Trump's Conservative Rise

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

When Donald Trump first entered the Presidential Race in 2016, I was not a fan. My wife was, especially after the word "wall" came out of his mouth.  His history seemed dubious to me.  Most of what he has always said is in the neighborhood of what I believe, but he hob-nobbed with Democrats quite a bit, too.

After President Trump took a photograph with The Remembrance Project folks, and the Associated Press published those images, Trump went from somewhere in the middle to number one in a matter of a couple weeks.

He never looked back.

I have lost friends and family members over my willingness to change my mind about Trump, and support his campaign into November where he won the presidency.

For one, I recognized he was not Hillary, and that should have been enough for anyone to vote for him.  Second, it turns out he was seeking conservatism, and in the process surrounded himself with conservatives and Christians.  That, my friends, sealed it for me.

It turned out in the end, as my friend Alex Ferguson says, "We didn't get the President I wanted, but it turned out America got the President it needed."

As the liberal left went nuts, and proclaimed Trump enemy number one, they literally threw Trump into the arms of conservatives and Christians, and we welcomed him, and he has been learning, growing, and shocking his doubters.  It turns out that what I heard about him is true.  He's a quick study.

For a long time we, conservative Republicans, have been looking for the next "Reagan."  I have told people we will never get another Ronald Reagan, but we may get a fill-in-the-blank-here.  What we got was a trump card, and he's been better than everyone (except a few) thought he would be.  In fact, he's gotten more conservative policies in place faster than ... you guessed it ... even Ronald Reagan.

The Heritage Foundation placed their score at 64%.  Trump is an efficient politician.  According to The Washington Examiner, the Trump administration has already implemented nearly two-thirds of the 334 agenda items called for by the Heritage Foundation, a pace faster than former President Reagan who embraced the conservative think tank’s legendary “Mandate for Leadership” blueprint.

At this stage of his presidency, Reagan had completed 49 percent of the Heritage policy recommendations.

In short, Trump, who has been called not conservative enough by the Republican never-trumpers, has been very active, very conservative, and very effective.

Trump's range of issues that he has accomplished is widespread, as well.  Trump hasn’t just focused on one agenda area.  Trump and his team has pushed through administrative moves on foreign policy, deregulation, immigration, tax reform and health care.  The media, of course, has been ignoring his successes, and has been calling Trump's presidency a dismal failure.

The President's accomplishments also includes a slashing of at least 11 major legacy items of former President Barack Obama.  A full repeal of Obamacare may still be on the horizon.

Heritage's “Mandate for Leadership” was first produced for Reagan in 1981. Reagan handed out a copy of the single book to every cabinet member. For Trump, Heritage produced five books and the president has embraced them.

In Heritage’s review of Trump’s moves so far, they highlighted these actions:

• Leaving the Paris Climate Accord: In August 2017, Trump announced the U.S. was ending its funding and membership in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
• Repealing Net Neutrality: In December 2017, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman proposed ending the 2015 network neutrality rules.
• Reshaping National Monuments: Heritage’s recommendation to prohibit Land Acquisition (Cap and Reduce the Size of the Federal Estate) was adopted by Trump when he issued two executive orders effectively shrinking the size of national monuments in Utah.
• Reinstating the Mexico City Policy: This executive order prevents taxpayer money from funding international groups involved in abortion and ending funding to the United Nations Population fund. On Jan. 23, 2017, in his first pro-life action, Trump signed an executive order reinstating the Mexico City Policy.
• Increasing Military Spending: Trump’s budget calls for a $54 billion increase in military spending to improve capacity, capability, and readiness of America’s armed forces.
• Reforming Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF): The Trump administration adopted and is in favor of strengthening existing work requirements in order to receive benefits.
• Allowing Development of Natural Resources: The Trump administration opened off-shore drilling and on federal lands. Executive Order 13783 directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to commence federal land coal leasing activities.
• Reforming Government Agencies: Trump tasked each of his Cabinet secretaries to prepare detailed plans on how they propose to reduce the scope and size of their respective departments while streamlining services and ensuring each department runs more efficiently and handles tax dollars appropriately.
• Withdrawing from UNESCO: In October 2017, Trump announced he was putting an end to U.S. membership in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

And this is in only one year.

What's on the horizon?  I am guessing it is going to get better, and with the economy on the rise, people having more in their paychecks from his economic strategies, and a realization by the voters that the Democrats hate Trump simply because he is willing to slap around the anti-American establishment, I am thinking Trump's 2020 bid for reelection will be a landslide.

The key to winning, however, is not as much in Trump's hands as it is in ours.  The Democrats are a wounded animal, and as we saw in Texas yesterday with record Democrat turnout, and then a late rural Republican turnout that stopped the belief by the Democrats that they could turn Texas blue, we see clearly that we need to support our President and make sure we get to the polls in all of the States, this year, so that he continues to have a Congress in his corner who is willing to work with him.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary