For all his flaws, is Donald Trump what America needs?
Donald Trump surprised us all with his recent debate against Joe Biden. We were expecting long rants, excessive bragging, brutish behavior and the typical Trump aggressiveness. But he didn’t give us that. Instead he smartly let Biden talk himself into a one-term President. But even with a solid performance, his Trumpisms were still in full view and were as off putting as usual.
Trump continues speaking in Trumpanese, a child like manner of speaking that always annoys me when he talks. The best, the greatest, like no one has ever seen. It reminds me of a fourth grader giving a presentation. And the bragging and his lack of humbleness overshadows his accomplishments and makes people want to dismiss what he has done. He lacks the ability to be articulate. And while he does have flashes of being Presidential, they are clouded by his foolish comments.
And he does lie and exaggerate the truth. He fails to use context and makes blanket statements that are often viewed as false. For example, the economy was booming and people had more money in their pocket for the first three years of his presidency, but COVID hit and hurt a lot of people and businesses financially. He never acknowledges the impact of COVID on his economy and acts like it was great all four years. He should stand there and take credit for his COVID victories and admit his failures. His response wasn’t perfect, it couldn’t be. It was a novel virus impacting the modern world with a massive global pandemic the US hadn’t seen in decades.
Trump is missing opportunities to strike at Biden. When they talk about the high unemployment under his administration, he fails to remind them that each state was responsible for how they handled the virus. The loss of jobs was mostly due to draconian lockdowns in Blue cities and states. Trump doesn’t need to lie. But he can’t help it.
So why Trump? Because for all his flaws, all his tweets and all his bragging, he did the job. I learned a long time ago that you can’t believe anything a politician tells you. “Read my lips, no new taxes”. “I did not have sex with that woman”. “As president, I will close Guantanamo”. They promise the world and usually give you a cracked snow globe. Trump was different. He wasn’t an establishment politician. He actually kept his promises. In fact, had Trump kept his mouth closed and Twitter turned off, he would have been easily re-elected.
Trump worked to fix the corrections system with the First Step Act to help non-violent offenders with programs to prevent recidivism and help reduce mass incarceration. He helped establish economic opportunity zones in low income neighborhoods to bring jobs and opportunities back to those areas. He provided permanent funding for HBCUs. He lowered unemployment and increased job participation rates. He generated nearly 7 million new jobs, the majority were full time positions. He fixed the broken Choice Act for Veterans by passing the Mission Act. He placed women into high-level positions as well as the first openly gay man to a cabinet level position. He did it without the fanfare and treated them like normal people and not token hires. He passed a slew of environmental protection laws, reduced regulations to spur business growth, maintained a low inflation rate, reduced taxes for ALL Americans and made the US energy independent. That’s not including the low illegal immigration rates.
Trump had flaws and missteps. The COVID roll out was messy. He underplayed it initially, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci’s advise on the virus. People don’t remember or blatantly ignore Fauci downplaying it in the early days of the pandemic. Even Democrats refused to attend a hearing on it in January 2020, calling it an “impeachment distraction”. He blundered how he handled the countless challenges the Democrats threw at him, taking the attacks personal and escalating the conflicts. He definitely blundered his 2020 riot responses. He blundered the 2020 election, for example, by failing to challenge states who made changes to election laws before the election. Lastly, he blundered how he handled January 6th. He let the Democrats shape the narrative instead of addressing the riots that spurred from his protest. He didn’t immediately criticize Twitter for suspending his feed and preventing him from speaking out. He didn’t criticize CNN and MSNBC for refusing to cover his speech telling the protesters to stop. And he didn’t condemn the rioters quickly enough, give his opposition time to use it against him.
Between Trump and Biden, the choice is clear. For all his ridiculous bluster, Trump got things done. Biden has hurt the US and he isn’t cognitive enough to do another four years. While I would have rather had Ron DeSantis or Tulsi Gabbard on the ballot, we got the 2020 rematch. And between the walking dead and the talking head, I’d rather endure a 2nd Trump term of wild tweets and braggadocious press conference with affordable groceries than a 2nd term of Weekend at Bernies living on Ramen noodles.
One last thing to note, Democrats have constantly said that Trump is in this for him. That he would benefit from the Presidency. But Trump loses out as President. While most modern Presidents leave the Oval Office richer than before they came in, Trump lost nearly $2 billion of his wealth. That’s more than what the last five Presidents left office with combined. And he also refused to take his paycheck and donated it. If he was in it for him, he has lost an awful lot. Not sure the Democrats greed angle truly pans out.