My Facebook page is filled with criticisms of all the craziness in the world due to Trump’s actions, and of course most of the news and websites I read are similar. Because I usually use Facebook to see what my friends are doing, or to look at pictures of cats, ducks, and other animals, I find the constant harping on Trump and his deeds depressing. That’s not because I disagree with these views; as should be clear by now, I think the man is mentally ill and that his presidency has been a disaster, with him veering between one crazy, drastic decision and another. (The threat to take over Greenland was merely the latest dumbass move.)
I say this because I think I need to make my position clear before I ask a question. And the question is this:
What do you think are the beneficial things Trump has done?
Why am I asking this? Well, first, because I think he has done some good stuff, including helping Israel, taking out Maduro, attacking Iran along with Israel, defining sex for official purposes as biological sex rather than self-identification, reducing illegal immigration at the border (I am not, of course, approving of the heavy-handed and often injurious tactics of ICE), and trying to expand the use of mental institutions to reduce the privations suffered by homeless people who are mentally ill. Again, I am not saying that the net effect of all of Trump’s policies are good for America, as one can easily make the case otherwise—most notably in his changing a checks-and-balance Presidency into a quasi-dictatorship.
However, I don’t think that people’s opinions of policies should rest on an assessment of the person, but should be based on the policies themselves. It’s both divisive and irrational to refuse to admit that, if someone does something good, it’s really bad because the person is bad (in Trump’s case, he’s often called a “Nazi”, which is hyperbolic and inaccurate).
So, I’m asking readers to answer the question above. If you wish to add a caveat about disliking Trump as I have done above, you’re welcome to do so, but I’m not asking for harangues about the man, as I can read those everywhere on the Internet. (I can guarantee that this very post will lead me to be called a “right-winger,” just as my opposition to biological men being put in women’s prisons or participating in women’s sports has led to my being called a “transphobe”. More on that later.)
If you don’t think he’s ever done anything good, feel free to say that, too.
Food pyramid
I have been tussling online with various people who are still more or less OK with Trump as POTUS. They all say something like: “I don’t like his style or his personality; but he’s done X and Y and I like those, so I’m OK.”
And then I always want to ask them directly about: Militarizing cities, $TRUMP coin bribery scheme, threatening our allies, tariffs, the DOGE fiasco, etc. A few of them will actually answer my questions; but almost all of them duck the questions (wimps).
Anyway, this prompted me to write a (living) list of the things Trump has done that I like and don’t like, so it’s ready to hand for asking people.
I will list my “Pro” section here. I’ll leave off the “Con” section since you know them and it would make so long a comment that I would violate the Roolz.
Pros:
1. Controlled the southern border.
2. Brought some sanity back to protecting women’s single-sex domains like sports and prisons.
3. Struck Iran’s nuclear apparatus.
4. Aided Israel in neutering Iran and its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, The Houthis, etc.).
5. Support for Israel.
6. Took out a hated, incompetent dictator in Venezuela (Maduro). (I don’t like the “how” of how this was done; but it’s a mixed bag; some good.)
(EDIT: Jerry, I swear that I didn’t read your list in the original posting before putting my list in here. Once again, we are very closely aligned politically, which I already knew.)
Quite without meaning to, Trump gave us Mark Carney as PM, rather than P. Polievre. That part I’m happy with.
Beat me to it.
Just because bad people sometimes do good things (often accidentally), that doesn’t excuse them from being bad people. For example, eugenics are a good thing unless perverted by a man like Hitler. it is good that Trump has restricted immigration, but the means he has employed are both criminal from a human rights perspective, and constitute treason because of his disregard of court rulings and long established democratic procedures. As he himself has said, the punishment for treason should be death!
Which court rulings has he disregarded?
The ones saying non-citizens have a right to due process.
Only about 1% of the Epstein files have been released, and are heavily redacted.
But otherwise, he hasn’t had to because the SC has mostly sided with him, and most lower court rulings against him have been stayed by appeals courts.
I think his administration disregarded a court ruling about turning around the planes en route to El Salvador, didn’t it?
I think it’s not only that bad people can, incidently (or accidently), do good things. Also bad people can do good things for bad reasons. E.g. Trump has helped Israel, but I certainly don’t think he has done so because he feels it’s the just thing to do. He just wants money and power.
–Highlighted the waste, fraud, and corruption related to government programs, and is pursuing miscreants
–Closed the wide-open border and is driving illegal aliens out of the country
–Shook NATO out of its dependence on the US and forced them to think about meeting their treaty obligations regarding defense spending
–Helped negotiate peace in multiple conflicts
–Supported Israel
–Attacked Iran’s nuclear program
–Arrested Maduro
–Dealing with the shadow tanker fleet
–Challenging China’s influence in Central and South America
–Revitalizing the US military, as evidenced by record enlistments
–Renewed emphasis on convential energy and energy sufficiency
Please take care of the posting Roolz.
The added points are pretty good, especially the bit about getting other NATO members to step up a bit more in defense spending. But it appeared to me that that was inspired by Trump’s poor support of Ukraine.
Trump is the worst President we have ever had. I worked in the mental health field for thirty years, mostly in-patient psych. He is piss poor protoplasm poorly put together. However, I am very glad he has done away with pennies. And I have always agreed with Jerry that trans-women should not play with non-trans women in sports.
.
I would strongly agree that defining sex for official purposes as biological sex has been a good thing. The HHS report on pediatric gender care supports that official view and is also worth mentioning as a good thing. Support for women in sports is also worth mentioning as part of this range of Trump policies that one can support while disagreeing with other Trump policies.
Without question, Trump undoing Biden’s work on replacing sex, a natural category, with gender or gender identity, is a positive move. It’s a bipartisan issue concerning which the current party of Democrats has dropped the ball, jumped the shark, and gotten on the last train to Crazytown.
I’m also relatively positive regarding his basic or original stance on the war in Gaza, immigration, and mental institutions. He then tries to institute his policies in the most distressing, crude, unhinged way he can — but let’s put that aside for now.
Well, PCC(E), I admit that I’m pretty loath to expose myself to the slings and arrows of other commenters, but what the heck–here goes!
I take issue with your approbation of “taking out Maduro.” No doubt he’s a bad actor, but he’s no Eichmann, IMHO. I ask, would the US be justified in taking out Erdogan? Or Orban? I think not, even though they are probably as bad as Maduro.
There are a few (!) bad actors in the world. How many of them should we “take out?”
Of course, Maduro was not assassinated. I don’t know why Erdogan or Orban would be a direct threat to US citizens.
Taking out Maduro but leaving all the rest of his administration in charge doesn’t strike me as a “good thing.”
Apparently Delcy Rodriguez is prepared to work with Trump on oil extraction.
Maybe some good will come of this. But it’s certainly not obvious now.
Forcing Europe to take more responsibility for their own defense. The costs of which will cause a cascade of other adjustments which will be to Europe’s long-term good, such as modifying their energy as well as immigration policies. But it may be too late for them. I suspect Europe is in a long slow decline.
I’d like to think Trump’s made Democrats consider moderating their candidates, rejecting or not kowtowing to the Woke, so that we’ll get better candidates. I agree with Jerry’s list, too.
“Including:
– helping Israel
– taking out Maduro
– attacking Iran along with Israel
– reducing illegal immigration at the border
– defining sex for official purposes as biological sex rather than self-identification”
This is why the Democrats are so infuriating. The first 3 are things that are well within what we would have expected from Clinton/Gore era Democrats. The immigration issue came about only because of a recent, far left tilt into ridiculous “open borders” ideology. Even Obama-era Dems had sensible views on restricting immigration, policing illegals and securing the border.
And the last issue…I continue to be baffled by the Democrats. Yes, the Republicans should get credit for understanding that men and women are biologically different. Up until last Tuesday, your average 3 year old could have told you that. It’s almost like the entire trans movement was an elaborate sabotage of the Democratic Party perpetrated by right wingers.
It’s the own-goal to end all own-goals….
I agree with getting rid of the penny. Although the implementation was not thought out (no surprise there).
He’s mentally ill, so he may do something catastrophic, and has come dangerously close.
I don’t think anything he’s done that’s possibly good comes close to benefiting America, not when he’s damaged our republic to the extent he and his cult have.
You seem to be misunderstanding the question. It’s pretty clear from what I said that I am asking for individual ACTS that are beneficial, not whether Trump has benefited America overall. If you think he’s done things that are possibly good, you should list them.
Yes. For us Mexicans. He has brought the Mexican government into line.
If we’re including Trump’s first term, then I must mention Operation Warp Speed, the development of COVID vaccines in an unprecedentedly short time.
Of course, that’s the one accomplishment that he never brags about.
That was a huge accomplishment that may have saved millions of lives.
The main good things Trump has done is reversing his policies and stated preferences whenever he receives sufficient pushback. Overall, he’s a terrible person and a terrible president.
Someone just mentioned eliminating minting of the penny. I agree. Another good thing was getting us out of an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, though like the penny, poorly thought out and like W Bush getting us out of Iraq, he left the mess for his successor to deal with.
Agree with our host’s list.
Other good things: Removing illegal aliens/immigrants, projecting our military and financial strenghts, clamping down of fraud and waste, testing the limits of the constitution, reveal the cult of MAGA, etc.
What’s not to like.. however, it was all done in terrible, unethical ways.
We’re generally agreed on the good: the penny, two sexes, a strong border, support for Israel, Iran strike. He’s hampered by his lack of history and of diplomacy, his short attention span, his vindictiveness, his inconsistency. We the people will pay a price, a Trump tariff, on his words and actions. Watching Davos was like watching a B-grade horror film with Mark Carney as hero and Trump as the monster from the swamp!
In addition to things others have mentioned, I would add reducing regulations, supporting manufacturing, and making things more affordable by increasing supply.
I’m going to say it: The White House Ballroom is a Good Thing.
As always, the way it was done was terrible. But from what I’d read, it was really needed. We needed the space to host large state events, without dependency on the weather, and without having dignitaries in ballgowns and tuxedos line up for porta-potties outdoors. And it was funded by donors. No doubt with an expectation of returned favors, but that is the back-side of politics.
What is the point of listing the “good things” Trump may have done for the country? There has never been a malevolent figure in history who did only bad things. By this logic, one could also list things that Adolf Hitler did which are, taken in isolation, often cited as “positive”: the expansion of public infrastructure such as the Autobahn, early forms of animal-protection legislation, restrictions on animal experimentation, and even his personal promotion of vegetarianism. These facts are historically true and utterly irrelevant to any serious moral evaluation of the regime.
The same applies to other figures. Stalin oversaw industrialization and the defeat of Nazi Germany; Lenin expanded literacy and education. Yet none of this alters the fact that they were responsible for massive repression, violence, and the destruction of human lives on an enormous scale.
Donald Trump should have been jailed for attempting to overturn a democratic election. The fact that the United States was unable or unwilling to hold him legally accountable says a great deal about the current condition of its institutions. Moreover, his decision to pardon individuals involved in serious drug-trafficking offenses is far more consequential and damaging than any policy success one might selectively highlight.
The kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro was a violation of international law. It was not motivated by concern for democracy or human rights, but by a desire to control Venezuela’s oil reserves. Trump never contemplated similar actions against dictators he openly admired, such as Lukashenko of Belarus, because he is comfortable with authoritarian figures who align with his interests.
This is precisely why enumerating “good deeds” is a misleading exercise. It distracts from patterns of behavior, institutional damage, and moral failure. When someone consistently undermines democratic norms, violates international law, and shows contempt for accountability, pointing out what they did “nicely” is beside the point. Why insist on that framing at all?
I think I described the point of my question. If you want to rant and not answer it, then go elsewhere, which you’ll have to do from now on. As the Roolz say, don’t tell me what I can or cannot post.
If you’ve read this site, you’ll see that I’ve heaped plenty of opprobrium on Trump. Enumerating good deeds tells us which deeds should be considered good, even if enacted by someone you don’t like. Several of those deeds would not have been done by Kamala Harris.
This is also a way to find out what the readers here consider directions for the country to go in that are good, and thus perhaps to give Democrats an idea of what policies they should be promoting.
See ya!
I agree. This is not very productive. I’m on the point of unsubscribing. If I could only figure out how (I’ve looked but can’t find it.)
The man is a chaos engine. Something good might happen on a random basis. It is never because there’s an intent to improve life on the planet that doesn’t coincide with his immediate self interest.
That is not an answer to the question, though. As I said above, learning what liberal readers consider “good” can tell us what Democrats should be promoting in the next election.
You listed “good things” in the original post. I’m fine with your list, mostly. But I don’t find the exercise invigorating. As others have pointed out, one can list good and bad things done by any human you choose.
If the purpose is to determine what Democrats should promote in the election(s) coming up then I think that should be the question. Framing it in terms of listing the Orange Menace’s “good things” contributes to that much. In fact it distracts from what I think is the most important issue, the American descent into fascism.
Donald Trump is a small time crook and a disgraced real estate fraudster unleashed by powerful puppeteers to smash any limit created by rules of law and conflicts of interest, in the US and possibly wherever necessary. He is succeeding, because his mental illness and lack of sense of dignity make him unstoppable. Also, the risk of his gang refusing to accept a vote against them is real, opening an even darker chapter. So I don’t think wondering whether he has done anything good makes sense. Talk about “a ballroom” to Minnesotans maimed in the streets by SA-type vigilantes and see what they say
Trump has done lots of good things, as others have stated, taking on the border/immigration, sex not gender, challenging DEI, anti-Hamas, shining a light on NGOs.
I only wish he had half the skills/personality of Obama, who charmingly installed so many of those destructive policies. And I wish the changes were codified rather than through EOs.
I agree to some extent on the two sexes point, but I sympathize with trans people who want to have a passport that allows them to travel in the gender that they have adopted. Hard to imagine the pain of a committed trans woman or man, forced to travel as the gender that they have abandoned, sometimes with irreversible surgery.
Ditching the penny. Far as I’m concerned, he could eliminate the $1 bill, too.
And OK, support for Israel. But did he go before the public and make the case for supporting Israel? AFAIK, no. No surprise there – he’s incapable of making a cogent argument even when there’s a pretty easy one to be made.
Energy realism and full support for AI are both good in my view. Support for nuclear energy is good.
His anti-crime initiatives have probably saved many black lives, but no one will ever give him credit for that.
Europe is gradually Islamizing. Trump is trying to slap some sense into our allies on this issue. I regard that as good.
Yes. He has done some good things, essentially along the lines that you outline. He has also done some not-so-good things (= bad things). I will continue to evaluate the administration policy by policy and action by action. I have many friends and family member who evaluate policies and actions based on the person or party. I still love them, but they are letting their emotions get the best of them, even to the point of finding fault with policies with which they agree. That’s self defeating and can’t be good for the country.