As the Trump Administration passes its 100-day mark, the
most striking thing is how ineffective the new president has been thus far. In
spite of a plethora of Executive Orders that undoubtedly please most on the
right, President Trump has put few lasting marks on the country at this early
point in his presidency.
Even though President Trump has signed many bills in his
tenure as president, most have not been laws that have lasting significance.
For conservatives, passing laws is not an end unto itself. Laws should roll
back government and make it smaller and less intrusive on the American people. Politifact
notes that several of the bills that Trump has signed are business-as-usual
type laws that designate memorials and name buildings, for example.
Not all of Trump’s new laws have been trivial, however.
About half of the 28 bills signed by Trump so far were passed under the
Congressional Review Act. This law allows Congress to review and rescind
last-minute Obama-era rules by federal agencies. The law provides for a 60-day
window to review bureaucratic rules that begins when Congress is notified that
a rule has been finalized. The Daily
Signal has a list of Obama-era rules that run the gamut from gun control to
environment to education that have been rescinded by President Trump and the
new Congress. Nevertheless, the laws merely preserve the status quo and do not break
new ground in shrinking government or rolling back Obama’s legislation.
Additionally, the window is now closed to rescind other rules from the Obama
Administration.
The most notable legislative story of Trump’s 100 days is
the failure to advance a bill repealing
or reforming Obamacare. For seven years, Republicans have railed against
President Obama’s trademark health entitlement yet, under President Trump’s
leadership, Republicans in Congress have failed to advance even a watered-down
version of bill reforming Obamacare.
President Trump’s answer was to pivot from health care to
tax reform, but he is likely to have the same result and for
the same reasons. The Trump coattails left Republicans with tiny majorities
in both houses of Congress. The Republican Senate majority cannot defeat a
Democrat filibuster and the House Republicans are too divided between Tuesday
Group moderates and Freedom Caucus conservatives to pass a health reform bill. Tax
reform is likely to be no different.
In order to avert a government shutdown, President Trump
even had to give in and omit
funding for construction of his wall and crackdown on sanctuary cities from
the spending bill that will carry the government through the end of the fiscal
year in September. Trump said repeatedly that Mexico would pay for the wall
before asking for taxpayer funds.
Trump has done better with Executive
Orders. The president has issued many orders that will slow the growth of government
and streamline government regulations. An early Trump Executive Order
reinstated President Reagan’s Mexico
City policy that banned federal funds from international groups that
promote abortion. President Obama had rescinded the policy in 2009. Other
Executive Orders, such as the travel
ban, seem poorly conceived from the beginning.
Good or bad, Executive Orders are limited. The president
cannot legislate from the Oval Office with an Executive Order in place of
Congress. Executive Orders may also last only as long as the president who
signed them. An incoming president could sign Executive Orders rescinding Trump’s
orders as easily as Trump reversed Obama’s.
On foreign policy, President Trump, whose views in the
campaign ranged from promising a plan to destroy ISIS within his first month to
neo-isolationism in other regions, launched what is largely considered to be an
ineffective
attack on a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack before
turning his attention to North Korea.
For several weeks, Trump suggested that he would make
trade concessions to China in exchange for help in dealing with North
Korea. As recently as April 30, Trump suggested on CBS
News that he was open to dealing with China on trade, saying, “Trade is
very important. But massive warfare with millions, potentially millions of
people being killed? That, as we would say, trumps trade.”
Today that has changed. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
seemed to walk back weeks of diplomatic overtures in an interview with CBS,
saying, “I don't think he [Trump] meant to indicate at all that he intends to
trade away American jobs just for help on North Korea.”
One hundred days into Trump’s presidency, there is also
still no
detailed plan to defeat ISIS.
To date, the Trump presidency can be described as lurching
from one crisis to another. Some of these crises have been self-inflicted, such
as the president’s
tweets about wiretapping by the Obama Administration. Others, such as North
Korean missile tests and Syrian chemical warfare, have been outside the
president’s control. Still others, such as the division among congressional
Republicans, reflect a lack of leadership from President Trump.
The one unqualified success that President Trump has had is
with the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch seems to be
as solid a conservative jurist as anyone could possibly have picked.
Nevertheless, the confirmation came at the cost of the filibuster. This was necessary
due to unreasonable
Democratic obstructionism, but may haunt Republicans in the future.
To have a lasting and positive impact, President Trump is
going to have to develop a cogent and consistent worldview on both domestic and
foreign policy. So far, the president has been inconsistent on numerous issues
in both realms. He needs to make up his mind as to what his goals are and
concentrate on those items.
The president also needs to learn to work with Congress.
Donald Trump was elected partly on claims that he is a world-class dealmaker.
His deal-making skills are sorely needed in hammering out compromises on Obamacare
and tax reform, but so far President Trump seems to have little interest in the
details of policymaking. The president should realize that the qualities that
made him the Republican nominee and that enabled him to win the election don’t
necessarily make him a natural leader and statesman.
None of this means that he will have a failed presidency,
however. President Trump has assembled a very qualified and capable team. With
a few exceptions, the Trump cabinet can truly be called a “conservative dream
team.” President Trump should listen to their advice and consider it carefully.
As someone who was a Never Trump conservative and a
third-party voter during the election, I must admit that Trump, with all his
foibles, has not been the worst-case scenario that I feared. So far, he has
undoubtedly been better than President Hillary (shudder) would have been.
Neither has he been a valiant, steely-eyed, conservative leader. The truth is
somewhere in the middle.
So far President Trump has been erratic and ineffective, but
he has trended toward the right. In some cases, such as backing
away from his plans to terminate NAFTA, his flip-flops have even be
reassuring. In other cases, such as his saber-rattling
against North Korea, his actions are downright scary.
After 100 days, the jury is still out.
Originally published
by The
Resurgent
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