Did Trump get anything right?

[Silvestru]

I love reading the Politics sections and as a non-american It's very informative on the mentality, views and opinions of people from US.

With all this aside I can't help but notice that I have not seen a single comment about Trump doing something right. It seems that absolutely all his actions are criticised and I raised this point before but to me it seems some of the criticism is ad hominem.

So I would like to hear from some of the more experienced member from this section like Ten oz, iNow, MigL etc about some good policies, decisions, actions that the current POTUS has made.

(I do not have any political inclination and they would be far from republican and I understand that overall he is detrimental to the US but I just wanted to hear your opinions on this.)

 

[koti]

I'm sure @Ten oz will be thrilled to give you a long and thorough examination of all the Trump's success stories since he became POTUS  

[Ten oz]

How are you defining success? I believe Trump and an increasing number of his supporters define Trump's success by what's good for Trump. By that definition Trump has had numerous successes. 

- Trump has crushed the moderate movement within his party that opposed him.

- Trump got his tax cuts push through.

- Trump won superficial battles with NFL players by pressuring for a rule change.

- Trump has successfully put U.S. military operations in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq out of sight out of mind. 

Trump has been wildly successful in doing what he wants.. The question is  whether or not that is good for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Trump doesn't hold himself to any standard. He seldom ever lays out a clear standard for what success looks like. It allows him to celebrate any outcome as successful. 

[dimreepr]

16 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

How are you defining success? I believe Trump and an increasing number of his supporters define Trump's success by what's good for Trump. By that definition Trump has had numerous successes. 

- Trump has crushed the moderate movement within his party that opposed him.

- Trump got his tax cuts push through.

- Trump won superficial battles with NFL players by pressuring for a rule change.

- Trump has successfully put U.S. military operations in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq out of sight out of mind. 

Trump has been wildly successful in doing what he wants.. The question is  whether or not that is good for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Trump doesn't hold himself to any standard. He seldom ever lays out a clear standard for what success looks like. It allows him to celebrate any outcome as successful. 

Nicely put ten +1, but you never know he might do some good by accident whilst in office, I just hope he only gets one chance because the odds aren't favourable.

Edited June 13, 2018 by dimreepr

[Silvestru]

15 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

The question is  whether or not that is good for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

I understand and there are several other threads on this. I am asking if there is something good for US. Not for him .

2 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

 you never know he might do some good by accident whilst in office, I just hope he only gets one chance.

I am asking about those rare cases here.

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

I am asking about those rare cases here.

No luck so far...

[Silvestru]

Just now, dimreepr said:

No luck so far...

I only hope I will get a real answer and that I am not taken as an apologist for Trump. He is very aggressive and arrogant etc etc but I want to see if people can be objective too.

[Ten oz]

1 minute ago, dimreepr said:

Nicely put ten +1, but you never know he might do some good by accident whilst in office, I just hope he only gets one chance.

It seems to me that Western leadership in the world is terribly distracted at the moment. Whether it is the UK dealing with Brexit, the U.S. dealing with all things Trump, or Canada wonder where their special place in Hell is. The absence of that leadership has allowed things are slipping through the crack. Assad has re-established his authoritarian control over Syria and isn't being held accountable for war crimes and a massive ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen are being ignored. Then there is that pesky matter of Russia aggressively attacking elections in Germany, UK, and US. 

Maybe all works out for the best. Maybe Western involvement in Yemen would only make things worse. I rather see these things soberly debated but ultimately we'll have to wait and see. 

[Sensei]

Trump is successful at pissing off people, dividing people, "building walls" between people and nations..

 

[dimreepr]

The answer may seem flippant, apologies, but it's no less real.

[DrP]

If he can avoid a nuclear war then that will be a win. So much win...  you've never seen so much win.

 

[StringJunky]

3 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

I only hope I will get a real answer and that I am not taken as an apologist for Trump. He is very aggressive and arrogant etc etc but I want to see if people can be objective too.

It's hard to judge these things when they are contemporary. It needs the dispassionate  light of history.

Just now, DrP said:

If he can avoid a nuclear war then that will be a win. So much win...  you've never seen so much win.

 

That''s a plus.

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

Maybe all works out for the best. Maybe Western involvement in Yemen would only make things worse. I rather see these things soberly debated but ultimately we'll have to wait and see.

Whoa, where did this come from? and a strawman to boot.

[Ten oz]

10 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

I understand and there are several other threads on this. I am asking if there is something good for US. Not for him .

On the Economy the standard bench marks most wildly examined have always been 5 this: unemployment, GDP, stock markets, budgets (surplus/deficit), and work participation. Under Trump unemployment has continued to creep down. That is good. GDP has remained unchanged which is bad considering the tax cuts were meant to stimulate growth and hasn't. The Stock market has been bear (first in 9yrs) thus far in 2018. Deficits have soared and the work participation rate is unchanged. So of the 5 economic benchmarks Trump has 1 good, 1 no change, and 3 bad. 

I can go issue by issue if you'd like and rate his performance dispassionately. Ultimately nothing jumps out as exceeding good for the U.S. To be fair to Trump I at this stage of any presidency it is difficult to really identify good things. It is early. 

6 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Whoa, where did this come from? and a strawman to boot.

My thoughts on the matter only carry so much weight, perhaps none. What I want and what will be are very different things so each new day requires re-examination. 

[dimreepr]

6 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

My thoughts on the matter only carry so much weight, perhaps none. What I want and what will be are very different things so each new day requires re-examination. 

No argument from me, but I fail to see how that explains the implied insult.

[Silvestru]

10 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

On the Economy the standard bench marks most wildly examined have always been 5 this: unemployment, GDP, stock markets, budgets (surplus/deficit), and work participation. Under Trump unemployment has continued to creep down. That is good. GDP has remained unchanged which is bad considering the tax cuts were meant to stimulate growth and hasn't. The Stock market has been bear (first in 9yrs) thus far in 2018. Deficits have soared and the work participation rate is unchanged. So of the 5 economic benchmarks Trump has 1 good, 1 no change, and 3 bad. 

I can go issue by issue if you'd like and rate his performance dispassionately. Ultimately nothing jumps out as exceeding good for the U.S. To be fair to Trump I at this stage of any presidency it is difficult to really identify good things. It is early. 

+1. Thank you Ten oz, very clear and to the point answer.

24 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Trump is successful at pissing off people, dividing people, "building walls" between people and nations.

Don't disagree but not relevant to the topic.

[Ten oz]

2 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

No argument from me, but I fail to see how that explains the implied insult.

No insult directed at you.

20 people associated with Trump's team have been indicated, 5 already plead guilty. I think the guy is a crook yet this thread is asking to ignore that bit and focus on the good. It isn't easy. The guy literally just trashed out strongest allies and blamed President Obama for Russia invading Crimea. There is a lot not to like. So am playing devil's advocate beat I can. Perhaps I am no good at it. 

[Silvestru]

24 minutes ago, DrP said:

If he can avoid a nuclear war then that will be a win.

Unless the plot of Doctor Strangelove comes true I think we are ok. But that is a discussion for a different topic

2 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

No insult directed at you.

20 people associated with Trump's team have been indicated, 5 already plead guilty. I think the guy is a crook yet this thread is asking to ignore that bit and focus on the good. It isn't easy. The guy literally just trashed out strongest allies and blamed President Obama for Russia invading Crimea. There is a lot not to like. So am playing devil's advocate beat I can. Perhaps I am no good at it. 

You are the only one to give a straight answer in this thread. Aside from being shocking(no offence intended), it also shows that your posts are objective and that you can see things from even extreme perspectives.
Side note: Maybe he will be too sick to run one more time. Who knows.

[dimreepr]

4 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

No insult directed at you.

20 people associated with Trump's team have been indicated, 5 already plead guilty. I think the guy is a crook yet this thread is asking to ignore that bit and focus on the good. It isn't easy. The guy literally just trashed out strongest allies and blamed President Obama for Russia invading Crimea. There is a lot not to like. So am playing devil's advocate beat I can. Perhaps I am no good at it. 

No worries, I guess I was being oversensitive due to, previously, being accused of not providing real answers.

[DrP]

10 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

Unless the plot of Doctor Strangelove comes true I think we are ok. But that is a discussion for a different topic

 

I am serious though  - it's for this conversation -  if he avoids starting/getting involved in a nuclear war then I was wrong about him and I will be happy and say that that is something good he has done.

 

....Unfortunately I suspect that a war will make him and his friends with certain shares very happy.  I wouldn't put it past him and Putin to have already planned one years ago. Stage it in some 'shithole' country that no one will miss in 2019/20 -  act out a war dropping all of their out of date and unwanted expensive nukes and make a fortune on the stock market in shares of weapons as both countries re-build their arsenals with modern replacements. They can probably claim M.A.D. will stop them firing at each other's mainland and they can have their big fireworks display at a safe distance from any of them where it 'doesn't matter'. Hopefully I am wrong though for obvious reasons. We'll see over the next few years.  

 

[Silvestru]

35 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

You are the only one to give a straight answer in this thread. Aside from being shocking(no offence intended), it also shows that your posts are objective and that you can see things from even extreme perspectives.

Haha well I guess this did offend someone. By all means give more details.   Let's discuss.

12 minutes ago, DrP said:

....Unfortunately I suspect that a war will make him and his friends with certain shares very happy.  I wouldn't put it past him and Putin to have already planned one years ago. Stage it in some 'shithole' country that no one will miss in 2019/20 -  act out a war dropping all of their out of date and unwanted expensive nukes and make a fortune on the stock market in shares of weapons as both countries re-build their arsenals with modern replacements. They can probably claim M.A.D. will stop them firing at each other's mainland and they can have their big fireworks display at a safe distance from any of them where it 'doesn't matter'. Hopefully I am wrong though for obvious reasons. We'll see over the next few years.  

I hope you are wrong too but that does sound like a very accurate description. This is the game thus far.

[dimreepr]

1 minute ago, Silvestru said:

Haha well I guess this did offend someone. By all means give more details.   Let's discuss.

Discuss what? The answer to the OP is NO.

[Silvestru]

3 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Discuss what? The answer to the OP is NO.

Okay dimreepr, I get it. No need to get irritated.

[dimreepr]

1 minute ago, Silvestru said:

Okay dimreepr, I get it. No need to get irritated.

No worries, I've just smoked a fat one, you're good...

[Ten oz]

7 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Discuss what? The answer to the OP is NO.

The word "anything" covers a lot. Trump appears to being way more bad than good but the OP is asking for any examples of anything good. So while I agree with you the that overall answer is No line by line everything isn't No.

I thought the pardon of Jack Johnson was good-ish. Pardoning Alice Johnson was good-ish as well. Of course I suspect he is exercising so many pardons as a way to get everyone use to the idea that he has that authority so it goes over better when he pardons his kids.