Accomplishments

If you were to believe the hysterical and often unhinged claims of the progressive left and their trained hamsters in the media (along with a few GOP #Nevertrumpers), Donald Trump is a KKK-loving racist, a misogynist who regularly abuses woman, a man who instituted tax-reform only for his own personal financial gain, a Russian-colluding and Putin-loving puppet, an ignorant fool who is out of his depth, a dishonest man, ... and on and on and on. Democratic politicians have already introduced articles of impeachment and regularly cheer at the thought of unseating a sitting president before the next election. They wait breathlessly as a highly partisan special prosecutor searches fruitlessly for "evidence" of Russian collusion that, after a year of looking, simply isn't there. The Left's through-the-looking-glass view of Trump would be laughable if it weren't so destructive to civility and political discourse.

Roger Kimball presents a different view:

Yesterday, just back from his 12-day, 20,000-mile whirlwind trip through Asia, the president gave what posterity will regard as a turning-point speech. The master word of this speech was “confidence.” “When we are confident in ourselves,” the president said, confident in

... our strength, our flag, our history, our values—other nations are confident in us. And when we treat our citizens with the respect they deserve, other countries treat America with the respect that our country so richly deserves.

During our travels, this is exactly what the world saw: a strong, proud, and confident America.

Donald Trump displayed, in a way we have not seen since the heyday of Ronald Reagan, what foreign-policy leadership looks like. We have serious differences with Russia and China. We also have areas of agreement and potential agreement. To address the former a canny leader endeavors to exploit the latter. This Donald Trump is doing.

In yesterday's post, I noted the significant success the Trump administration is having in the Middle East—largely unreported or downplayed by the trained hamsters of the media. After all, how could Trump possibly succeed where the vaunted Barack Obama and his foreign policy Team of 2s failed so miserably? And besides, it simply doesn't fit the media narrative.

Kimball moves on to other successes:

The anti-Trump chihuahuas keep yammering about his tweets, his being in cahoots with Putin, and his not understanding the complexities of foreign affairs. But this summary of Donald Trump’s achievements in just 10 months is difficult to gainsay:

Economic growth has been over 3 percent the last two quarters and is going higher. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 17 years. The stock market has gained trillions of dollars in value since my election and has reached record highs. We are massively increasing our military budget to historic levels. The House has just passed a nearly $700 billion defense package, and it could not come at a better time for our nation. Once again our country is optimistic about the future, confident in our values, and proud of our history and role in the world.

What’s not to like?

And now, it looks like there's a possibility that a tax reduction and reform package might actually pass the Congress. The specter of that happening has thrown Democrats into a panic. Their resultant negative claims about the tax reform package are as predictable as they are dishonest.

In addition, a Trump administration is presiding over an economic recovery (3 percent GDP for the past two quarters), has quietly reduced the impact of the regulatory state, has moved judicial appointments toward the center and away from the left-leaning judges appointed during the last administration, has seen the number of food-stamp recipients reduced by almost 1 million in just over one year, is working to reform our trade policies to provide better opportunity for our exports on the world stage, and has raised consciousness of the "swamp" that is Washington, DC. And it has done this despite the daily onslaught of attacks by the four constituencies.

It's hard to like Trump's sometimes boorish behavior, his off-the-wall tweets, the way he picks fights with nobodies, and his general affect, but it's also hard to deny that his administration's accomplishments are beginning to pile up.