The Trump Scorecard (1/3)

Surya,

“He’s losing me.” That’s what my friend, a Trump supporter, said to me recently. A Kasich moderate, he voted for Trump when it was him or Hillary. He’s been with Trump on just about everything since then … until recently.

It was the “transgender ban” that shook his confidence. Although he agrees with the underlying arguments, he wondered aloud why the president had chosen to focus on that issue. As he put it: “Fix healthcare, build the wall, focus on the things you were elected to do.”

This got me thinking: In all of this media craziness, are we forgetting what voters elected Trump to do? More precisely, upon what issues will Trump’s supporters evaluate his first term in the end? And how is he doing?

I came up with five issues and a current grade for each. These grades will no doubt change during President Trump’s term, so I’ll be curious to revisit this scorecard at later dates. I’m interested in discussing the issues and the grades, so feel free to tackle either one or both.

I only ask one thing: Keep in mind that this is not a scorecard for people who hate Trump and/or voted for Hillary. It is doubtful they agree with Trump on any of these issues, or that they would ever give Trump a passing grade for, well, anything.

1. Healthcare (F) — No way for Trump lovers to spin this. He promised to repeal Obamacare at least 68 times, according to ThinkProgress.org, and do it “very, very quickly.” Supporters can blame Congress, but they hired Trump to “drain the swamp” and tame that body using his much-vaunted business-negotiation skills. It is not looking good at all.
2. Immigration (C) — President Trump just co-announced the RAISE Act, which seeks to protect citizens from job competition from low-wage immigrants. At the announcement, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, one of the bill’s sponsors, said: “The president campaigned on immigration as the single distinctive issue that separated him not just from Hillary Clinton, but from 16 other Republicans, and the American people expect him to deliver on that.” So how is he doing otherwise? Well, illegal border crossings are down 70%, ICE has been deporting illegals like crazy and Congress has approved $1.6 billion to build Trump’s wall. On the other hand, construction hasn’t started on the wall yet, and there is no sign Mexico will pay for any of it.
3. ISIS (B) — The country’s #1 foreign foe (before manufactured Russia hysteria) was ISIS, and it was arguably the only foreign policy issue Trump supporters cared about. I can’t think of another that would have motivated the vote. More to the point, President Trump is doing very well on this issue. ISIS is in on its way out, facing an 80 percent drop in revenue and retreat in Syria and Iraq with Libya its last remaining stronghold. Not too long ago, we were talking about beheadings and the inexorable spread of the evil caliphate. So Trump gets high marks … for now. On the other hand, it is definitely too soon to declare victory against such a pernicious foe.
4. Jobs (A) — One million new jobs in six months, record low unemployment, record high stock market, small business confidence still near its highest level in a decade, CEO confidence highest in three years, consumer confidence at a 16-year high, the Toyota and Foxconn deals, the Pennsylvania coal mine opening ... We can cynically nitpick each of these things, but together they create the undeniable impression that Trump is fulfilling his promise to create American jobs.
5. Tax Reform (I) — No action taken yet, so President Trump gets an “incomplete” for this one. As this was not a top campaign issue, I think that’s just fine for Trump supporters right now. But if another six months goes by without progress on this front, the conservative business press will become much more critical, resulting in a low grade among supporters.

So what do you think? Is this an accurate assessment of how President Trump is doing on the issues that got him elected (from the perspective of those who voted for him)? If not, why not? How would your scorecard differ?

Let’s nail this down so that later in President Trump’s term, we can update it and have a fair conversation about how he is doing.

Jordan