By PERRY HOOPER
As hard as it may seem to the Democratic President Trump haters and the Republican never Trumpers, less than two years in to his administration Donald J. Trump may be the most honest president American history. Since his inauguration, the President hit the ground running and has done exactly what he promised.
Trump promised to nominate Supreme Court justices “in the mold of Justice Scalia,” and much to the dismay of the left, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh now sit on the Supreme Court. Trump further pledged to fill the federal appeals courts with young, conservative judges, and so far, 29 have been confirmed. This is more than any recent president at this point in their administration.
Trump pledged to pass tax cuts and signed into law the first major overhaul of the tax code in 30 years. He promised extensive regulatory rollback, with a policy to eliminate two existing regulations for every new regulation. In his first year, he achieved $8.1 billion in lifetime regulatory savings and is on track to achieve an additional $10 billion this year.
In foreign policy he moved as promised our Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton promised yet failed to deliver. He promised to “crush and destroy ISIS,” and less than two years later they have been eliminated as a threat to the middle east. One of his first acts as President was to impose a travel ban as promised on countries that he saw as posing a terrorist threat. After several attempts were stymied by liberal federal judges, the final version of his ban was upheld by the Supreme Court. He promised to punish Syria if it used chemical weapons on its people, and, unlike President Obama’s infamous “red line” he followed through — not once but twice.
Trump canceled President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, withdraw from the Paris climate accord, approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. All of these acts were among his most controversial campaign promises.
Concerning trade, he kept his promise to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from some of our biggest trade partners. He also committed to renegotiating NAFTA and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. President Trump was recently able to sign new deals with Mexico, Canada and South Korea. He committed to imposing tariffs to force China it to open its markets and stop dumping heavily subsidized products into our markets. No matter what you may think of Trump’s the president’s trade policies, he is doing exactly as promised.
Two important promises that continue to be high priorities for the President is repealing Obamacare and building the wall. If you remember Obamacare passed based on a lie. “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it”. The president continues to work with Health and Human Services Secretary Azar in dismantling major pieces of Obamacare but needs congressional support to finish the job. With two caravans headed for our southern border, the wall, now more ever, is a crucial component of our national security. These two issues point out how critical it is for the Republicans to keep the house and grow the GOP majority in the Senate.
In less than two years as President, Donald Trump has compiled an unprecedented record of presidential promise keeping. When President Trump says he will do something, you can take it to the bank.
Perry Hooper is a former State Representative from Montgomery who serves on the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee. In 2016 he chaired Alabama’s Trump Victory campaign.