The President’s Accomplishments to Date submitted by Tim Howe
The 10 best things Trump has done in his first year
BY MARC THIESSEN Special to The Washington Post
Picture
EVAN VUCCI AP file
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office with reporters after signing the Republican tax bill and continuing resolution to fund the government on Dec. 22 in Washington.
As we approach the end of President Donald Trump’s first year in office, the list of extraordinary things he has done – for both good and ill – is nothing short of remarkable. Trump inspires such deep emotions in his critics and supporters that many have struggled to objectively assess his presidency. Some are so blinded by their hatred of Trump that they refuse to acknowledge the good he has done, while others are so blinded by devotion that they overlook almost any transgression.
I’ve tried to give Trump the credit he deserves when he does the right thing, while calling him out when he does the wrong thing. So, here is my list of the 10 best things Trump has done in his first 11 months. (In a subsequent column, I will give you my list of the 10 worst.)
10. He enforced President Barack Obama’s red line against Syria’s use of chemical weapons. When the regime of Bashar Assad used a toxic nerve agent on innocent men, women and children, Trump didn’t wring his hands. He acted quickly and decisively, restoring America’s credibility on the world stage that Obama had squandered.
9. He has taken a surprisingly tough line with Russia. Trump approved a $47 million arms package for Ukraine, sent troops to Poland’s border with Russia and imposed new sanctions on Moscow for violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
8. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Four American presidents promised to do it, but only one actually did. This is why the American people elected Trump. He does what he promises to do, for better or for worse – in this case, definitely for the better. Even Jeb Bush tweeted his approval.
7. He withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. After George W. Bush pulled out of the disastrous Kyoto treaty, U.S. emissions went down faster than much of Europe. The same will be true for Trump’s departure from the Paris accord. Combined with his approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration, Trump is helping usher in a new age of American energy development.
6. He got NATO allies to kick in $12 billion more toward our collective security. Decades of pleading by the Bush and Obama administrations failed to get NATO allies to meet their financial commitments to the alliance, but Trump’s tough talk and reticence to affirm America’s Article V commitment did the trick. NATO is stronger as a result.
5. He has virtually eliminated the Islamic State’s physical caliphate. Trump removed the constraints Obama placed on our military and let it drive the terrorists from their strongholds.
4. He admitted he was wrong on Afghanistan and reversed Obama’s disastrous withdrawal. In a rare admission, Trump declared: “My original instinct was to pull out. … But all my life, I’ve heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. … A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for terrorists.”
3. He enacted historic tax and regulatory reform that has unleashed economic growth. Trump signed the first comprehensive tax reform in three decades and removed the wet blanket of Obama-era regulations smothering our economy. We are now heading into our third consecutive quarter of above 3 percent growth.
2. He is installing conservative judges who will preside for decades. With his appointment of Neil M. Gorsuch, Trump secured a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and he is moving at record pace to fill the federal appeals courts with young conservative judges.
1. He, not Hillary Clinton, was inaugurated as president. Trump delivered the coup de grace that ended the corrupt, dishonest Clinton political machine.
There are many other significant achievements that did not make the top
10. Trump has taken a clear, strong stand against the narco-dictatorship in Venezuela, and he renamed the “Asia-Pacific” the “Indo-Pacific” to include India in the larger task of preventing Chinese hegemony in Asia. Trump has made clear that he is willing to use force to stop North Korea from deploying nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of destroying U.S. cities – which has prompted China to finally put real pressure on Pyongyang. We’ll see if it works.
The record of achievement suggests that, despite the noxious tweets and self-inflicted wounds emanating from the White House, Trump has the potential to become one of the most consequential conservative presidents in modern American history. The question is: Does all this good outweigh the bad? We’ll review the 10 worst things Trump has done in a forthcoming column.
spot on……….one of the better presentations ……….jmo
being a past member,,,,,she has some interesting comment ,,,,especially on Armstrong and others.
comment to comments……..
Trump tweets because most anything he says is distorted in the national media.
Never have I seen public media so distorted. It is destructive to society.
I understand the tax package is the way it is; filled with loopholes. It is a tragedy that not only Congress is fractured, but even the Republican party is not unified behind the President. The tax package could have been so much better if the President had not to pander to certain members of his own party.
I never cease to be amazed at how intellectually ignorant many politicians really are; so few understand little about economics; motivated often solely by political self- interest
I pray that the swamp will be drained this year and next.
The people of America deserve much better than what we currently have.
Charles Lewis worked as a producer for ABC News, then 60 Minutes before quitting, probably ind disgust over being told what he could and couldn’t put on the air. He is now an independent investigative journalist with 40 people working for him. In an appearance on Bill Moyers’ TV show in June, 2014 he stated that in all his years of working in TV news, he had never seen such tight controls on the media as there are now. One of Moyers’ wrapup questions was: “Can there be real democracy if controls on the media are as tight as you say they are?” Lewis’ answer was a flat No.
It was Bill Moyers who told the Secret Service agents at the Dallas airport to open the top of JFK’s convertible so that his pal LBJ could become president.
And who controls that national media with an iron grip, CFS?
Zionist Jews.
Why do you refuse to make this connection and consider its implications?
Versed in the scriptures, is helpful at determining falsehoods……….jmo
I did not realize the Murdoch family were Zionist Jews.
Just the kind of evasive reply I’ve come to expect from you, CFS.
I’ll tell you who controls the media.
Liberals who graduated college with liberal arts degrees many years ago.
Liberals who have minimal economic knowledge, but have linguistic skills.
Liberals who pander to the left-wing academic institutions from which they came and occasionally return.
Liberals who gave us New MAth where 2= whatever Johnny wants it to be, because you shouldn’t hurt his self-image.
Liberals who want to import as many immigrants as possible, because they vote Democrat. (Regardless of the damage such mostly uneducated third-world people may do to the country.)
That is who is mostly in charge of media; fossilized liberals
More nonsense, CFS.
The media are staffed by liberal useful idiots, brainwashed in universities under the control of the usual suspects (at least for the Ivy League).
Editorial control is exercised by owners and upper management, and advertisers, though that control is often with a velvet glove, since their standards are already internalized by the toadies below them.
Just so happens that ownership/control belongs to a remarkably homogenous group.
GH, you and Bob seem to point out similar things to CFS, any chance looking like a duck might be a duck?
Just maybe CFS is a Zionist.
I have no idea if you are or not cfs, just sayin its lookin that way.
Whos to say they are not right anyway?
Of course he’s a zionist.
Didnt Plato remark the issue with democracy is it ends up being run by hoarse traders?
I guess to update the thinking he might mean car salesmen.
Since Platos time we have known full well democracy is just about the weakest form of gov we could come up with.
Be interesting to try a true democracy tho.
One issue Plato brought up was not everyone could vote, I think that might be pretty much be solved with the net.
Then we really could rule ourselves with the lowest common denominator.
Democracy is vote by the masses……
Half of whom must be more stupid than average.
The dollar will have long term serious problems.
Guys:
Don’t be looking for CFS to comment on this. As a card carrying member of the tribe, he is blind to the criminal activities of his buddies in arms and their crimes against innocents.
‘Leftist’ Israeli general threatens to ‘tear the Palestinians apart’ and ‘toss them across the Jordan’
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/12/leftist-threatens-palestinians/
Of course Bob, and nobody that is any position to do anything gives a hoot.
NOTHING is going to be done about Zionism until the christians wise up,
Zion = Jerusalem
.
(Zion, also transliterated Sion, Sayon, Syon, Tzion or Tsion, is a placename often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. The word is first found in 2 Samuel 5:7 which dates from c. 630–540 BCE according to modern scholarship)
The christians bend over backwards to kiss Israeli butt, and I cant see them stopping any time soon.
Moslems seem to understand, which is why…..We dont like Moslems..right?
The problem with most and the majority of church pew warmers, they do not know scripture , nor how to RIGHTLY DIVIDE THE WORD. I doubt 50% of so called christians spend 7 min. a day reading the inspired word., so, how are they going to get inspired to do things correctly………………..JMO
Mstthew…..
God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
The History of The “Money Changers”
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_globalbanking26.htm
Julius Caesar (right) took back from the money changers the power to coin money and then minted coins for the benefit of all
Andrew Jackson coulda been Julius’s reincarnation.
Any chance that coulda been the reason he was assassinated?
All the other stories coulda been miss direction.
naa, Zionists dont kill people. lol
Time for a DEBT JUBILEE………..
The way they did this was to make money easy to borrow and therefore increase the amount of money in circulation, then suddenly tighten the money supply, taking it out of circulation by making loans more difficult to get or stopping offering them altogether.
Why did they do this? Simple, because the result would be a certain percentage of the people being unable to repay their previous loans, and not having the facility to take out new ones, so they would go bankrupt and be forced to sell their assets to the goldsmiths for literally pennies on the dollar.
I like this one……….stupid is stupid……
Following a costly series of wars over the last 50 years, English Government officials go, cap in hand, to the money changers for loans necessary to pursue their political purposes. The money changers agree to solve this problem in exchange for a government sanctioned privately owned bank which could issue money created out of nothing.
This was deceptively named the, “Bank of England,” for the sole purpose of duping the general public into believing it was part of the government, which it was not.
Notice the pattern for people to go bankrupt from to much borrowing ………the time is at hand.
This also causes inflation which is the reduction in worth of money borne by the common person, due to the economy being flooded with too much money, an economy which the Central Bank are responsible for. As the common person’s money is worth less, he has to go to the bank to get a loan to help run his business etc, and when the Central Bank are satisfied there are enough people with debt out there, the bank will tighten the supply of money by not offering loans. This is stage two of the plan.
Stage three, is sitting back and waiting for the debtors to them to go bankrupt, allowing the bank to then seize from them real wealth, businesses and property etc, for pennies on the dollar. Inflation never effects a central bank in fact they are the only group who can benefit from it, as if they are ever short of money they can simply print more.
A man of common sense……..
Fortunately Governor Morris by this time had discovered his conscience, defected from Robert Morris, and in a letter to James Madison dated July 2nd of this year he stated,
“The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will… They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by the power of government, keep them in their proper spheres.”
Clinton and Obama , rerun………
Sadly the words of wisdom of Governor Morris (above) and Thomas Jefferson fell on deaf ears. Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris and Thomas Wyling, convinced the the bulk of the delegates to this Constitutional convention, not to give Congress the power to issue paper money.
Replay …….of future events……..sheep will no know what hit them…….
1891
The money changers spent the last decade creating economic booms followed by depressions, so that they could buy up thousands of homes and farms for pennies on the dollar.
The good news………………
Actually, this 16th amendment was never ratified, and therefore many American citizens do not pay their income tax and there is nothing the United States Government can do about it. For further information on this go to thelawthatneverwas.com. Also, back in 1895, the Supreme Court had also found an income tax law similar to the 16th amendment, as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also found a Corporate Tax Law unconstitutional in 1909.
Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s……..could apply to the 16th Amendment…..maybe..
Tricky little bastards…………
Another important amendment that was put through this year is the 17th amendment. This provided for the direct election by the people of two Senators from each state as oppose to the original system of having state legislatures elect United States Senators. More democratic, you would think, until you realize these bankers could now provide the funds for their hand picked people to run for the Senate, and thus avoid future problems like getting the Federal Reserve through the Senate.
More good news for GOLD……read carefully……
Within a year, 40 billion dollars of wealth vanished. However, it did not simply disappear, it just ended up consolidated in fewer and fewer hands, as was planned. An example of this is Joseph P. Kennedy (right), John F. Kennedy’s father. In 1929 he was worth 4 million dollars, in 1935 that had increased to over 100 million dollars.
This is why depressions are caused. As stated previously the top bankers and their friends got out of the stock market and purchased gold just before the crash, which they shipped over to London. This meant that the money lost by most Americans during the crash didn’t just vanish, it just ended up in these people’s hands.
The peoples gold is GONE……..None in Ft. Knox…..
1981
When President Ronald Reagan (right) took office, his conservative friends suggested to him that he return to a gold standard, as a means to curbing government spending.
President Reagan was on board with this idea and so he appointed a group of men called the, “Gold Commission,” to undertake a feasibility study and report their findings back to Congress.
1982
President Reagan’s, “Gold Commission,” reports back to Congress and makes the following shocking statement concerning gold,
“The U. S. Treasury owned no gold at all. All the gold that was left in Fort Knox was now owned by the Federal Reserve, a group of private bankers, as collateral against the National Debt.”
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the National Banking Act of 1864 must also be repealed and all monetary power transferred back to the Treasury Department. The effects of this will be seen very soon by the average person as their taxes would start to go down as they would no longer be paying interest on debt based money to a handful of central bankers.
A law must be passed to ensure that no banker or any person in any way affiliated with financial institutions, be allowed to regulate banking. Also the United States must withdraw from all international debt based central banking operations i.e. the IMF; the BIS; and the World Bank.
If all the countries of the world adopted the conclusions above, then humanity will at last be free of these central bankers and their debt based currency.
Get rid of the corrupt politicians…………FIRSTIt’s a lovely idea, but first we have to get it past our corrupt politicians many of whom are quite aware of the scam that plays us on a daily basis, however rather than do the job we have elected them to do, they keep their mouths shut and instead look after themselves and their families, whilst the rest of us continue to be exploited.
You guys annoy me. Memories as short as midsummer’s day in antarctica.
I was the very first in this forum to criticise Trump’s use of Jared Kushner.
(Because he was too young and Jewish.)
Moriarty tars me as Zionist and you stupid people believe him. I am not Jewish or pro-zionist. (But neither am I a rabid jew-hater like Moriarty.)
CFS:
Oh great, another CIA sponsored war on behalf of Israel where we pay in cash and the blood of our children.
Can anyone point out to me exactly what Iran did to deserve the Balkinazation coming similar to those wonderful wars in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen all of which did nothing for the US?
CFS….The Israely owned MIC, need more SHECKLES, to pay their GOVT. servents around the world.
Jesus was pissed off with the money changers, & we should be too.
SATAN must be laughting his arse off at the human race, for allowing his chossen tribe to become so powerfull.
SORRY…My above comments were meant for Robert Moriarty, but i am sure CFS will understand them aswell.
…Jesus was pissed off with the money changers, & we should be too……..A BIG DITTO on that one IRISH………I agree 100%
Of course he was p#ssied, he knew the outcome, but so did Ceaser, who fought money changers before Jesus mentioned them.
“Pegan” leadership fought money changers before Jews Christians or Moslems, maybe thats why we wiped out the “pegans” first.
Render unto Caesar , that which is Caesar, …..
Sorry, ……..posted above the answer………
Why, the Hell, do you think I put in the the Breit cite?
If I was in support of Trump allowing an attack on Iran, would not I have NOT posted the cite?
Donald Trump Is a Consequential President. Just Not in the Ways You Think.
What mattered and what didn’t in Trump’s first year.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/30/rating-donald-trump-year-one-2017-216199
Kaiser report and Michael Pento:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsd_CySVkQ
LPG, I have an iMac 10.5.8 I tried downloading old Firefox browsers from 48 all the way back to 44, but my iMac won’t accept them. Any more ideas? Au secours! Merci.
Nice to see Iranians are so pleased with their government:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-rallies/irans-leader-says-enemies-have-stirred-unrest-in-country-idUSKBN1ER0FT
Trump’s biggest accomplishment (if you want to call it that) is the tax cut. It will have a limited impact on the economy. Instead, corporations will use it for M&A deals and share buybacks. This is a massive long term boost to the stock market.
http://bullmarkets.co/an-overvalued-stock-market-doesnt-have-to-crash/
CFS:
And you know we aren’t knee deep in the middle of that, right?
You need to remove the blinders. How many people need to die for Israel before you wake up?
What is going on in Iran has nothing to do with Iran and everything to do with Israel.
Rather than pursuing a “comprehensive peace” with the entire Arab world, Israel should work jointly with Jordan and Turkey to “contain, destabilize, and roll-back” those entities that are threats to all three.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm
For the record:
1. I am against any attack on Iran.
2. I sympathize with ANY people living under a dictatorial rule, including Muslims.
#. I posted the article from Breitbart because I wanted to bring it to your attention, not because I was in favor of Trump’s action.
(Although it makes sense to me to recognize part of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and I am not against recognizing the other half as Palestine’s capital.)
It makes sense because, rightly or wrongly, Israel will never give up voluntarily the wailing wall, and I realize that.
CFS:
International and US law says that land seized in a conflict must be returned at the end of the conflict. So basically you are saying Israel can ignore international law as they have for 50 years and now Trump should join them. If you haven’t bothered you should look into the two clowns in charge of the “Peace” process for the US, They literally belong to what is nothing more than a cult.
And for certain the US is behind the riots in Iran and the US actually lives in a police state that a lot of people recognize.
Absolutely for certain the US is behind the riots in Iran.
Where have we seen it before, its kind of a pattern.
PCR is right about wondering just how bright China and Putin are.
imo, Russia and China should send about 20k guys each with air power and anti air equipment etc to Iran, just for war games of course.
This divide and conquer stuff works, heck, go back to Moses and Joshua, by the time the Hittits and friends realized they had to unite it was too late.
If the Russian,Chinese. Iranians and everyone else doesnt unite and quick, its Russia and China after Iran.
And that is good bye to all of us.
Well, Russia and China could bow down and worship the Zionist I suppose.
No. What I am saying is that I recognize Israel will not give up their religious part of Jerusalem without a fight, regardless of international law.
I don’t think it is worth a fight. Give Israel half of Jerusalem and extract something useful for the Palestinians, rather than keeping many in refugee camps for several more generations.
CFS:
You have your head where the sun don’t shine. Do you think for a moment that the Muslims are going to hand over their religious part of Jerusalem without a fight seeing as how all international law supports them?
Israel wants everything from the Nile to the Euphrates and that’s just the starter. The Protocals of the Elders of Zion look more and more non-fiction every day. They may have been a Russian forgery but it plays like a blue print.
Why should Israel be given anything, while their crimes are outstanding and ongoing, CFS?
You are an incredible hypocrite.
Supreme Court: Conservative judges protect corporations. Liberal judges protect people. Start with Citizens United and go from there.
I like what Chartster has pointed concerning the BAR association , and exactly what the English had in mind concerning the courts of the USof A…..
Did you forget about the great sword dance he did with the Saudi dictators as one of Trumps’s accomplishments? It seems all these presidents have at least one thing in common. They may talk about human rights, democracy, stopping terrorism but they all love to dance or hold hands with the biggest sponsors of terrorism and serious human rights abusers.
Trump needs ti fire Sessions soon.
The crooked need to be jailed as a start to the draining.
Danielle Dimartino Booth on Grag Hunter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poH9xgt7S0o