On this blog, I discuss important national issues.  Lately, I have mostly been discussing how President Trump has been dealing on these issues.  For example, my last post, pointed out that Trump is following a Jacksonian foreign policy, in the sense that the most important priority of his government is the security and well-being of the American people.

Today, I summarize what I think Trump is doing well, poorly, or in between.

First of all, what Trump is doing well:

• He has closed our southern border. The number of illegal border crossings has slowed to a trickle (see chart below).

  

• He has severely set back Iran’s attempt to develop nuclear weapons. Iran is a terrorist state, and so this is clearly in America’s best interest.
• He has strongly and successfully supported Congress in extending the 2017 tax reform law passed at the beginning of his first term.

Secondly, where Trump is floundering and needs to change course:

• His tariff program, aimed at creating a more efficient international trading system, is overbearing and keeps trading partners guessing at what he really wants. It also risks reigniting inflation, which is what sank Biden’s presidency, and will also hurt Trump badly if it does reignite.

Finally, where Trump is doing poorly:

• He has shown little, if any, concern about our annual deficit spending, now approaching $2 trillion per year. Not only do these very large deficits make our national debt, now over $36 trillion, grow much too fast, but they also put upward pressure on inflation, which needs to be lowered to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% annually.  The key to shrinking our annual deficit spending is to cut federal spending significantly.

  

• He is not putting nearly enough pressure on Russian President Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Granted, one can argue that what happens to Ukraine doesn’t matter to the U.S.  But this is shortsighted.  If Putin succeeds in subjugating Ukraine, he is then likely to undermine other eastern European countries and create a big problem for our NATO allies.

Conclusion.  Trump is doing well on several important problems, such as border control, resisting nuclear proliferation, and maintaining business tax incentives.  He is floundering on tariff policy and doing poorly on fiscal responsibility and supporting Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion.

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