As you are most certainly aware, today was the last full day of Donald Trump's Presidency. Baring something incredible happening tomorrow, Joe Biden will be sworn in as President at 12 eastern. What happens next isn't predictable but what I can do is go over President Trump's victories and defeats.
President Trump's biggest accomplishment has to be winning in the first place. He faced a huge field of Republican hopefuls including some of the most powerful and important members of congress, governors and other major candidates. And, after wiping the floor with them, went on to face Hillary Clinton, who had the backing of the media, tech companies and deep state. Beating all those foes was a huge accomplishment and is something that can never be taken away.
President Trump had some major victories as President as well. The biggest of these was foreign policy. He is the first president in my lifetime to not start any wars. Indeed, not only did he not start any new wars he drew down our involvement in other ones. Slandered as a warmonger during the election, President Trump consistently chose peace and diplomacy over war. He didn't fall for the Deep States attempts to launch wars against Syria, Iran and Russia and kept American casualties in our current wars to a minimum.
And it must be stated that President Trump was largely responsible for the total destruction of ISIS. Back in 2016 ISIS was a huge threat, controlling vast swaths of land and launching almost weekly terror attacks across the world. By 2018, two years into his term, ISIS was nothing but a bad memory and Islamic terrorists are not anywhere near the threat it used to be.
President Trump also advanced the cause of peace internationally. He tried to end the war in North Korea and successfully brokered new peace deals in the Middle East and the Baltic. He was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize several times and was robbed each time. And he of course did not start any new wars.
Domestically President Trump did well. His biggest domestic accomplishment was the massive tax cut that paid dividends to the poor and middle classes. I know in my case my income increased massively, not only due to the tax cuts but because those tax cuts also helped my company. Had President Trump not been elected I don't think for a moment I would be making anywhere near the amount of money I am now.
The economy did great under President Trump, at least for the first three years. 2020 was a mess due to the Coronavirus but it has recovered even despite the lockdowns forced by Democratic governors. The economy was completely stagnant under Barack Obama and Trump turned it around almost single handedly.
Speaking of Obama, President Trump reversed many of his worst policies and stopped his utterly terrible foreign policy. Thanks to President Trump college students have due process again and the worst parts of Obamacare were rejected (while keeping some of the better parts like the preexisting conditions ban and some of the insurance markets).
He also tried to fix immigration and though he didn't complete his goals he was able to reduce immigration by quite a bit. He built much more of the wall then was up before President Trump and though he didn't complete it he did more than any other President.
One accomplishment that gets overlooked is how much President Trump was able to change the court system. He and congress managed to secure four Supreme Court justices and hundreds of lower federal court judges, likely changing the makeup of the courts for years. Though the Democrats were able to steal the Presidency, Senate and Congress, they can not do so with the courts.
All that being said, I think President Trump made some very major mistakes. The most obvious? Not making voter fraud the number one priority of his administration. He should have known that the Democrats cheated in 2016 and would do the same in 2018 and 2020 if given the opportunity. But he didn't do much of anything to stop it. Sure the GOP did not support him in his efforts but that's no excuse.
I also think he did a horrible job at hiring people. Part of that was the problem of being an outsider. He did not have many candidates to draw from so his only choices were people that agreed with him politically but were inexperienced or people like Jeff Sessions, John Bolton and Bill Barr, swamp creatures that opposed his agenda. He went with the 2nd option and it cost him a 2nd term. Had he had support from the Justice Department, as just one example, Joe Biden would be in a prison cell right now, not a day away from being President.
His 2nd campaign wasn't as good as the first campaign as well. Trump improved on every group expect the one that put him in office in 2016, white males. Though why this happened is unclear I have to say that focusing on black voters and not focusing on his signature issue, immigration, probably hurt. It might not have been enough to counter Democratic voter fraud but it would have helped. Then again, he did massively increase his vote share so maybe his strategy was the best one and only failed because the Democrats played dirty.
His response to the Coronavirus was a mixed bag. I think he did about as good as he could have done but his main problem was perception. It was a lose-lose situation regardless due to the media but he could have done some things different. He does deserve a lot of credit for Operation Warp Speed, which managed to get vaccines out and in circulation before the end of his term.
But President Trump's biggest failure? Allowing someone like Joe Biden to become President. He gave up a lot to be President but he should have given up more to prevent someone like Biden. Biden is an existential threat, almost on the same level as Hillary Clinton. He's senile, corrupt and far to the left. He never should have been allowed to be President. Trump's biggest failure is not crossing the Rubicon and doing whatever is needed to stop him from gaining office.
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