get the vapors....HIT BACK. Trump didn't cost Republicans the House. What the hell did Republicans in the House do? They had 2 years to implement everything the Republican party had spent decades saying it wanted. Yet they sat on their hands and did NOTHING aside from pass a tax bill. You can thank your boy Paul Ryant for that.
Why did Trump never de-classify all the Obamagate documents, and release all of the Biden laptop evidence?
You do realize the Turtle told him he had the votes to impeach during Shampeachment II if Trump did any of that, declassified the Kennedy docs, pardoned Snowden or Assange, etc...right? Your beef is with the RINO Establishment - not the one guy who has displayed the guts to actually stand and fight for the things the American people want - Donald J Trump..
I'm done with you.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, but have one more thing to add.
We need to return Trump to office as an act of rebellion to the deepstate overlords and the feckless GOPe.
If we want to reclaim our government we start by reinstalling the president they cheated US out of.
Never Trumpers can FOAD.
While I was, and remain, disappointed in some of what Trump did, and in some of what he didn’t do, I have a couple of responses to this article:
1) Trump was severely handicapped from Day One because of the universal spewing of hatred toward, and lies about, him from the media and EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT. Further handicapping him were significant elements of the (so-called) Republican Party, who either failed to support the President of their own party or outright stabbed him in the back.
2) He came to DC as a legit outsider, yet still had to put people into place in order to be able to run the government. Virtually the only people that he could rely on for advice, as well as to fill those positions, were DC insiders of one stripe or another - and many of them pretended to agree with him and his stated objectives, but lied to him and undercut him (and therefor us) at every opportunity. When/if he goes to DC again, this particular handicap will not be there to anywhere near the same extent.
3) There is really no one who has both the vision of what our government should be doing (and what it shouldn’t be doing), as well as the charisma and force of personality to realistically be able to make that vision a reality. I like DeSantis, and will certainly vote for him if he wins the nomination, but he is Trump-lite. Sometimes the things that he says make me doubt whether he’s a true believer in limited government - though he’s better than any other Republican on that score...other than Donald Trump. Finally, Trump has the unique gift (among pols) of making quick and unpredictable decisions. This is particularly important in the area of foreign policy, and has the effect of making our enemies back down because he induces a complete sense of uncertainty for them.
Is Trump perfect? Nope, just like anyone else. But he is unapologetically pro-American, and he understands how the economy works and how human psychology works better than just about any other pol that I’ve ever seen. He is STILL, despite his flaws and past mistakes, the single best person that we have to occupy the Oval Office.