President Trump’s many successes ignored

Patrick Cooper

Opinion

The mendacity and dishonesty of the mainstream media (and this newspaper) in their deliberate failure to report the continuing success of the Trump presidency beggars belief. The same goes for their despicable attacks on the state of Trump’s mental health. This is a terrible thing to have to defend against.

Let us examine the evidence for the success of Trump’s presidency so far. The American economy has shown consistent growth of 3.5 percent and when the tax reforms take effect this year, expect an even higher rate of growth. The economy under Obama’s stewardship never rose more than 1.8 percent in any of the eight years of his presidency. Over 2 million jobs have been created, unemployment is at its lowest level in 17 years and hundreds of companies are promising their workers $1000 and $2000 bonuses. The stock market has risen consistently since Trump was inaugurated and passed the 25,000 mark on the Dow Jones for the first time ever. Some $6 trillion was added to national wealth last year.

Trump’s tax reforms will also benefit most Americans, who will receive more of their hard-earned wages in their pay packets (according to the Tax Policy Centre, 80 percent of taxpayers will receive an extra $1000-$2000). In the case of states that impose their own taxes on top of federal taxes, the former will no longer be deductible against the latter — so Democrat-run states like California will no longer feel free to impose a heavier burden of taxation on their citizens (cheating the federal government out of its due) to pay benefits to the thousands of illegal immigrants sheltering there.

Trump promised he would drastically reduce regulation so businesses could thrive. He has delivered on this by demanding that for every new regulation, two old ones be removed from the Code of Federal Regulations (180,000 pages long!) As a result, compliance cost reductions will be in the billions of dollars.

Trump has appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and a record number of judges to the federal courts, all of whom will be conservative-leaning originalists (they stick to what the Constitution actually says).

His immigration policies have been highly effective, with border incursions reduced dramatically. Prototypes of the border wall are already standing in the Arizona deserts. He has vowed to do away with chain migration, whereby new citizens can have several members of their wider family join them without any further checks on their status. The same goes for the lottery whereby 50,000 immigrants are automatically invited in if they get lucky. America is the most generous nation on earth, but it is perfectly entitled to monitor who becomes a citizen.

The armed forces have been considerably strengthened. By giving General Mattis carte blanche to deal with ISIS, that scourge and its “caliphate” have been largely expunged from the Middle East. Did you notice any credit being given to Trump in the media? Assad of Syria was warned not to use chemical weapons against his own citizens and he complied after the American missile attacks. Kim Jong-un is talking to his counterparts south of the border.

Trump keeps his promises. He has discarded the economically-toxic Paris Climate Accord which would have seen America hand trillions of dollars to countries like India. By the way, in the US agreements like this have to be passed before Congress and if the Senate approves, they become treaties and therefore laws. Obama didn’t dare go through this procedure because he knew the Senate would never approve.

As promised,Trump has recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that the American embassy will be moved there from Tel Aviv. All three of his predecessors promised they would do this but didn’t have the courage to see it through.

After the General Assembly vote against America, overseas aid to these nations will be cut and there will also be a reduction of $285m in the UN’s budget. Not enough but not a moment too soon. The UN is a coven of corrupt, Marxist dictators who have the temerity to lecture America on its human rights. America contributes 25 percent of the UN’s budget and provides its headquarters.

Obamacare is gradually being dismantled. The individual mandate whereby all Americans had to buy a medical insurance policy, or else receive a tax bill for the equivalent amount, has been discarded as part of his tax reforms.

One of Trump’s greatest achievements has been his condemnation of the mainstream media for their “fake news” and their deliberate refusal to report fairly his many achievements. He has also refused to bow down to political correctness by insisting on using phrases such as “radical Islamic terrorism” and “Merry Christmas”, which are much frowned upon by the progressive Left.

Trump has the mental toughness to resist these despicable attacks from the mainstream media and crackpot academics who have never had to make a living in the real world. Expect even greater achievements from his administration this year.