During his 2016 campaign for president, Donald Trump made three core promises to American voters. First, he promised to correct the growing trade deficit problem. Second, he promised to bring back American jobs by creating historic economic growth. Finally, he promised to restore American prestige around the globe. He has failed on all counts.
Let’s start with Trump’s promise to turn around the trade deficit, which grew from $46.9 billion in January 2017 to $51.9 billion by December of 2017. As of last month, the trade deficit had hit a low of $59.9 billion. Trump has had over two years to significantly improve the trade deficit, yet it’s actually gotten even worse on Trump’s watch.
Trump Score: Sad.
Trump also claimed that China, Mexico, and other industrialized nations were “stealing” American jobs away from US workers. He also went one step further describing job numbers under former President Obama “weak“. Well, Obama’s “weak” economy created an average of 215,000 per month, which is more than Trump’s 199,000 average.
Trump Score: Weak.
Finally, while it’s hard to quantify just how well or how poorly Trump’s foreign policy aspirations are going, it’s fairly obvious that his NAFTA killer is a nonstarter in the Senate. His trade talks with China have been hung up for years now. His border wall is conspicuously not built. And North Korea has walked away from peace talks.
Trump Score: Low energy.
If we’re to judge the Trump presidency based on how well he has delivered on his three core promises, which is a reasonable standard of judgment, then there’s no doubt that his tenure has been at worst an exercise in futility and at best incompetent mediocrity. His regimen of tax cuts for the wealthy and nationalist protectionism have failed.
Worse, Trump’s been such an antagonistic jerk to political allies and enemies alike that he’s guaranteed he won’t pass any significant legislation for the rest of his presidency. The chances of him being able to right his political ship domestically is slim to none, and that’s not even mentioning his continuing legal troubles that will ultimately be his legacy.
It didn’t have to be this way, and, worse still, much of this damage could be solved if he’d simply resign and let Mike Pence become president of the United States. If Trump really cared about the future of not just the country, but his long-term political agenda at all, he would remove himself from the equation. He won’t, because he is a classic narcissist.
We’re stuck with Trump until the end.
Liberty is For The Win!