Are you tired of winning yet? If you’ve been paying attention to President Donald Trump’s accomplishments so far, no one in their right mind would ever tire of winning. Trump has given Americans much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, so on that note, here are five of his win’s I’m personally thankful for.
The Decimation of ISIS
The demise of ISIS under President Donald Trump was just as swift as their rise under President Barack Obama, who infamously referred to the terror group as “Al-Qaeda’s JV team” (just days before they carried out a massacre in Paris, killing 130), as they conquered record amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria to create their own pseudo-State.
While ISIS originated in 1999 as an al-Qaeda affiliated group, they would’ve never become the massive force that they were in 2013-2015 in absence of Obama’s inaction in the Middle East. His withdrawal from Iraq immediately created a power vacuum filled by ISIS. He also failed to authorize 75% of all airstrikes requested against ISIS (while under Trump, use of airstrikes soared 400%). Obama also did nothing to help save American hostages that were later executed by ISIS.
Since their peak, ISIS has lost over 98% of their territory (most of which has occurred under President Donald Trump).
Russia
Contrary to the delusional narratives of Russian collusion you may hear in the media, Trump has been much tougher on Russia than Obama was. While Trump may be kinder than Obama with his words, he has not been with his actions. As you may have forgotten, Obama:
- Turned a blind eye to Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008.
- In 2009 he axed missile defense plans for Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russia interpreted as America retreating from the European continent. Russia then became more interventionist in Europe.
- Didn’t utter a peep as Russia annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014.
- Ignored calls from Congress, foreign policy experts, and members of his own cabinet to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the polar opposite was true in the case of Trump.
- Trump did approve the sale of lethal weapons to Ukraine in December 2017.
- On the annexation of Crimea, Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated, “We do not recognize Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea. We agree to disagree with Russia on that front. And our Crimea sanctions against Russia will remain in place until Russia returns the peninsula to the Ukraine.”
- Trump has ordered missiles to be fired at Syrian military sites (after President Assad was accused of using chemical weapons on his own people), which have a strategic alliance with Russia. In response, Putin accused the U.S. of “making the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Syria even worse and bring[ing] suffering to civilians with its strikes.”
- In August 2017, Trump signed into law CAATSA, the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,” which imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia. In the words of the geopolitical intelligence platform Stratfor, “CAATSA demonstrates that the United States is more strident than ever in pushing other countries to reduce their defense and energy ties with Russia.”
- In March, following the poisoning (presumably by the Russian government) of former KGB agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Trump expelled 60 Russian diplomats.
- In April, Trump imposed more sanctions on Russia following the indictments of 13 Russians for “malicious cyber activities” earlier in March. Russia’s stock market dropped 11% on the news. Shares of the Russian aluminum giant Rusal (which is the world’s second-largest aluminum company) tanked 40% on the news.
Stocks and the Economy
From the day he was elected to the day of the midterms earlier this month, the S&P 500 index increased 28%, better than any other President since Dwight Eisenhower (who yielded a 29% return over the same period). Economic growth also picked up, and is expected to close out 2018 with greater than 3% growth. Under Obama’s watch, we went eight straight years without a single year of 3% average growth.
I’ve always joked (though it’s basically true) that the strongest sign the Trump economy is performing spectacularly is Obama attempting to take credit for it. Throughout his entire presidency Obama blamed economic hardships on George W. Bush, and now that he’s no longer President and things are looking up, he wants to take credit.
While it’s true that Trump did inherit a recovering economy, the economy is performing far better than what was projected if Obama’s fiscal policies were to remain in effect.
The Regulatory Rollback
President Donald Trump has said he wants to bring back regulations to 1960-era levels – and he’s moving in that direction. In just his first year in office, the number of pages in the federal register dropped 35%. Obama left office with a number of pages of regulations in the register; 95,894. Trump cut that to 61,116 in his first year, bringing it down to the lowest levels since Bill Clinton was in office (which is a depressing reminder of how quickly regulations grow).
For reference, rolling back regulations to the 1960-era levels would imply a register of roughly 10,000-15,000 words.
It’ll be interesting to see where the tally stands by the end of 2018.
What wins do you expect going into 2019? Let us know in the comments section below!
