Trumpiversary scorecard.
Now with the season 4 of "Trumplandia" ending (I regard Labor Day as the end of season 3), let’s score the first year.
Wars and Foreign policy: Aumf repeal - Fail. Syria policy: Kurds/SDF support vs FSA drop-off - good. Attacks on Syrian gov, occupation - bad. Afghan mini-surge - bad, Fail. Russia sanctions - bad, Fail. Jerusalem embassy - good, minor. Unrwa cutbacks - good. NKorea - bad. Iran - bad, minor. China - bad neutral/minor. Saudis - bad/mixed. Qatar - bad. GWOT casualties - bad.
Governance and NatSec: Comey firing and FBI purge - Excellent. Mueller and Russiagate - Fail. Kelly coup, White house personnel purge - Awful, Fail. Nepotism (Jarvanka) - mixed. CIA/FBI/Deep state conflict - good, Fail. NSA 702 renewal - bad.
Economy: Tax heist bill, debt - bad. GNP, stocks and jobs growth - good. TPP drop - ok. Trade deficit - fail. Reduced regulation and CRAs - ok. Repeal net neutrality/broadband - bad. Antitrust (Aetna, ATT) blocks - good (see “Antitrust and deregulation”).
Domestic issues: No major laws - ok. DACA suspension - ok. Travel ban - first bad, now ok. Natl parks reductions - ok. Paris climate withdrawal - good. Pipelines approval, ANWR drilling - whatever. College Title IX fix - good. ACA repeal - Fail, whatever. IndMandate repeal - good. Scotus Gorsuch - good. Hurricanes/FEMA - ok.
Politics: Charlottesville VA - good. Moore AL - Fail.
Context:
Deep state attacks - Awful.
Overall media climate - Awful.
Metoo, anticonfederates - bad.
Tricky question is whether Trump deserves support overall. On one hand, on most second-tier less important domestic and cultural issues, which are chiefly all the rage with the news, and the leftist critics - he is doing more or less ok, better than expected; but - meh!? On the other hand, on the major issues, which do matter and are debated far less: war, economy, natsec and governance - he is doing bad, or failing, or mixed at best. Still he gets some credit for trying and it could have been worse. Increase in ideological fragmentation in Washington and resulting legislative gridlock was one the main expected positive outcomes of Trump campaign.
Mainstream Bush-(Ryan) big government Republicans have unfortunately succeeded in repelling nationalist-populist insurgency for now, at least until midterms. Trump (along with the American public) clearly lost both seasons 3 and 4 to deepstaters, as expected. It’s possible to retrospectively support Candidate Trump now that many of his anti-Obama proposals are actually addressed. It is appropriate to distinguish between pro-Trump and anti-anti-Trump positions, the latter being a lot more natural. It is possible to offer limited support to nationalist agenda regardless of Trump. It is, however, hard to see what would it even mean to "support Trump" going forward, now that he and his declarations seem to have very limited influence on most major issues, in terms of personnel, policy, and legislation.
See earlier “Bush-Obama”, "Третий этап президентской кампании".
Оригинал на DW здесьhttps://nedosionist.dreamwidth.org/55666.html, заходите пожалуйста, и выскажитесь там, используя OpenID.
Уже:
Wars and Foreign policy: Aumf repeal - Fail. Syria policy: Kurds/SDF support vs FSA drop-off - good. Attacks on Syrian gov, occupation - bad. Afghan mini-surge - bad, Fail. Russia sanctions - bad, Fail. Jerusalem embassy - good, minor. Unrwa cutbacks - good. NKorea - bad. Iran - bad, minor. China - bad neutral/minor. Saudis - bad/mixed. Qatar - bad. GWOT casualties - bad.
Governance and NatSec: Comey firing and FBI purge - Excellent. Mueller and Russiagate - Fail. Kelly coup, White house personnel purge - Awful, Fail. Nepotism (Jarvanka) - mixed. CIA/FBI/Deep state conflict - good, Fail. NSA 702 renewal - bad.
Economy: Tax heist bill, debt - bad. GNP, stocks and jobs growth - good. TPP drop - ok. Trade deficit - fail. Reduced regulation and CRAs - ok. Repeal net neutrality/broadband - bad. Antitrust (Aetna, ATT) blocks - good (see “Antitrust and deregulation”).
Domestic issues: No major laws - ok. DACA suspension - ok. Travel ban - first bad, now ok. Natl parks reductions - ok. Paris climate withdrawal - good. Pipelines approval, ANWR drilling - whatever. College Title IX fix - good. ACA repeal - Fail, whatever. IndMandate repeal - good. Scotus Gorsuch - good. Hurricanes/FEMA - ok.
Politics: Charlottesville VA - good. Moore AL - Fail.
Context:
Deep state attacks - Awful.
Overall media climate - Awful.
Metoo, anticonfederates - bad.
Tricky question is whether Trump deserves support overall. On one hand, on most second-tier less important domestic and cultural issues, which are chiefly all the rage with the news, and the leftist critics - he is doing more or less ok, better than expected; but - meh!? On the other hand, on the major issues, which do matter and are debated far less: war, economy, natsec and governance - he is doing bad, or failing, or mixed at best. Still he gets some credit for trying and it could have been worse. Increase in ideological fragmentation in Washington and resulting legislative gridlock was one the main expected positive outcomes of Trump campaign.
Mainstream Bush-(Ryan) big government Republicans have unfortunately succeeded in repelling nationalist-populist insurgency for now, at least until midterms. Trump (along with the American public) clearly lost both seasons 3 and 4 to deepstaters, as expected. It’s possible to retrospectively support Candidate Trump now that many of his anti-Obama proposals are actually addressed. It is appropriate to distinguish between pro-Trump and anti-anti-Trump positions, the latter being a lot more natural. It is possible to offer limited support to nationalist agenda regardless of Trump. It is, however, hard to see what would it even mean to "support Trump" going forward, now that he and his declarations seem to have very limited influence on most major issues, in terms of personnel, policy, and legislation.
See earlier “Bush-Obama”, "Третий этап президентской кампании".
Оригинал на DW здесьhttps://nedosionist.dreamwidth.org/55666.html, заходите пожалуйста, и выскажитесь там, используя OpenID.
Уже: