I would like to open an honest critique of Donald Trump's policy decisions during his first term in office. Please don't make this personal about Trump. This is a grading of his policies and platform during his first term in office. We know many of you hate him, but obviously not all of his policies were bad ideas, because Biden adopted several of them (even after Dems derided said policies while they were being implemented at the time). All policies during Trump's 1st term are fair game. As are his appointments to cabinet and court positions. There were tax cuts, deregulation, immigration reform, foreign policy, tariffs, SCOTUS and subsequent Roe v. Wade decision, withdrawal from Syria, calling out NATO and demanding change, the Abraham accords, response to Covid, stimulus package and many more. One interesting thing to me is the Syria decision. Perhaps someone can opine. At the time, President Trump was doubted by his own Sec of Defense on his decision to pull our troops out of Syria. It was said this would cause the Kurds to be crushed and we were hanging our allies in the region out to dry. I'll confess, I'm not up on the latest out of Syria. But I also recall many critics said Trump had started WW3 after taking out Soleimani, so I am curious and suspect the overreaction to the Syria decision played out much the same. Honest discussion of his policy and appointments, please.
Trump's immigration reform, reducing legal immigration by around 1 million, was a disaster. Especially due to the timing. COVID lead to the death of more prime working aged individuals than expected; and COVID also caused many to retire early. As a result, we had, and still have labor shortages that has caused inflation to remain higher than it needed to be. While Trump reduced legal immigration, his policies accomplished nothing when it comes to undocumented immigration. We spent billions on a boondoggle wall that was quickly in need of major repair. Meanwhile, current undocumented numbers mirror that of 2019. 2020 and 2021 had lower numbers, but that was due to people now leaving their homes due to the pandemic, plus pandemic only policies. Biden had large numbers in 2022 and 2023, but had the pandemic not happened, this surge would have occurred earlier. Speaking of the pandemic, Trump's policies were a public health disaster. I'll give credit to Trump for Operation Warp Speed, but intake once the vaccine was developed, especially in red states, was disgusting. Throwing away the Pandemic Playbook was a huge mistake. I'll also give credit, to an extent, for Trump getting other NATO countries to pay their fair share. But at what cost? Strong-arming your allies is not a great, long-term policy. And Trump's perceived fealty to dictators like Putin and Kim Jon Un left many of our allies quite uneasy. Then there were rumors Trump would be willing to ignore Article 5 if countries didn't pay up. Like Trump was treating other countries as tenants in one of his buildings. Not a great way to build trust. As for Trump's tax cuts, they helped fuel growth...a little, but the tax cuts didn't pay for themselves. Not by a longshot. Our debt has increased because of the cuts, and when Trump took over, we were in the middle of a mature economy. Growth was going to be 2.5% to 3% regardless of what Trump did. The smart play would have been small, targeted cuts with a small reduction in spending. Growth numbers would have been similar, but we would have been able to pay down a significant portion of our debt. But Trump promised 5% growth or more. Which was impossible. All he did was pour camel piss on the engine...which makes a nasty smell like it's doing something, but all it's really doing is burning piss, and accomplishing nothing. Meanwhile, you have to pay for the piss...Trump's tax cuts were camel piss.
A lot of his policies started reasonable, but then rhetoric and craziness pushed policy right and created non stop shat storms. But that is Trump, he needs controversy and the attention it brings. Governing soundly with reason doesn’t feed the narcissistic id.
We live in a Constitutional Republic... not a democracy. Now even our Liberal friends know the differences between the two.
Good lord, not this again. Representative democracy = constitutional republic. They are synonyms. Definition of SYNONYM
It is weird how Republicans are running away from democracy these days. After championing it for so many decades, now they are done with it?
Do you have an honest reply? Or is silly snark the only thing you can reply to my honest opinion about Trump's policies?
Your opinion, as written, deserves nothing more that snark. If there was any logic in your interpretation of facts, I could see my way to calling it twisted, but even that is a reach.
I backed my opinion with links; many of which from center or even right leaning (Libertarian) sources such as CATO. If you are unable to intelligently discuss why I think Trump's policies are mostly pure trash, just come out and say so. Anyone else wish to engage in true discussion about Trump's policies and reply to my post with intelligent rebuttals?
Making orphans of immigrant children by taking them away from their parents, shipping the children off and then losing track of them. For that one policy alone Trump deserves to roast in hell.
It's called proof. Citing sources. They are not all conjecture and opinions. They are also backed by facts and figures. Like the NY Times showing GAO numbers proving that Trump tax cuts didn't pay for themselves. And here's a good link showing job openings versus unemployed. And the CATO link showed the cuts in legal immigration numbers under Trump. Now tell me, couldn't we have used an additional 1 million or so people working in our country in say 2022 when we had nearly twice as many job openings as unemployed? And doesn't supply/demand curve say any shortage in a supply commodity causes prices to rise? If anyone wants to argue my opinion and sources are wrong, please do. And cite your own sources. Want more Trump policy disaster? How about his environmental record? Trump cut tons of Obama regulations and doubled down on fossil fuels. The result on climate change is something we'll be feeling for years. And if Trump gets elected again? It would be even worse.
In addition to AzCat's comments, what I found perplexing was Trump's continual infrastructure week claims that went nowhere, even with Democratic support for it. It was almost if policy involved more than making an executive action, he wasn't interested. Similar to sabotaging the bipartisan immigration bill. And then there was the healthcare debacle. Imagine if the ACA was overturned, there was nothing prepared despite Trumps's claims he had a plan. I also don't have confidence that Trump listens to experts around him to set good policy or governance. Nearly his entire Cabinet left in frustration and experts like Fauci, who served multiple administrations through health crisis, were demonized for providing their expertise if it appeared to take the spotlight away from Trump. Not good leadership in any organization. He is good at being autocratic, not so good in leading a democratic country.
