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Assessing President Trump’s performance so far Every US president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) has been subjected to the “100 days” test. The purpose of the test is to determine the competency of the president. The theory is that his performance during the first 100 days will provide a good idea of what to expect during the remainder of his term in office. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. Some presidents, like Richard Nixon, started out well and finished badly. Others, like Bill Clinton, started out badly and finished well.
President Donald Trump is very different from previous US presidents. He was never a politician and never previously held any public office. He also quite obviously lacks the temperament of a politician and is far more comfortable in a business environment. Therefore, there was always a strong likelihood that his first 100 days in office would be littered with mistakes, failures and disappointments. There was also always the possibility that he would enjoy some successes. After all, he defeated a lot of experienced Washington insiders and the very best the Democrats could come up with, to be elected President of the United States (POTUS). In doing so, he also confounded most of the pollsters and turned the news media fraternity on its head. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump made a number of promises to American voters and now that he is the POTUS, he’s obliged to keep those promises. Regardless of the time-frames he spoke about, though, what he does is far more important than the time he takes to do it. Therefore, there is no point in comparing the promises Donald Trump made on the campaign trail with what he has achieved or failed to achieve during his first hundred days. This is voodoo journalism that I would prefer to leave to voodoo journalists. I believe the focus should really be on what he has actually achieved and what he has attempted and failed to achieve during this relatively short period. Keep in mind there are 1461 days in his first term. Therefore, 100 days is a very small portion (less than seven percent) of his first four years as President. So what did he achieve and what did he fail to achieve? Although this was not one of his promises, Donald Trump has ensured that everyone knows the name of the current President of the United States. Love him or hate him, he makes news every day, both in the US and abroad. Expect him to be Time Magazine’s Newsmaker of the Year, four years in a row. Unlike former presidents like Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and even Barak Obama to some extent, President Trump could never be regarded as an invisible or low key American President. Trump’s also successfully had all his Cabinet Secretaries approved by the Senate. His choice of men and women to serve in his cabinet has also been generally far more successful than unsuccessful. He said he would drain the swamp in Washington and he has effectively done a lot to keep this promise. The vast majority of his cabinet choices are not politicians. His restrictions on lobbyists are also part of draining the swamp. During his first 100 days in office, President Trump signed more than 30 Executive Orders into law; more than any American president since FDR. These Orders range from an order directing a top-to-bottom audit of the Executive Branch to an order to lengthen the ban on administration officials working as lobbyists (there is now a 5 year-ban on officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government and a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government). Other Executive Orders signed by President Trump focus on important aspects of his many campaign promises and include the following:
An undoubted success for President Trump was his appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court. Justice Gorsuch replaces Justice Antonine Scalia, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. This appointment will make a solid contribution to his legacy after he leaves office. Trump has also been in touch with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to set activities in place for re-negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He has begun to restructure and simplify the US taxation system and has taken a strong stand against terrorism, Syrian human right violations and North Korean threats. He has strengthened relations with Israel and, more recently he quietly negotiated the release of an Egyptian-American journalist who had been unjustly imprisoned in Egypt for over three years. On the more negative side, President Trump has made virtually no progress in his first 100 days, on the Mexican Wall (despite his Executive Order) or the banning of potential Muslim terrorists (temporarily thwarted by the courts). However, these promises can still be kept by the time his first term ends. Although he did not achieve everything he wanted to during the first 100 days of his presidency he still has enough time to do so. Nonetheless, his promises were to achieve these goals within 100 days, so they are failures. Unfortunately, President Trump has not displayed any sustained ability to behave presidentially. He has made inaccurate and often bombastic statements, he has provoked some foreign leaders, made powerful enemies among the news media, polarized congress and the American people and has continued to project an image of an out of touch and unstable POTUS despite people who know him well (for example, Conrad Black and Chris Cuomo) testifying to his many positive attributes. In addition, his appointment of General Flynn was a serious mistake from a moral and security perspective and the appointments of his daughter and her husband to the White House staff have earned him accurate and unnecessary criticism on grounds of nepotism. These negative actions have all been his personally. Therefore, on his performance to date I have graded him as a C+ but will still be very surprised if he does not finish his first term as a B+ or A- POTUS. Only time will tell. Duke Kent-Brown p.s. Get a free sample of my new book "Hail To The Chief". Click here >>> My next book "Diplomatic Notes - Memoirs of a Diplomat" is launching soon. Web: www.Duke-Kent-Brown.tk
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