RESPONDING TO AN ANONYMOUS TRUMP SUPPORTER'S QUESTIONS

 

Give facts Jim not opinions. There's a reason that you don't give facts. Trump closed the border. He had the lowest unemployment for minorities in history. He made our country energy independent for the first time in 60 years. He got rid of NAFTA. He sped up the development of the Covid vaccine. He lowered corporate and personal income tax. He opened the embassy in Jerusalem in 6 months. ALL THESE ARE FACTS. Saying he's a disgrace and a con man is an OPINION. Just like i can say he's not a disgrace and not a con man. This is also an opinion. WHY CAN'T YOU GIVE FACTS INSTEAD OF OPINIONS?

OK.  Let's deal with our reader's points.

We'll try to give Trump credit, if due. but point out some possible half-truths as well.

No one's mind will be changed.  Anyone, at this point, who still thinks Donald Trump was good for our country will not be moved by anything written here.

Trump closed the border.

Are you talking about policy or actual results?

During the Trump administration, legal immigration WAS down, but illegal immigration remained the same as in the previous administration according to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

Trump's "zero tolerance" did have an effect, though, separating thousands of children from their parents, a problem that may take years to rectify.

As for Trump's promise to build a border wall with Mexico paying for it, that didn't happen.

What wall has been constructed cost the American taxpayer $18 billion.

Trump claims to have "built" 450 miles of border wall, but that's not true.  Most of the work done during his administration involved repairing already existing wall.  Only 47 miles of new wall was constructed by Trump.  He diverted $6.9 billion from the U.S. Military to do that.

If you think border walls are effective, 128 miles of new wall were built during the Obama administration, 47 under Trump.

Trump had the lowest unemployment for minorities in history.

The anonymous questioner is right that African-American unemployment hit a record low during the Trump administration  with Black American unemployement falling to 6.8%, the lowest level recorded since the government started keeping track in January 1972.

And he's also right that the Hispanic unemployment rate was also down to 4.9%, close to a record low.

However, that's not all Trump is doing in this tweet. He is implying that he caused these low African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates.

And a big problem with that claim is that those rates had been falling for long before Trump took office, and their declines don't appear to have picked up speed. This implies that there's nothing specific that Trump did to change this rate.

Indeed, both of these rates have been falling relatively steadily since around 2010, early in President Obama's tenure in the White House.

He made our country energy independent for the first time in 60 years.

That may be half true.

In the first five months of 2019, the United States used more energy than it produced. Specifically, the country produced 41.5 quadrillion British thermal units of energy, but consumed 42.1 quadrillion BTUs, according to the most recent data from the Energy Information Administration.

Some individual months during Trump's tenure saw the United States achieve "energy independence" in the sense of producing more energy than Americans consumed. Two months in fall 2018 did so, and the United States produced more than it consumed in April and May of 2019.

He got rid of NAFTA.

True.

He sped up the development of the Covid vaccine.

"Operation Warp Speed" was a success.  Trump, along with the scientists and pharmaceutical companies deserve credit.

But, in terms of handling COVID-19, Trump did poorly.

First of all, calling COVID-19 a "Democratic hoax" discouraged many Trump followers from getting vaccinated.

Then, as to policies:  

The costliest errors were committed in the pandemic’s earliest stages.  The Trump administration’s initial U.S. travel ban on Jan. 31 applied only to non-U.S. travelers and only to travelers coming from China, though the virus was “already known to be present in Italy, Iran, Spain, Germany, Finland, and the United Kingdom.” 

No symptom screening on arrival was required, nor was quarantining. Later research “found repeatedly” that “the great majority” of the virus introductions to the U.S. came not from China but from European strains.

Trump also pushed unproven remedies like hydroxychloroquine.  A Texas gubernatorial candidate recently got COVID-19 despite taking Trump's recommended remedy.

He lowered corporate and personal income tax. 

The tax bill that President Trump signed into law in 2017 dramatically cut taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations. 

It slashed the top individual income tax rate, carved out a special new deduction mainly benefiting wealthy business owners, gutted the tax on large inheritances, and significantly reduced taxes on corporations. 

Taken together, the changes this law made will dramatically reduce tax bills for the very wealthy, leaving the working and middle class with little benefit. 

In 2020, the average household in the  top 1% received a tax cut of $50,000—77 times larger than the average cut for the bottom 80 percent of Americans.

He opened the embassy in Jerusalem in 6 months.

Yes, he did.