It has been 28 days since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Democrat lawmakers and leftist mainstream media have had fits since then. To hear them talk Trump is a backwoods (like Lincoln?) inept rube. There are repeated calls for his impeachment, with the only basis for such an action being that Democrats lost.
In that vein, let’s look at some facts. Democrats bemoan that he is behind on cabinet appointments when compared to Obama. What they leave out is that Republicans capitulated on nearly every Obama cabinet pick. Democrats have been blatantly obstructionist with Trump’s picks, then hypocritically claim he isn’t doing his job.
In the view of most Americans, most of Trump’s cabinet picks have been stellar. He for the most part has chosen solid business people with no vested interest in seeing the continuation of massive government. That, of course, irritates the Democrats to no end.
His one mistake so far has been National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. This is someone who has been in the government snake pit long enough to navigate it. According to people who should know, he didn’t do anything his predecessors didn’t do. Sadly, Trump chose to ask for his resignation. Democrats will now be emboldened to go after other appointees.
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee has received rave reviews as a solid conservative principled in Constitutional law. Ted Cruz enthusiastically endorsed him so that is good enough for me. Even with this nomination with a lot of advanced warning, the media had a minor meltdown.
The most bothersome fact that Democrats are dealing with is that Trump is doing what he promised to do in his campaign. What a novel idea, and a foreign concept to most career politicians. They whine that Trump is signing a lot of executive orders. About 95 percent of Trump’s executive orders undo or negate those Obama implemented.
The order that got the most attention was his travel restriction. Briefly, he imposed a 90-day rule restricting people coming into the U.S. from seven countries that the Obama administration determined to be terrorist threats. The idea was to tighten scrutiny of people from those countries. The media created a new name for it, the Muslim ban order.
The order was completely within the bounds of a Supreme Court decision in 1948 which resulted in a law passed in 1952. The Justice Department ruled it to be legal, but the acting Attorney General announced she would not enforce the order. She got fired as a result, as she should have. The media viewed that as somehow unfair.
A “political hack” judge in Washington imposed a stay on the rule with no ruling of law or basis in fact. It was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court. As of this writing, the Trump administration has not announced whether it will appeal to the Supreme Court or rewrite the order. As a side note, a bill has been introduced to divide the Ninth Circuit into two districts. Part of a larger plan?
I don’t care much for White House press secretaries. They are usually paid liars. Sean Spicer so far seems to be the exception. He takes on the press, and regularly treats the reporters as the childish people their questions show them to be. He manages to clarify issues and put reporters with an agenda in their place.
In summary, the stock market is up, but don’t expect a one-way run. Business is more optimistic with the promise of tax reform and reducing regulations. The media is in a frenzy because nothing they do to take Trump down works. Democrats are furious because they can’t stop Trump, only impede him.
For those of you saying Trump hasn’t tackled the border wall, Obamacare or tax reform, be patient. It took 20 years to get in the tax mess we have. It took two years to implement a failed rollout of Obamacare. The border wall legislation was passed during the Bush administration, and Trump has ordered compliance with that law. These are not issues to take lightly. Trump cannot unilaterally undo taxes or Obamacare. It takes Congress to rewrite the laws. These didn’t happen overnight and need to be undone right.
Will Trump make mistakes? Of course. He has already learned that Democrats, the media and career bureaucrats are working full time against him. I hope he can stay the course. So far, so good. Oh, and Democrats? You lost. Get used to it.
Tom Riggins’ column appears every other Friday. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.