Trump’s presidency: A two-year report card
Donald Trump’s presidency is now officially two years old, said Max Boot in The Washington Post. It’s time to take stock. Sure, conservatives can cheer tax cuts, deregulation, and 85 judicial appointments. But “at what cost?” The dominant themes of this presidency are “four bleak words: Racism. Authoritarianism. Incompetence. Megalomania.” Trump has “fawned over dictators” and, worse, emulated their example. He’s praised neo-Nazis as “very fine people,” demeaned darkskinned people from “shithole countries,” locked up Central American kids, and injected a strain of racism into American public discourse that was formerly exiled to the lunatic fringe. The damage this crude con man has done to our nation is deep, said David Faris in TheWeek.com, and it’s bound to get worse. Trump has dismantled the post–World War II order, needlessly alienating our allies; run up a $1 trillion deficit in a time of prosperity; persuaded millions of Americans to scorn science, journalism, and “objective truth” itself; and taught the world America’s word is no longer to be trusted. “Something about America, as an idea, has been obliterated.”
Trump’s supporters would vehemently disagree, said Charlotte Allen in USA Today. In two short years, he’s “smashed ISIS,” put an embassy in Jerusalem, overseen a booming economy, kept the migrant caravan from crossing the border, and brought the Chinese to the negotiating table with tough tariffs. And he “didn’t blink” when Democrats tried to derail Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination with outlandish allegations. I give him an “A-.” Trump recorded these victories, and others, despite a historically unprecedented “volume of attacks and hostility,” said Michael Glassner in FoxNews .com. Ninety percent of the media’s coverage of him has been negative. Activist liberal judges have thwarted his agenda. Democrats spin conspiracy theories about Russian collusion. “The D.C. establishment has deployed every weapon in its arsenal.” It still hasn’t been enough to stop Trump.
No matter how you view Trump’s first two years, said Alex Shephard in The New Republic, “the outlook for the remainder of his term is grim.” The economy is slowing and may be headed for a recession. Polls show Trump’s approval rating sinking into the 30s, with even some Republicans peeling off. House Democrats will soon start investigations, and special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is coming. In the next two years, “truly anything can happen. Prepare for the worst.”