In 2016 Trump’s goals were to halt and reverse illegal immigration, confront China, cut taxes, cut regulations, free the fossil fuel industry and appoint conservative judges to all federal courts. So how successful was he? Let’s look at the record. The Center for Immigration Studies reports the number of undocumented workers has declined, continuing a trend in place since 2010. He imposed a 25% tariff on China’s exports, yet imports from China even in a pandemic are at a record level. The biggest tax overhaul in three decades dramatically reduced corporate taxes and also lowered personal tax rates. Regulations across all the federal regulatory agencies have been significantly reduced. That includes regulations regarding the production of fossil fuels. Finally he has appointed just under 200 federal judges, or 24% of all federal judges, including two and soon to be three Supreme Court judges.

In short he has, on balance, been quite successful and conservatives are pleased. Now let’s turn to the character issue. His racism, misogamy and blatant disregard for the truth are well documented. His rough shod leadership style has shocked and angered our allies, destabilizing alliances that have been in place for 75 years. He has cozied up to Putin and ignored his own intelligence community. He refuses to discuss any aspect of his personal finances, including the names of the creditors that he personally owes over $300 million. And most important he has lied and misled Americans regarding the seriousness of the coronavirus. Historians will no doubt label his mishandling of the pandemic as one of the greatest leadership failures ever. 

Should thoughtful conservatives hold their noses and vote for him again? It is not necessary. A Biden administration and Democratic Congress will no doubt attempt to undue much of the tax and regulatory reform and probably will be successful. But his single most significant accomplishment, in my opinion, is putting in place a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. It is locked in for decades. The most popular Democrat president ever, FDR, tried to pack the Court in the late 1930s and failed. A future attempt to do that would be ill advised and also most likely fail. 

Peggy Noonan wrote a great book about President Regan titled “When Character Was King.” Trump is the polar opposite. Let’s get rid of him before he can do more damage to the conservative cause.

Fred Mitchell
Routt County