They say of Mussolini's Italy that "the trains ran on time." Donald Trump may be a would-be fascist, but even he has done a handful of things right. We should acknowledge the good things that he does so that we can throw into sharp relief the many bad things that he does. That is what I propose to do in this article.
Last year, Marc Theissen, in the Washington Post, wrote a propagandistic list of the "best things" that Trump did in 2019.[1] The list is a horror show; Trump has made it harder to qualify for food stamps; he has defunded Planned Parenthood; he has rattled the saber with Iran; he has appointed a raft of conservative judges to the federal bench. To a progressive such as myself, Theissen's list reads more like a declaration of grievances against King George III.
But Trump has done some genuinely good things, often with bipartisan support.
The First Step Act was meaningful criminal justice reform. It reduced mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses, lowered the time-served requirement for compassionate release, and provided support for academic and vocational education in prisons. It even applied an Obama era law—the Fair Sentencing Act, which corrected the gross discrepancy in crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentencing—retroactively.
The First Step Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Does it go far enough? No. But it has been life-changing for the more than 3,000 federal prisoners who were released under the law, and more than 2,000 who have benefited from reduced sentences.[2]
Of course, the Trump administration has also bloated the private prison industry,[3] expanded civil asset forfeiture,[4] and contemplated a war on medical marijuana.[5] Not to mention, again, that Trump is a would-be fascist.
Trump kept his campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA, and the result was the USMCA, which also enjoyed the support of both Republicans and Democrats—during impeachment, no less. Among other things, the USMCA required that 40% of a car must be made in a plant where workers are paid at least $16 an hour.[6] It also secured labor rights for Mexican workers, such as collective bargaining and freedom of association in the workplace.[7] It could be a game-changer for Mexican wages.
However, Trump has also separated immigrant children from their parents at the border, persisted in his fantasy of building a wall between the United States and Mexico, and race-baited shamelessly.[8] And, again, I must reiterate that Trump is an aspiring fascist.
Lastly, Trump has made the pharmaceutical industry and the hospital lobby very angry. He promulgated a rule requiring hospitals to disclose the secret rates they negotiate with insurers for services[9]—in other words, requiring transparency in the cost of care, for a change. He has also moved to lower prescription drug prices by having Medicare pay the same rate for drugs that other developed nations do—so-called "most favored nation status"[10]—curtailing the pharmaceutical industry's shameful price-gouging of Americans.
Meanwhile, 2.3 million Americans lost their health insurance under Trump before the pandemic[11] as a result of his onslaught on the Affordable Care Act. As of this writing, he is currently in the Supreme Court arguing to strike down what's left of the ACA, jeopardizing the coverage of potentially 23 million more Americans, during a pandemic, no less.[12] He has also sought cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, despite his explicit promise to the contrary. And, not to belabor the point, but Trump is an aspirant fascist.
Trump's other supposed "accomplishments" in office have been mostly bad, in my view; he passed tax reform that went disproportionately to the rich; he pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords; he scrapped the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan and has weakened Clean Air and Clean Water regulations; he surrendered America's role as a credible broker in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; he has praised strongmen around the world, from Kim Jong-un to Vladimir Putin; he started a costly trade war with China that has accomplished nothing; he reversed rules that protected consumers from predatory lenders; he rescinded DACA; he pursued a racist travel ban targeted at Muslims; he banned transgender individuals from serving in the military; he scrapped rules that protected LGBT patients from discrimination in health care; he has ignored the threat of foreign interference in U.S. elections; he tear-gassed peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square for a photo op; he has cheered for police brutality; he has encouraged white supremacists. (This is not a comprehensive list.) And, at the risk of sounding tiresome, Trump is a would-be fascist.
So, to say that Trump has a mixed record would not be correct. It is overwhelmingly bad. But noting his handful of meaningful accomplishments helps put into perspective just how bad he has been.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/26/best-things-trump-has-done/
[2] https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/one-year-after-the-first-step-act/
[3] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trumps-first-year-has-been-private-prison-industrys-best
[4] https://observer.com/2017/07/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-department-of-justice-civil-forfeiture/
[5] https://www.businessinsider.com/sessions-justice-department-rescind-marijuana-rules-cole-memo-2018-1
[6] https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/whats-in-the-new-usmca
[7] https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657806248/will-nafta-2-0-really-boost-mexican-wages
[8] https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/caravan-white-supremacist-campaign-trump/
[9] https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-price-transparency-rule-covering-hospitals-upheld-11592945973
[10] https://www.policymed.com/2020/09/president-trump-signs-most-favored-nation-price-executive-order-on-drug-pricing.html
[11] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/09/15/census-data-pre-covid-2-3-million-lost-health-insurance-under-trump/5810404002/
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/obamacare-trump-administration-supreme-court.html