Is Trump Conservative After All?
It seems like a lifetime since the beginning of Donald Trump's Presidential campaign. One centered on traditional populist rhetoric aimed primarily at the working class. Trump ranted against unfair trade deals, foreign interventions and illegal immigration. Even going as far as to flippantly mention taxing the rich, a popular mantra of left wing democrats. Many of Trump's positions seemed to overlap with those of Bernie Sanders. Some on the right labeled Trump a non-conservative Republican whose election wouldn't necessarily result in policies much different than that of Hillary Clinton or Sanders. To call the first year of the Trump administration turbulent would be the understatement of the decade. Undisciplined tweets, beefs with NFL players, the media, the Obama care debacle and a flurry of staff departures underscored a dizzying for year. A year that was salvaged with the passage of tax reform legislation-the first since the Reagan administration. For all of the "non conservative" daggers, Trump seems to being doing a fairly good job of imitating one.
Trump got off to a good start by assembling one of the most conservative cabinets in history. Budget Chief Mick Mulvaney, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Defense Secretary James Mattis, EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are a conservative all-star team. Trump first major conservative appointment was appointing Supreme court Justice Neil Gorsuch. He has followed up with record setting appointments to the federal judiciary(12). He has reduced the Obama regulatory state by rolling back existing regulations, and by not creating new ones. The former piled on a staggering 560 major regulations in his in seven of his eight years in the Whitehouse, according to the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. President Trump publicly scolded NATO allies regarding their share of defense spending- they responded with a 4.3% increase in their military budgets. A key issue during the campaign was illegal immigration and the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico. A year after Trump's election, border crossings are down 50%. The violent El Salvadoran gang MS-13 is being rounded up by the hundreds. The aforementioned tax reform legislation has almost instantaneously produced returns for American workers. Several dozen companies such as Wells Fargo, AT&T, Sinclair Broadcasting, Southwest Airlines, and Jet Blue have announced tax cut induced $1,000 bonuses to their employees. The total number of companies offering windfall checks to employees exceeds 250. Wells Fargo announced an increase in its minimum wage to $15 in 2018. A half a dozen large corporations have announced either large scale hires or investment in the US since Trump's inauguration. Delta Airlines plans 25,000 new hires over the next five years. Grober Nutrition, a Canadian company has opened a $12 million facility in Cayuga County New York. Toyota will add 400 jobs at its Michigan manufacturing plant. And Chip giant Intel has announced it will invest $7 billion to build a semi conductor plant in Arizona.
The President's boldest move was ending decades of American procrastination by pledging to move the American embassy to Jerusalem and formally recognizing it as the Israeli capital- a decision which was delayed by previous administrations since 1995. Further on the foreign policy front, the administration has committed to arming Ukraine with antitank missiles to it in its conflict with Russia. A move that contradicts the narrative that Trump us a mere puppet for Vladimir Putin. If this were a football game it would just be the end of the first quarter. There is a myriad is foreign policy and trade deals that are on the table. If President Trump's better judgment can defeat his darker impulsive side. We may be in for a really good game.
Trump got off to a good start by assembling one of the most conservative cabinets in history. Budget Chief Mick Mulvaney, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Defense Secretary James Mattis, EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are a conservative all-star team. Trump first major conservative appointment was appointing Supreme court Justice Neil Gorsuch. He has followed up with record setting appointments to the federal judiciary(12). He has reduced the Obama regulatory state by rolling back existing regulations, and by not creating new ones. The former piled on a staggering 560 major regulations in his in seven of his eight years in the Whitehouse, according to the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. President Trump publicly scolded NATO allies regarding their share of defense spending- they responded with a 4.3% increase in their military budgets. A key issue during the campaign was illegal immigration and the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico. A year after Trump's election, border crossings are down 50%. The violent El Salvadoran gang MS-13 is being rounded up by the hundreds. The aforementioned tax reform legislation has almost instantaneously produced returns for American workers. Several dozen companies such as Wells Fargo, AT&T, Sinclair Broadcasting, Southwest Airlines, and Jet Blue have announced tax cut induced $1,000 bonuses to their employees. The total number of companies offering windfall checks to employees exceeds 250. Wells Fargo announced an increase in its minimum wage to $15 in 2018. A half a dozen large corporations have announced either large scale hires or investment in the US since Trump's inauguration. Delta Airlines plans 25,000 new hires over the next five years. Grober Nutrition, a Canadian company has opened a $12 million facility in Cayuga County New York. Toyota will add 400 jobs at its Michigan manufacturing plant. And Chip giant Intel has announced it will invest $7 billion to build a semi conductor plant in Arizona.
The President's boldest move was ending decades of American procrastination by pledging to move the American embassy to Jerusalem and formally recognizing it as the Israeli capital- a decision which was delayed by previous administrations since 1995. Further on the foreign policy front, the administration has committed to arming Ukraine with antitank missiles to it in its conflict with Russia. A move that contradicts the narrative that Trump us a mere puppet for Vladimir Putin. If this were a football game it would just be the end of the first quarter. There is a myriad is foreign policy and trade deals that are on the table. If President Trump's better judgment can defeat his darker impulsive side. We may be in for a really good game.
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