Blog - President Trump's Momentous First Year

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/12/trumps_momentous_first_year.html

Trump’s Momentous First Year
By David Prentice

We’ve experienced a miracle in our day that a lot of us thought we might never see again.

The conservative base wanted a consequential President; one who could overcome a combination of our country’s decline, the neutering of conservative principle, the increasingly poor economy, the leftward lurch of our major institutions, the suicidal tendencies grafted into our country by the left, and the increasing mindlessness of our culture. Trump filled the ticket as a candidate.

We’ve seen his Presidency for the better part of a year. We can now say emphatically, this is the most effective first year of any President in our lifetime, perhaps in a century. Including Ronald Reagan, who was the one that drew me to the political realm. Reagan drew me to conservatism, he articulated the principles that reset America for twenty-five years. He was my hero, the one who has clearly carried the banner of a consequential President.

And Reagan did some things better than Trump.

I preferred his demeanor. I preferred his jokes (although Trump can be hilariously funny). I preferred his speeches. And Reagan had a wonderful record; eight years of huge accomplishments. Resetting the US economy. Resetting our military. Resetting our love of country, our optimism, our purpose. He almost single handedly bankrupted the Soviet Union, and won the cold war. He took a series of major ideas, ran on them, and then proceeded to fulfill his promises and bring them into being.

My praise of Reagan’s Presidency is in no way meant to diminish Trump.

Reagan was the greatest President since World War II, and perhaps the Twentieth Century. Now, as good as Reagan’s record of accomplishments were, Trump’s first year has actually been better. I am in no way impugning Reagan, he was one of our great Presidents. I’m just saying that Trump’s first year was the most consequential of any President I know, including Reagan. Hardly faint praise.

An incomplete list:

The economy has taken an unprecedented move towards the better.
GDP is moving upwards. Most are forecasting close to 4% growth in 2018.
New jobs are increasing monthly.
Manufacturing jobs are returning to the country for the first time in thirty years.
The bleeding of corporations leaving the country has stopped.
Corporations have begun to reinvest in American factories and interests.
Trade deals are being renegotiated to our economic benefit.
The first major tax cut legislation in thirty years was just signed into law.
Massive amounts of regulation have been cut, spurring business optimism.
Consumer optimism is higher than in the past two decades.
The coal industry in our country has been revived.
Pipelines for oil have been released for construction completion.
We have expanded oil drilling, even in ANWAR.
We are virtually energy independent as a nation.
Our energy businesses have become exporters.
Our stock market is through the roof, up 30%, new highs almost daily.
Business optimism has not been higher. Atlas stopped shrugging.
The horrid Obamacare individual mandate was torpedoed.
Justice Neal Gorsuch was voted to the Supreme Court.
Trump appointed more judges in his first year than any other President.
He is remaking the judiciary in a conservative image as he promised.
He has slowed illegal immigration to a level not seen in thirty years.
He is destroying MS 13, and other illegal immigrant gangs.
He is speaking openly of ending chain immigration.
He has successfully gone after ISIS, virtually driving them into the ground.
He has acknowledged Jerusalem as the Capitol of Israel.
He has reset our alliance with Israel.
He is quietly helping to remake a Middle East that is a bulwark against Iran.
He has quietly reset our alliance with the new leaders of Saudi Arabia.
He is quietly reversing the horrible Iranian deal left us by Obama.
He has been the first President to stand against the insanity of North Korea.
He has connected with the Chinese leadership, enlisting them as allies.
He has pulled out of TPP, beginning negotiation on a better deal.
He is renegotiating NAFTA.
He has pulled us out of the ridiculous and harmful Paris Climate Accord.
He has begun to dismantle the corruption of climate data by our bureaucracies.
He has reset an agenda for space exploration by NASA.
He has brought hope to the mission of our military.
He has worked and enacted better care and treatment for our Veterans.
He is redefining our mission in national security with his speech last week.
He has put the United Nations on notice for their arrogant nonsense.
He has and is exposing the national media for the leftist activism base it is.
He has fought the self-tarnished media more effectively than any other.
He has exposed the Democratic Party as corrupt, issueless, and powerless.
He has exposed the fecklessness, and fraud of the GOP.
He is quietly remaking the GOP from their own ashes.
He has exposed the deep state to public view. And is just beginning.
He is exposing the corruption of our bureaucracies by the Obama administration.
He is exposing the insanity of the hard left, and their utter lack of decency.
He has driven mad the constituency of #nevertrumpers on the right. Exposed.
Last mentioned: he has earned the unity and praise of the elected GOP. Which has been well deserved. This is one we on the right should all applaud.
There will be many lists of his accomplishments in the next month, a few have come out already. Some on the left understand what is happening, while most on the left run around like chicken littles telling us the sky is falling, that “The Russians are Coming”! That Trump doesn’t know what he is doing. That Trump is the evil of evils. That Trump has never done anything right in his whole life!

In the meantime, Trump has plans to begin rebuilding infrastructure, building the wall, to make a military be strong and proud again, to honor our veterans, our police, perhaps fully repeal Obamacare. There is more, his list is large, and he is learning at warp speed.

Newt Gingrich commented during the campaign, that Trump was the fastest learner he had ever seen. His campaign grew from week to week.

I hoped Trump would follow up on his promises, but I’d not have gotten angry if Trump tried to set forth half of what he promised during the campaign. That would have been a major improvement on our last two GOP Presidents, who were disappointments. Little did I know that he would genuinely plan to fulfill all his promises. And that it would be clearly a successful plan evident by the end of his first year. As President he learns how to do more each week.

I’m not suggesting he is done, not at all. He’s not. He seems to be just starting. But he’s shown us what a consequential President is made of. The blue-collar billionaire builder has simply begun a miracle in the United States of America.

He is pointing us to a great America. By God’s grace, we can reclaim the USA. He’s just pointing. We need to do our part alongside him. Work hard, MAGA.