Recently there have been a number of commentaries on the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. One appeared as a front-page article in the Connecticut Post, my local newspaper. The reporter described several interviews he had done with MAGA types. It was a small sample, but he found that Trump supporters were not blind advocates and that they did have some reservations about the President. They generally supported his policies, but some had qualms about his manner and methods.
What was even more interesting was that anti-Trumpers he interviewed could not find one positive thing to say about the President. That is really blind prejudice. Last month I did a blog post on Bret Baier's interview with Elon Musk and members of his DOGE team. When I asked liberal friends to watch even 15 minutes, they refused.
I emailed the reporter and commented on the apparent difference between Trump supporters and opponents. To my surprise he sent me a lengthy reply in which he admitted that he himself could not think of one positive thing that President Trump had accomplished in his first 100 days.
Perhaps it is unfair to judge anyone by their first 100 days on the job, especially one as difficult as the Presidency. It will take months, even years, to determine the results of many of the changes that President Trump has set in motion. Nevertheless, I would like to mention some policies that I think even liberals could regard as positives.
First, let’s look at tariffs which even the generally conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal finds deplorable. Practically every day the Journal editors extol the virtues of free trade and explain how bad the tariffs will be for the American economy, but not once have I seen them explain why practically every other nation imposes much higher tariffs on their imports than we do. Rising economic giants like China and India place huge tariffs on their imports. Why? Isn’t it simply to protect their home industries? The French, for example, have imposed tariffs on wines for years to protect their native growers from foreign competition.
Similarly, Democrats who must oppose anything President Trump says or does must now oppose tariffs. However, the Biden administration let stand the tariffs and trade deals that Trump had imposed during his first administration. Apparently, they did not destroy the economy or cause the stock market to tank back then.
Anyway, President Trump’s new tariffs seem to have led to significant deals with the UK and China and more seem to be in the works. We will have to wait and see.
It is hard for me to imagine why liberals can’t applaud the President’s border policies. Illegal border crossings have reached an all-time low since Trump came into office a few months ago. As the old saying goes, where there is a will, there is a way. I believe that the open border policy promoted by the Biden administration and financed by massive grants to non-government agencies (NGOs), was cruel and inhumane to those attempting that arduous journey.
I also find it hard to understand why liberals object to the DOGE findings to the point where they will not even listen. Some, for example, still can’t believe that the Small Business Administration (SBA) gave away hundreds of millions to fraudsters during the pandemic, something the SBA now admits, and claims to be correcting.
What is really puzzling is how Democrats cannot support the President’s foreign policies. It used to be an axiom that no matter how fiercely opposing parties would battle on domestic issues, they would come together to support the President on foreign affairs. But no more. Ukraine is a good example. Now, we have a President who wants to end the killing. So far, it has not been as easy as he thought, but it would be easier if his efforts were supported by the opposition.
Finally, the personnel of the second Trump administration so far seem a significant improvement over the Biden team. Just look at the top three Cabinet posts. Marco Rubio, who received almost unanimous confirmation support seems to be doing an excellent job as Secretary of State. There is really no comparison between him and his predecessor Anthony Blinken, the creator of the Hunter Biden laptop hoax. Scott Bessent seems to be doing a fine job as Treasury Secretary. No one questions his qualifications or experience. From the day he was nominated as Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has raised bitter opposition. But at least Hegseth is a civilian, and so far, his email gaffes pale in comparison with the abject withdrawal from Afghanistan orchestrated by his predecessor.
Speaking about personnel, can anyone doubt that we now have a real live President guiding the ship of state. I don’t know how he does it, but every day Trump seems to be out there making decisions, meeting with all comers from heads of state to hostile reporters. At last we know who is running the show.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment