Make America Great Again

It deserves repeating: “Watch what they do, not what they say.”

David Smith,[i] of the Guardian, opines on Trump’s policy actions during his firs year in the following areas:

Environment

1. Taken a Buzzsaw to Barack Obama’s environmental legacy.
2. Withdrawn from Paris climate agreement.
3. Declared an end to the so-called “war on coal.”
4. Lifted the ban on mining companies.
5. Allowed for the dumping waste in rivers and streams.
6. Approved the Keystone XL pipeline.
7. Cancelled a rule that would have helped prevent endangered whales and sea turtles from becoming entangled in fishing nets.
8. Drastically shrunk two national monuments in Utah.
9. He will continue to cut climate change initiatives by eliminating Clean Power Planning.

Trump has already damaged health care by:

1. Giving 1.4 trillion tax relief to the rich he:
   1. Strip health coverage for 13 million Americans.
2. Trumps $1.4 trillion budget deficit will:
   1. Result in the repeal of the individual mandate.

      

   2. Eliminate the need to buy health insurance or pay the penalty thus created a larger insurance pool and cut rates.
   3. Implode the health insurance market in 2018.
   4. Watch as he supports House speaker, Paul Ryan, and other Republicans plans to slash Medicare and Medicaid.

On immigration, Trump is:

1. Still pushing for a border wall $15 to $25 billion-dollar border wall across four southern states with a maintenance cost of $700 million annually,
2. Still pushing to ban people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen while ignoring terrorist support from Saudi Arabia.
3. Ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) for 690,000 “Dreamers” brought to the US as children. As it stands, 320,000 dreamers would lose their status from January to August 2019.

On the First Amendment

Trump favors Fox “News” but rants and raves about journalism in general with constant attacks on the first amendment rights of CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, the New York Times any anyone who opposes him.

According to a Pew Research, 60% of Americans say Trump’s election has led to worse race relations in the US, while just 8% say it has led to better race relations. Ta-Nehisi Coates the African-American journalist, and author published an essay entitled “The First White President” and refers to Trump as a white supremacist.

1. When football players kneeled, Trump said: ‘Get that son of a bitch of the field.
2. In Charlottesville, Va. a civil rights protester was killed, during a white supremacist march. “Very fine people on both sides,” Trump said.
3. He disparaged the widow of an African American soldier killed in Niger.
4. He made a derogatory reference to Native Americans in front of Navajo guests.
5. Trumps’ only African American on his staff, Omarosa Manigault Newman has left.
6. His nominees to federal courts – including supreme court appointment Neil Gorsuch – are turning back the clock on diversity (91% are white, 81% are male).

On Russia.

Trump initiated the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigation the Russian connection when he fired FBI Director James Comey. His pressure on his Attorney General Jeff Session to fire Comey’s replacement, Andrew McCabe has added to Mueller’s look at conspiracy charges against both Trump and Sessions.

Trump continued support of Vladimir Putin raises the specter of treason and adds to call for impeachment.

Shear and others on Gun Control[ii]

On March 12, Trump abandoned his promise to work for gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association, bowing to the gun group and embracing its agenda of armed teachers and incremental improvements to the background check system.

Trumps White House is in complete disarray. The list of people who have left the Trump administration is outlined here by ABC news.[iii]

Endnotes:

[i] Smith, David, “Trump’s progress report: his impact so far and what to watch for next year,” December 29, 2017 at: https://goo.gl/Z49S6K

[ii] Shear, Michael D., Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, “Conceding to N.R.A., Trump Abandons Brief Gun Control Promise, at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/us/politics/trump-gun-control-national-rifle-association.html

[iii] http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-officials-left-trump-administration/story?id=49334453

[amazon_link asins=’0399590560′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nevadatoday-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’cf972325-3612-11e8-aec1-55e27a81e813′]