Trump's accomplishments

[Safe-Keeper]

So now that both the year and the Orange Reign are (finally) almost over, I thought it'd be an idea to list his achievements. We know they are overshadowed by all the bad he's done, but for fairness' sake, let's make an honest effort to list the things he's done that we actually appreciate. I'll start.

Hmmm.
Will need some help with this one. Let's google "Trump's achievements". Don't know what I expected, but This Atlantic article has a couple small ones I can get behind.

-regulations on vaping. Good, I... guess? Don't have anything against flavoured vaping cartridges, but... I guess if it keeps teens from starting to vape, and then progress to cigarettes, it'll save lives, so... nah, I admit I don't really have a strong opinion on this. I'll file it under "undecided".

-kicking out China from 5G networks. Not a subject I know much about, and quite possibly done out of anti-Chinese bigotry as much as any rational incentive, but fair enough, I suppose.

-re-establishing due process on campuses.

-the First Step program.


Moving on, here are the things I can think of off the top of my head:

Something about parental leave. Don't remember the details.

I'd say something about the economy, but the damage he's done here in this regard has probably outdone the good. Actually, strike probably.

I don't know if this counts as I doubt it was genuine, but he catered to the downtrodden working class that felt "the elite" didn't care about them, might just have energized that portion of the population and forced future candidates to care more about income inequality and social mobility. As another poster said, Trump's election was a brick through the window, a cry of "can you hear us now?!" that should not be ignored.

Negotiated "peace treaties" between countries in the Middle East that weren't at war to begin with. Of course, like with the economy, I fully believe he's done more to hurt Middle Eastern and world peace than to further it, so don't know if this counts.

I'd list progress against ISIS, but I'm not feeling it. Again, whatever achievements he made on the counter-terrorism/diplomatic/no more wars front are outweighed by the damage done.

I refuse to list "started no new wars". It feels like talking about why you like your spouse and saying "he doesn't hit me". Nearly all world leaders don't start wars. That's not a big achievement unless, of course, a Cuban missile crisis-style scenario arises where avoiding a war is both desirable and difficult. Also, there's something hypocritical about Trump supporters cheering victories against ISIS and at the same time bragging that Trump was a pacifist who didn't get the US entangled in conflicts.

I suppose as an honourable mention I can add that he mobilized and united the forces of good in the USA to a degree I haven't seen in a long time. His presidency shone a spotlight on police violence, corruption, racism, and how much bigotry and authoritarianism there is in the US population. It rallied people against fake news and conspiracy theories and the postfact society in general.

And... I really can't think of anything else, to be honest .

 

[Ziggurat]

Negotiated "peace treaties" between countries in the Middle East that weren't at war to begin with.

They aren’t peace treaties. They are normalization treaties, between countries which did not have normalized relations. And yes, it’s a big deal, and a step forward.

Of course, like with the economy, I fully believe he's done more to hurt Middle Eastern and world peace than to further it, so don't know if this counts.

You believe it despite evidence to the contrary. Because reasons.

 

[ahhell]

No new wars is a big accomplishment for a US president. He's the first in 40 years.
If you like his judges, there's that. More Mitch's doing but its something that happened while he was president.
The criminal justice reform bill is largely a positive. There's decent argument for why it wouldn't have happened under a normal president. Normal Rep would do it for obvious reasons and a normal Dem wouldn't have avoid being seen as "soft on Crime", maybe. Counter factual and all.

As far as the Middle East, IDK, he tried something different regarding Arab Israeli relations and something good happened. I suspect is more the result of Iran's rise scaring the Arabs.

The invasion of Iraq was such a screw up, I'm not sure the US can do anything truly positive at this point. Even pulling out is going to have a bad outcome.

He is largely terrible but broken clocks....

 

[BobTheCoward]

Some people think the requirement that new buildings use neoclassical architecture. I despise that though.

 

[Mumbles]

the First Step Act, itself a watered-down version of Obama-era reforms that were blocked by republican senators led by Tom Cotton - was rather mixed, actually, as his own DoJ tried to sabotage it - in addition to using private prisons, concentration camps for refugees, and resuming criminal prosecutions for weed, giving military surplus to local PDs, kneecapping consent decrees, refusing to investigate violent white nationalist groups., an using mercenaries to attack nonviolent protestors in multiple cities. In other words, it's going to take a while to fix all of the things he broke as far as criminal justice reform goes.

 

[CapelDodger]

As far as the Middle East, IDK, he tried something different regarding Arab Israeli relations and something good happened.

Israeli relations with Palestinian Arabs did not improve at all - quite the opposite. Their relations with Gulf Arabs have improved, and shared interests recognised in a new Triple Alliance between the US, the Saud dynasty and their hangers-on, and Likudian Israel.

I suspect is more the result of Iran's rise scaring the Arabs

There's been no rise in Iran for a while, but a lot of Shia Arabs are grateful for their support - and that's where the numbers are.

The invasion of Iraq was such a screw up, I'm not sure the US can do anything truly positive at this point. Even pulling out is going to have a bad outcome.

At least it will be their outcome. At last the post-Ottoman dispensation could work itself out locally, and it would recognise that the Middle East really has no strategic importance any more.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Trump's accomplishments are less about what he got done, and more about what he failed to prevent.

 

[Norman Alexander]

They aren’t peace treaties. They are normalization treaties, between [Middle Eastern] countries which did not have normalized relations. And yes, it’s a big deal, and a step forward.

My question would be: How much is the Trump administration responsible for this in a positive sense?

At least one of those countries (Bahrain??) did a deal so they could get cheap access to wizzo new US war technologies...to attack Iran with at some later date, presumably. Not exactly a "peace" initiative, more like taking advantage of a useful idiot.

Also, how much of this would have been achieved without the USA present at all? I am going to imagine that Jared, the supposed broker in all this, has not one frigging clue what happened without him there, or what the real deals were. Clueless is his watchword.

 

[Tero]

personally, I learned so much about the constitution in 4 years, including its failures.

Today I learned how useless how the electoral vote count law is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Count_Act

Section 7 (now 3 U.S.C. § 16) states that the joint session cannot be dissolved "until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared."[40] No recess can be taken "unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under [Title 3, Chapter 1]," in which case either House, acting separately, can recess itself until 10:00 am the next day (Sunday excepted).[40] But if the counting of the electoral votes and the declaration of the result have not been completed before the fifth calendar day after the joint session began, "no further or other recess shall be taken by either House."

(It does not allow discussion by video in a pandemic)

 

[Regnad Kcin]

He kept everyone from panicking.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

My question would be: How much is the Trump administration responsible for this in a positive sense?

At least one of those countries (Bahrain??) did a deal so they could get cheap access to wizzo new US war technologies...to attack Iran with at some later date, presumably. Not exactly a "peace" initiative, more like taking advantage of a useful idiot.

Also, how much of this would have been achieved without the USA present at all? I am going to imagine that Jared, the supposed broker in all this, has not one frigging clue what happened without him there, or what the real deals were. Clueless is his watchword.

I think Trump is responsible for the normalization, because he basically told Bibi: do whatever you want we'll support you. This took away the ability of other countries to pressure Israel into concessions.

All the work was done by Israel, but they wouldn't have done it with, say, Obamacare in the White House.

 

[CapelDodger]

Trump's accomplishments are less about what he got done, and more about what he failed to prevent.

Perhaps we should approach this by considering the challenges the US actually faced before Trump's election and how well he's addressed them. His abject failure in the face of a sudden crisis needs no discussion, obviously, but the epochal shift fom the Oil Age to Post-Oil, or from the Atlantic focus to the West Pacific focus, or parochial issues like US health care - how has he fared? Not well, in my opinion.

 

[CapelDodger]

Also, how much of this would have been achieved without the USA present at all?

Israel and Saudi Arabia are natural allies. The Sauds have money, the Israelis can supply them knock-off US military technology and can provide a nuclear umbrella. The Wahhabist sympathies of Gulf Arabs and the Jewish Exceptionalism of Likudist Israel pale into insignifance in the face of that. As does the US - but they can provide boots on the ground, and hugely expensive carrier groups out at sea.

I am going to imagine that Jared, the supposed broker in all this, has not one frigging clue what happened without him there ...

"Imagine" is the best any of us can ever do, because "But his emails ...!"

... or what the real deals were.

I imagine the Kushner and Netenyahu dynasties featured in there, but I'll admit to having no evidence. Yet.

 

[CapelDodger]

I think Trump is responsible for the normalization, because he basically told Bibi: do whatever you want we'll support you. This took away the ability of other countries to pressure Israel into concessions.

Which "other countries" ever had that ability?

All the work was done by Israel ...

What work?

... but they wouldn't have done it with, say, Obamacare in the White House.

Why not? Obama epitomised why Israel and Saudi Arabia needed to be less reliant on the US, and to recognise their shared interests.

 

[smartcooky]

Does destroying the rest of the world's respect for the US, and turning your country into a global laughing stock count as an achievement?

 

[slyjoe]

Does destroying the rest of the world's respect for the US, and turning your country into a global laughing stock count as an achievement?

Da.

 

[JoeMorgue]

1. He promoted the US Cyber Command to full combatant command. This is the one movie I will actually say I fully "Like." The government has been far too long in seeing our nation's cyber defense structure as a valid, integrated part of national defense and getting rid of the US Cyber Command's weird half structure dual hat setup that made doing anything impossible because you had two completely separate chains of command is a huge step in fixing that.

2. The lifetime ban on White House employees lobbying for foreign powers was... I won't like a sort of "Holy **** you mean they could do that before?" thing for me.

3. It's silly and stupid... but I don't hate the way he decorated the White House for Christmas. I've said before that The White House being perpetually stuck in a limbo state of never changing "Quaint Americana on top of Classic Greco-Roman" look that's never allowed to evolve beyond "What if Norman Rockwell threw up on chiseled marble" never set well for me. I won't say I personally liked it on an aesthetic level but seeing a weird, sorta post-modern, almost avante garde look... I didn't hate it.

 

[Darat]

You also need to consider what he said he wanted to accomplish.

Two of his major campaigning policies were “the wall” and healthcare - he failed at both of those.

Another policy promise was removing many environmental protection regulations - he succeeded at that.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Well as far as "Trolling the Libs" the one and only thing he was actually elected to do, he's the single most successful President in history by a massive margin.

 

[Segnosaur]

2. The lifetime ban on White House employees lobbying for foreign powers was... I won't like a sort of "Holy **** you mean they could do that before?" thing for me.

Yes. Good job Trump. Or maybe not.

From: Politico
Trump's ethics pledge, issued as an executive order on Saturday, includes a five-year "lobbying ban" that falls short of its name, preventing officials from lobbying the agency they worked in for five years after they leave, but allowing them to lobby other parts of the government....The order also lets lobbyists join the administration as long as they don't work on anything they specifically lobbied on for two years. Obama's order from 2009, which Trump revoked, blocked people who were registered lobbyists in the preceding year from taking administration jobs....Obama's order also restricted all administration officials from contacting their former agencies for two years after they leave. Trump changed it back to one year for some 3,000 people...Obama issued ethics waivers for some officials, and Trump's executive order retained that ability but removed the requirement to disclose them.

Of course, that article was from 2017... maybe things are better now...

From: Politifact
...a James Madison University political scientist..."It is not at all clear how, or even if, this 'ban' is enforced," he said. Meanwhile, the administration has eagerly brought lobbyists to work in government. An October 2019 investigation by ProPublica found that 281 lobbyists have worked in the Trump administration...That's four times higher than the rate was under Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama

And then there is this...

From: Politifact
As a 2016 presidential candidate...his administration would seek to "clean up the corruption"... One way to achieve that would be a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections..."Trump has made no effort at all to ban fundraising by lobbyists who represent foreign interests. No such restriction was included in Trump's ethics executive order — which is largely unenforced, anyway — and no such effort was offered in the form of legislation," said Craig Holman, Public Citizen's Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics, lobbying and campaign finance rules.

So Trump's actions to clean up corruption by limiting the actions of lobbyists 1) has provisions that made things worse in some ways, 2) may end up not being enforced anyways.

3. It's silly and stupid... but I don't hate the way he decorated the White House for Christmas.

Does that include Melania's blood-red christmas trees?