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Trump’s many faults are well known (and close to disqualifying for high office) but - despite what you constantly hear in the UK media - he really wasn’t all bad. In particular, he did seven very welcome things...
1. He was the first major western leader to recognise that continued enrichment of the communist regime in China is not in the interests of the West or democracy. The Democrats recognise as much now too. He woke us up.
2. Rich NATO countries are finally investing more in defence after Trump’s undiplomatic pokes. Democracies have over-depended on US for too long. It’s not just about fairer burden sharing but about all of us running harder in the tech and economic races against China, Russia etc
3. He tore up Obama’s awful Iran deal, under which Tehran’s odious regime was bailed out financially but continued destabilising the Middle East. He recently secured landmark peace deals in that region and took heat out of relations with North Korea - while keeping sanctions.
4. Domestically Trump ended long-standing Republican attempts to cut the main entitlements of poorer Americans. He’s been too reckless with deficit but there was something out-of-touch with the GOP’s Darwinian cut, cut, cut orthodoxy. It won’t return after he’s gone. It’s dead.
5. Gay-friendly Trump has largely ended Republican ‘war’ on homosexual equality. At same time he has fought other cultural battles harder and his (three) appointments to US Supreme are at least as conservative as those put there by Reagan and Bush. Probably his biggest legacy.
6. Trump made deregulation fashionable again. He filled key economic briefs with business-minded people who, like him, understood that red tape was a bigger growth killer than the tax burden. The USA’s pre-Covid economic boom owed much to this. It shouldn’t be undone.
7. Before Trump the Democrats took blue collar Americans for granted and small state Republicans hardly bothered about them. Their concerns are now at heart of politics and the next generation of Republican leaders are focused on trade, welfare and tax policies to champion them.
I’ve used past tense above as I expect Trump to lose (but he’s unlikely to depart the stage). He hasn’t been the role model that parents would want for their kids but he championed ppl and causes that his detractors in the “fake news media” and DC’s “swamp” didn’t but should have
Tks Sarah. Trump’s criminal justice reforms should prob have been item 8 in my list and contrast with Biden’s support for policies that jailed 000s of mainly young blacks for minor offences. If Trump wins his record support from black Americans will be why https://twitter.com/sarah07909750/status/1323641287829004294?s=21 https://twitter.com/sarah07909750/status/1323641287829004294
