The Trump administration’s often overlooked list of
achievements has surpassed those of former President Ronald Reagan at this time
and more than doubled since the last tally of accomplishments
after his first year in office, giving President Trump a solid platform to run
for re-election on.
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.
“Trump has an advantage over Ronald Reagan: He has a
Reagan Republican House and Senate while Reagan had a [Democratic Speaker] Tip
O’Neill House and a pre-Reagan Republican Senate. Reagan and [former GOP
Speaker] Newt Gingrich were the ice breakers that allowed Trump’s victories to
grow in number and significance,” he added.
Unlike the Year One list which included many proposals
and orders still to be acted on, the new collection includes dozens of actions
already in place, signed legislation, and enforced executive orders.
For example, while the Year One list bragged about the
administration’s efforts to rewrite the much-maligned
NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico, the Year Two list said: “Negotiated an
historic U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement to replace NAFTA.”
And shockingly the NAFTA achievement is presented as a
sidebar to the larger achievement that reads, “President Trump is negotiating
and renegotiating better trade deals, achieving free, fair, and reciprocal
trade for the United States.” Under that umbrella are eight trade deals cut
with Japan, South Korea, Europe and China.
“President Trump is a truly unique leader in American
history. He’s a kid from Queens who became an international business leader and
made billions by getting things when no one said he could,” said Trump’s 2016
campaign pollster John McLaughlin.
“They told him he couldn’t be president and beat the
establishment and he did. For two years the establishment is telling him he
can’t do things in Washington and he’s succeeding in spite of them. He never
retreats. He doesn’t back up. He’s relentless. He just wins,” he added.
Comparing the two years shows that the latest has an
expanded group of economic achievements while the pro-life category was folded
into the health care section.
Along the way, there have been some disappointments, such
as failing to replace Obamacare, fund a big infrastructure plan, and build the
border wall.
But the White House believes that despite a lack of media
coverage of his accomplishments, supporters know about them and will head to
the voting polls to help the GOP maintain control of the House and keep the
president on what CNN dubbed a “winning streak.”
In the Washington Post Friday, former Bush speechwriter
and columnist Marc Thiessen agreed and said that
Trump has proven to be successful at keeping his campaign promises. He wrote,
“The fact is, in his first two years, Trump has compiled a remarkable record of
presidential promise-keeping.”
