January 19, 2019
Guest post by Joe Hoft
President Donald J. Trump had arguably the best first two years for any President in US history since Washington. On the other hand, arguably no president since Lincoln faced the massive headwinds that this president faced.
From the actions of the corrupt actors in the prior administration, the Democrat Party, the Mueller ‘Witch Hunt”, the ‘Fake News’ media, and the Fed, no president has been under attack like President Trump since perhaps Lincoln during the Civil War in the 1860’s.
Below is a list of President Trump’s major accomplishments his first two years in office since his inauguration on January 21, 2017.
The Economy
The DOW
After President Trump was elected the stock market skyrocketed. The markets are a gauge of the economy and include expectations of the future. On November 8th, 2016, the DOW stood at 18,332. Since that date the DOW has soared.
Not only has the DOW skyrocketed since Donald Trump was elected President, the market’s rise is record breaking. Since the 2016 election, the DOW has closed at new record all-time highs more than 100 times!
President Trump’s first year in office (2017) saw the most all-time stock market closing highs (71) as well as the largest increase in DOW history (4,956 points). Prior to 2017, no year in the DOW’s more than 100-year history ever saw the DOW increase by more than 3,500 points, let alone 4,900. The most all-time highs in a year prior to 2017 was 69 in 1995.
Since President Trump was elected President the DOW tied the record for the most all-time closing highs in a row. In January of 1987 President Reagan saw the DOW increase to new all-time highs a record 12 days in a row. In February of 2017, President Trump matched Reagan’s record.
The DOW reached its fastest 500 point increase between major milestones under President Trump. In January of 2018 the DOW surpassed 26,000 and six days later the DOW surpassed 26,500. Under President Trump the DOW has seen the fastest 1,000; 2,000; 3,000; 4,000; 5,000; 6,000 and 7,000 point increases in DOW history. No similar records occurred during the Obama years.
Also, President Trump didn’t ride an Obama wave, the DOW under Obama went down in 2015 and stayed relatively flat until the 2016 election. As of Friday, January 18, 2019, the DOW stands at 24,706. It’s currently up 35% since the 2016 election –
Russell 2000
The Russell 2000 is a major index of US small cap stocks recognized throughout the financial industry. The 2000 companies in the Russell 2000 are the bottom 2000 companies in the Russell 3000. These companies have seen incredible results as well since President Trump was elected President. The Russell 2000 reached 31 new highs in 2017 and at least 30 new all-time highs in 2018.
S&P 500
The S&P 500 and most all stock indices have seen similar results as the DOW. The S&P 500 rose 127.61 points the last week in November, 2018 – the most it has ever increased in a week. On Friday November 23rd the S&P 500 closed at 2,632. On Friday November 30th, the S&P 500 closed out the month of November at 2,760. This is the largest point increase in a week ever.
The old record for the largest increase for a week was quietly set on February 16th of 2018 when the S&P 500 increased by 112.67. The only other time the S&P 500 increased by more than 100 points in a week was the week ending on April 20, 2001.
GDP and Debt
According Rex Sinquefield at Forbes in October of 2016 –
The Obama recovery of the last seven years remains the worst in postwar American history. Average gross domestic product (GDP) growth since the bottom of the recession in 2009 was barely above 2.1% per year. The average since 1949 is well above 4% per year during the previous 10 expansions.
This result is not just bad, it is catastrophic. The average American should not be wondering if his or her income is a bit above or below 2007 levels. Just by historical averages, the average American should be 20% better off than in 2007. And this slow growth is settling in as a permanent new-abnormal.
I believe the root cause of abysmal growth is the huge tax increases imposed by Obama and the Democrats in Congress since 2008. The most harmful were the increase in the capital gains tax from 15 to 20 percent, the increase in top bracket income from 35 to 39.6 percent, and the new tax of 3.8 percent on investment income in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The massive increase in regulatory burden through the ACA and Dodd-Frank bills are also crushing, but unfortunately are harder to measure.
The US GDP for the third quarter of 2018 was reported at a whopping 3.5% . This was another BIG Trump win which doubled the first quarter growth of 2.2%.
President Obama never reached an annual GDP Growth rate of more than 3.0%. No President over the past century had not ever been held to GDP growth rates of less than 3.0% until Obama.
When comparing the amount of US Debt from the government’s daily report of debt to the amount of GDP from the current GDP release, the amount of debt to GDP is decreasing under President Trump (a good thing).
The ratio of debt to GDP is decreasing drastically – from 105.3% when Obama was President to 104.1% since the election! (Note that Obama increased the Debt to GDP ratio by 30% over his first two years and more than 40% during his two terms in office. Also, under Obama the Fed kept rates at 0% for his first seven years! If President Trump had the same luxury the Debt to GDP would be much less because US debt would be $1 trillion less. One trillion of the two trillion increase in debt under President Trump is due to the Fed’s increase in rates.)
Jobs
Job numbers through the end of December 2018 show an increase of nearly 5 million jobs since President Trump won the 2016 election and an unemployment rate of less than 4 percent. After the same period under Obama, (4) million jobs were lost and unemployment skyrocketed to 9.3 percent! Unemployment today is at record 50 year lows.
Donald J. Trump
2018 is being called “THE YEAR OF THE WORKER” by Steve Moore, co-author of “Trumponomics.” It was indeed a great year for the American Worker with the “best job market in 50 years, and the lowest unemployment rate ever for blacks and Hispanics and all workers. Big wage gains.”
The average family in the United States today has seen an increase in their annual income of $3,100 under President Donald J. Trump.
Kevin Hassett, the Council of Economic Advisers Chairman, told Lou Dobbs a few weeks ago that Trump took the economy and accelerated it on all levels. And now all Americans are seeing the benefits of a booming Trump economy. Hassett, told Lou under Trump there have now been 500,000 manufacturing jobs created, something President Barack Obama said was impossible. The added surprise relative to the GDP is the president has delivered $3,100 per household to gross domestic income.
Foreign Policy
President Trump vowed to destroy ISIS. Despite President Obama saying that ISIS will be around for a generation, these murderers and terrorists in the Middle East were decimated over the past two years. Both Syria and Iraq have declared victory over ISIS and due to President Trump’s resolve, less than 1,000 ISIS fighters are estimated remaining. As a result, President Trump began withdrawing US troops from Syria at Christmas.
President Trump met with the Pope, leaders of 50 Muslim countries and Israeli and European leaders on his first trip abroad. He demanded that the Muslim leaders remove radicals from their countries.
The President refused sending Pakistan security assistance in the millions due to the Pakistani’s harboring terrorists. He stopped an Obama last minute $221 million transfer to Palestine and cut aid to Palestinians in half. He showed that the US is unwilling to work with Muslim entities that support radical Islam.
On President Trump’s successful trip to Asia in 2017 he bundled an estimated $300 billion in deals for the US. He met with Asian leaders and was the first US President and foreign leader to dine in China’s Forbidden City since the founding of modern China.
The President met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018. It was the first meeting between a US President and a North Korean leader since the Korean War. The two leaders are expected to meet again in the near future. No one would have ever imagined that these two leaders would meet two years ago.
President Donald J. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, shake hands as they meet for the first time, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, at the Capella Hotel in Singapore. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
The President is showing who is the greatest leader of the greatest country in the world.
US Policy
The Washington Examiner in October 2018 listed 289 accomplishments under President Trump –
As Trump nears the two-year mark of his historic election and conducts political rallies around the country, during which he talks up his wins in hopes it will energize Republican voters, the administration has counted up 289 accomplishments in 18 categories, capped by the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
They include 173 major wins, such as adding more than 4 million jobs, and another 116 smaller victories, some with outsize importance, such as the 83 percent one-year increase in arrests of MS-13 gang members.
“Trump’s successes in reducing the cost of taxes and regulations, rebuilding our military, avoiding wars of choice and changing the courts rival those of all previous Republican presidents,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
The President named and successfully put in place a new Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch. He signed more than 90 executive actions in his first 100 days alone. The actions included –
* Dismantling Obama’s climate change initiatives.
* Travel bans for individuals from a select number of countries embroiled in terrorist atrocities.
* Enforcing regulatory reform.
* Protecting Law enforcement.
* Mandating for every new regulation to eliminate two.
* Defeating ISIS.
* Rebuilding the military.
* Building a border wall.
* Cutting funding for sanctuary cities.
* Approving Keystone and Dakota pipelines.
* Reducing regulations on manufacturers.
* Placing a hiring freeze on federal employees.
* Exiting the US from the TPP.
The list of POTUS 45’s successes goes on and on.
The President has gotten the US out of terrible US job killing trade deals. He replaced these deals with agreements that help the US and the American worker. He lowered taxes and removed barriers to oil and coal resulting in America becoming the world’s number one oil producer. He got the US out of terrible deals related to climate change and Iran. The list goes on and on….
Undoubtedly there is more to do. The wall is not yet in place and Democrats are willing to shut down the government so that illegals are given citizenship. The FBI and DOJ are headed by Obama leftovers who are involved in corrupt and criminal activities. A bogus investigation was created by these scoundrels and as a result public opinion of the FBI and DOJ is at all time lows. But based on President Trump’s performance to date, he will address these issues successfully in due time as well.
Overall President Trump’s first two years in office were outstanding. He was attacked from all sides and stood tall and to his principles. America is stronger and greater than ever before. The economy is growing and the world is safer. President Trump is doing all he can to Make America Great Again!