During the 2016 campaign, candidate Donald Trump told his overly eager audiences that the entire world was laughing at the United States. He promised that, once in the White House, all of this would change. Nobody would dare laugh at the United States any longer, and everyone would be amazed at how strong and confident the nation would be.
Trump also promised his same group of gullible supporters that the United States would just win and win once he was in the Oval Office. In fact, he went so far as to suggest that Americans would grow so used to all of the winning, that they would even get tired of it, and ask Trump to slow it down, if not outright brake, then at least put his foot off the pedal. But he would not do it, because as the elected President, it would be his job to make sure his country just kept on winning. He also promised, of course, not to have time to play golf while he was occupying the White House.
In fact, there were quite a few promises that candidate Trump made. Make Mexico pay for his vanity border wall. He promised to defeat ISIS in 30 days. He promised to be the greatest job creating president in history, and that the economy would be off the charts strong. He promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, and to overhaul the healthcare system, and promised that under his plan, all Americans would have access to affordable healthcare, and that exorbitant prices would go down. He promised a massive infrastructure plan to rebuild American roads and bridges and such. He promised to save the coal industry. He promised that he had a plan to pay the national debt during eight years of his presidency. He promised to establish a Muslim registry, even though that would be unconstitutional. And once he was elected, he also promised to be the "president for all Americans."
Let's fast-forward two years and change. Did he fulfill those promises? Well, some of those promises are still presumably in the works. There might yet be a massive infrastructure bill, as he promised. The economy has been up and down, and in very typical fashion, he quickly takes credit for it when things look rosy, but quickly lays blame elsewhere - at anyone but him, frankly - when things have gone wrong. He gave himself eight years to pay off the national debt. And while he has been in office for only two years and change, the national debt has only been added to by two trillion. That is one trillion for each year that Trump has been in office, and the fact that his tax breaks for the wealthy are a huge part of the reason for this means that the blame goes on him. He now has six years - presuming he gets a full six years - to pay a national debt that is now significantly larger than when he took over.
These as of yet not completed promises I would chalk up to as defeats, because after all, Trump should be measured up to what he promised, and he promised everyone the world. He claimed to be the master at the art of the deal, right? So, when things get stalled in Congress, and he quickly lays blame on them, the fact of the matter is that a bit of the blame, at the very least, should go to the man who makes that wild claim of being the greatest deal-maker in history.
In other instances, however, he clearly lied or greatly overestimated his own abilities. Or, to put it another way, he failed. Most famously, he failed to make Mexico pay for that wall. In fact, the country saw the longest government shutdown in history because Trump did not get the funding he felt appropriate to build the wall that he promised to make Mexico pay for. In other words, he lied. He did not get the record for job creation. He did not really repeal and replace Obamacare, despite a Republican majority in Congress through his first two years in office. Nor did he create a healthcare system in which all Americans would have access to affordable healthcare, and prices have not gone down. ISIS was not defeated, and it has been much more than 30 days. He did not save the coal industry. He could not produce the Muslim registry, because it is unconstitutional, something that even his supporters, who sure claim to love the Constitution and Bill of Rights when it comes to the second amendment, should have been well aware of.
So, what has he done during his time in office?
These as of yet not completed promises I would chalk up to as defeats, because after all, Trump should be measured up to what he promised, and he promised everyone the world. He claimed to be the master at the art of the deal, right? So, when things get stalled in Congress, and he quickly lays blame on them, the fact of the matter is that a bit of the blame, at the very least, should go to the man who makes that wild claim of being the greatest deal-maker in history.
In other instances, however, he clearly lied or greatly overestimated his own abilities. Or, to put it another way, he failed. Most famously, he failed to make Mexico pay for that wall. In fact, the country saw the longest government shutdown in history because Trump did not get the funding he felt appropriate to build the wall that he promised to make Mexico pay for. In other words, he lied. He did not get the record for job creation. He did not really repeal and replace Obamacare, despite a Republican majority in Congress through his first two years in office. Nor did he create a healthcare system in which all Americans would have access to affordable healthcare, and prices have not gone down. ISIS was not defeated, and it has been much more than 30 days. He did not save the coal industry. He could not produce the Muslim registry, because it is unconstitutional, something that even his supporters, who sure claim to love the Constitution and Bill of Rights when it comes to the second amendment, should have been well aware of.
So, what has he done during his time in office?
For all his rhetoric and his pomp, his crass, loudmouthed approach which so many conservatives applauded and found refreshing, his policies so strangely resemble what has come before, that it is uncanny. The only difference is that now, it is like the country is taking this plunge on steroids. Wreck the environment? Check. Wreck the economy with yet more incentives and tax breaks for those who need it least, and put the burden on those who can least afford it? Check. Pull the United States out of inconvenient international treaties, thus ruining America's trustworthiness and reputation around the world? Check. Abuse his presidential power by declaring a state of emergency simply because he could not convince Congress to give him more money for the wall that he promised Mexico would pay for in the first place? Check. Disgrace the country before the entire world with racist behavior, from the infamous labeling of dozens of African and Central American countries as "shithole nations" to his stubborn refusal to specifically condemn outright Nazis and white supremacists who marched and incited violence on American streets? Check. Continually making an ass of himself with petty, mean-spirited tweets, when he should, as President, have bigger concerns and an ability to rise above the fray? Check.
The world is indeed watching. And if his claims that the world was laughing at us while he was running, there certainly has been evidence - strong, irrefutable evidence - that they are laughing now. And we have Trump to thank for all of that. After all, it was Trump's ballooned image as a crying baby that went up over London skies during a visit that he took there last year. And it was in Trump's face that world leaders assembled at the United Nations literally laughed when he made his ridiculous claims of being such an accomplished and amazing president, something that usually flies and gets thunderous applause during one of his rallies, but which clearly gets a much cooler reception outside of one of those ridiculous rallies.
And now, just days ago, Vice-President Mike Pence was expecting applause when he mentioned Donald Trump and alluded to his supposed accomplishments.
They did not laugh, but they remained silent, clearly unimpressed. And that video has spread, and become quite a bit of a joke.
Here is a link to this video of Pence's cool reception upon mentioning Trump:
The world is indeed watching. And if his claims that the world was laughing at us while he was running, there certainly has been evidence - strong, irrefutable evidence - that they are laughing now. And we have Trump to thank for all of that. After all, it was Trump's ballooned image as a crying baby that went up over London skies during a visit that he took there last year. And it was in Trump's face that world leaders assembled at the United Nations literally laughed when he made his ridiculous claims of being such an accomplished and amazing president, something that usually flies and gets thunderous applause during one of his rallies, but which clearly gets a much cooler reception outside of one of those ridiculous rallies.
And now, just days ago, Vice-President Mike Pence was expecting applause when he mentioned Donald Trump and alluded to his supposed accomplishments.
They did not laugh, but they remained silent, clearly unimpressed. And that video has spread, and become quite a bit of a joke.
Here is a link to this video of Pence's cool reception upon mentioning Trump:
Mike Pence ‘visibly shaken’ as nobody claps at his applause lines during disastrous European trip Bob Brigham BOB BRIGHAM 16 FEB 2019 AT 1
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