Did Trump get anything right?

[Tomconroy]

Well, it's a lazy holiday afternoon. I'll just throw this one out there for fun. I'll begin by saying my opinion of Trump was fixed long before he ever ran for president. I follow the New York tabloids. I knew Trump was a liar, a fraud and a grifter way back in the 90s. And given what he has done since last November I think he is a far more dangerous threat to democracy than even some people realize. When he runs in 2024 our democracy will be under greater threat than at any time since the Civil War.
Given all that, did he get anything right? I came up with a few thoughts.
1. He was opposed to these horrible foreign interventions. He didn't get us into any new ones and he began the process to get us out of Afghanistan.
2. North Korea. Nothing else has worked. I thought the idea of meeting face to face was worth a try. It didn't work out. But I give him some credit for trying.
3. China trade. I think he made a start. I believe even Paul Krugman wrote a column saying that Trump was on to something. China's protectionist policies, their theft of our intellectual property, the onerous requirements they put on our companies trying to entire the China market, they all constitute an existential threat to our economic well being.
I thought about listing immigration. But he was too much of a clown to do that right. I believe in greatly expanded legal immigration. But I am opposed to illegal immigration. I'm not the only one. Just check out the deportation numbers under President Obama as opposed to Trump.
That's about what I could come up with. For some crazy reason I suspect that someone out there will disagree.

[11 Bravo]

1. Welcome to DU.

[mikeysnot]

2. Biggest achievement

Was exposing all the ignorant assholes in amerikkka.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. Isn't that the truth? nt

[zuul]

3. . . .

[WA-03 Democrat]

4. He left on the 20th of January after he got his ass kicked

He is a traitor and murder.

He is our Stalin/Hitler/Mao/Pol Pot with an ill fitting suit and a tie that was tied incorrectly.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. If you put the screws to me to 'find some positive' 1&3 would be my picks

The N. Korea one was a failure and was not based on any real sense or logic, only on shitbird's ego. All he did was give Kim propaganda to use at home in the end.

I'm also opposed to illegal immigration. But not so much the gestapo-style roundups, showing up at courthouses to deport people when they went to appear on a traffic violation, that kind of thing. Or the separation of families at the border, esp. not the 'losing track of people' incompetence displayed.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. I Get Your Point, But...

...as to #1, he campaigned on getting out of Afghanistan. He had 4 years, & barely started the process. Biden had to finish the job. That's a good idea, but not a success.
As to #3, the vast majority of Americans want immigration reform of one sort or other. So, wanting improvements isn't much of a vision. Neither is calling immigrants names to rile the rubes. And, as you described it, the incompetent approach to "change" by that maladministration keeps it firmly out of the success category.
I don't think any of the 3 listed in the OP could be described as "getting it right".

[Blue_true]

22. I honestly feel that we should allocate 1 million laborer working visas to

people from Mexico, Central, South America and the non-USA Caribbean annually. Such visas should be open ONLY to people from those places and should be in addition to other visa programs that we have. Seasonal workers could go home after their seasons and come back the next season. As long as people obey our laws and stay out of other trouble, the renewal option would be automatic for them until they have earned all they want to earn.

Unlike what republicans claim, if many hardworking immigrants could come here, work the jobs we don’t want and then go home, they won’t stay here, I have come across a number of people who I believe worked here as undocumented and then went home when they had saved up enough - I met one sweet elderly couple that worked their asses off on cleaning jobs for a round a decade, even though very elderly - one day they were gone, after a few weeks I asked someone in the know about them, they had retired and returned to their country - the person actually thanked me for asking about them, because to the other professional people that I worked among, they were just cleaning people that you looked pass.

We should vigorously enforce our wage and benefits laws for the often strenuous and/or dangerous work those people do, and not allow employers to take advantage of or otherwise abuse them.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Works For Me! (nt)

[Hugh_Lebowski]

24. There's actually 4 listed, #3 is China tariffs and such.

Biden hasn't rushed to get rid of those.

Keeping us out of new wars and at least attempting to hold China accountable are the 2 things, if you pressed me to say 'what did Trump do okay on' ... that I would list.

By okay I mean not a complete and total failure.

[exboyfil]

7. Advanced funding on vaccine

Other than that everything related to Covid was an unmitigated disaster.

Immigration was a horror show. He should have been the one the help get legislation through for the dreamers (couching it in some sort of points system like Canada uses). We still need that.

I agree with you on foreign intervention, but probably where we would have intervened he was buddies with them anyway.

The trade policy was haphazard and mostly set up to benefit a few of his buddies. We gained nothing by his poor tactical approach.

[Tomconroy]

10. Yeah, I had forgotten funding

some of the drug companies on the vaccines.
Can't really disagree on what you say.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. And Yet, Around 48% Of Those Vaxxed...

...got a med from a company that flew solo.
So, I temper that "success" a bit, too.

[XanaDUer2]

8. Did he lower insulin prices

I'm grasping here

[Vinca]

12. I'm sorry, but the whole North Korea thing was nothing but a big embarrassment for this

country. I guess we can be grateful he didn't fellate Kim on camera. But, to your original point, if you're one of the fat cats, Trump was a raving success because you got giant tax cuts that will continue forever and ever and ever. Unlike the peons who got a small tax cut for a very small period of time. If you're a person who feels the need to control what a woman does with her body, you also got your ultraconservative SCOTUS that may very well overturn Roe at some point. If you're a winning sports team you got cold hamburgers in return for your photo op. Quite frankly, after causing the deaths of more than half a million Americans because of negligence, lying and ego, Trump shouldn't get credit for anything by anyone.

[Demsrule86]

13. No, Trump got nothing right.

[Tomconroy]

14. I guess my point was

That I hated Trump because he was an absolutely loathsome human being. His policies were standard Republican fare. I doubt if he even knew what was in Paul Ryan's tax bill, which he signed.
Occasionally I think he hit the target with a sponge.
I hated W because of Iraq. Reagan I couldn't help but have some fondness for on just the personal level. Nixon: don't get me started. But he may have been a better President than I would ever acknowledge at the time. Trump I hated on a much more human level. But with the threat to our democratic way of life, I do have an issue I'm passionate about.

[ismnotwasm]

15. That's no how "getting anything right" works

He’s a disgusting asshole who goes for maximum gain with least effort. Fuck Trump

[Wounded Bear]

16. He was out in front on the first covid relief package when most other repubs weren't...

He did know that sending people money would be popular. Overall, they kind of botched the implementation of it. Biden did much better getting the money out for the last one.

[Tomconroy]

17. Yep! He did that first stimulus check, though

I think it happened with a big Nancy Pelosi push. Another target hit with a sponge.

[thucythucy]

18. My recollection is that TFG initially supported the Iraq war,

then lied about supporting it.

The meeting with the government of North Korea was a disaster. Had there been substantial negotiations it might have been different, but all Trump did was elevate that regime and fawn over how they sucked up to him.

I'm not sure what you're pointing to in terms of China trade. The tariffs he imposed did little or nothing besides raise prices for American consumers. Meanwhile his family--particularly Ivanka--was busy cashing in with sweetheart deals negotiated for their personal gain.

As for immigration--have you forgotten children separated from their parents, put into cages? The cruelty was deliberate. Meanwhile he threatened to cut and to some extent did cut humanitarian aid to Central American countries, which has been a major driver of immigration to the north.

Weigh any of his "achievements" against the damage he did and the scale tips overwhelmingly to the negative. I won't go into the litany of corruption, incompetence and malice that marked pretty much every single action undertaken by this travesty of an administration--there's so much to choose from. Random image: TFG tossing rolls of paper towels to a crowd in Puerto Rico, while refusing to send billions in hurricane relief. The ultimate example of a feeble reality TV photo op performed as real people were suffering and dying due to his negligence.

Search through the rubble of any failed regime and you might find some small accomplishments. But even here TFG is a failure. Hitler after all built the autobahn. All Trump built was a few miles of crappy, substandard border wall.

[Nevilledog]

19. Here's QAnon's list of Trump's accomplishments

Link to tweet

And yes, it makes zero sense.

[Skittles]

20. NO

the man failed not only as a president, but as a human fucking being

[UTUSN]

21. *NOTHING* can save him.

[treestar]

25. He was against all immigration including legal

It was legal to apply for asylum at the border, and he treated it like they were all frauds and it was not legal to do that and did all he could to make it harder. His guru Stephen Miller said he'd be happy if we gave asylum to no one! He was in no way right on immigration; he tried to make legal entries impossible! He was no for legal immigration. He was against it all and for making us a country that would not grant asylum to those persecuted in their country and demonized immigrants.