Tuesday, April 25, 2017

First 100 Days

John F. Hughes

www.TrumpedTweets.com

Donald Trump has hit 100 days in office, and the opinions on his performance are as diverse as can possibly be imagined. Perhaps never before has so much scrutiny been placed on a President’s first several months in office. Make no mistake, Trump is under a microscope. Critics in the media and elsewhere instantaneously pounce on any perceived slip up. Even many of his supporters became highly critical over Trump’s decisions regarding Syria and North Korea.

Trump’s challenges have been compounded by a congress who have been unwilling to help him. Republicans (McCain, Ryan, Graham) are often his worst enemies. The challenge of governing has been compounded further by a hostile media, leaks from the White House (which for now seems to have abated), and intelligence agency personnel with questionable motives.

Still, Trump has managed to accomplish many things through executive order:

Hiring of 5,000 new border patrol agents
Hiring 10,000 new immigration officers
Expediting environmental reviews of infrastructure projects
Imposed lifetime ban on any administrative official from lobbying on behalf of a foreign government
Mandating agencies remove two regulations for every one regulation put in place
Initiated review of H1-B plan
Initiated review of steel import system
Ordered a full audit of the executive branch
Ordered the Historically Black Colleges and Universities offices to move from the D.O.E. into the White House
Created regulatory reform task force to evaluate rules for repeal or modification
Created three DOJ task forces: one for Drug Cartels, one for violent crimes, and one for reducing attacks against police officers
120 day travel suspension from terrorist hot spots
Initiated review of military readiness
Directed Generals to draw up a plan to defeat ISIS within 30 days
Approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines
Ban on US taxpayer money funding foreign pro-abortion groups
Federal hiring freeze, exempting military

This is a fairly remarkable track record for 100 days, especially when you consider that President Trump has met with dozens of citizen groups (Union leaders, CEO’s, small business owners, women’s groups, minority groups, veteran’s groups) during the same stretch. Additionally, he has been managing several international security situations and diplomatic missions, all while wrestling with the media and politicians back home.

Trump’s work ethic has never been called into question, even by his critics. The man is a powerhouse, working seven days a week, and even getting some in the White House press corps to admit that covering the President at such a frenzied pace is “Unsustainable,” in the long term. (http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/03/07/wapo-trump-may-outlast-white-house-press-corps-with-unsustainable-pace/)

I myself, after having analyzed Trump’s decision making since he announced his candidacy, am slower to judgement than most. Trump thinks more long-term than people give him credit for, and I take that into account when I come across these “scare” headlines emanating from a hostile media. Time will tell, but at this pace I imagine that in the 1361 days left in his first term, Trump will accomplish a grand transformation of this country.

If you find yourself discouraged, just remember: it could have been Hillary!