President Trump and his management team came into office a year ago with a huge advantage no previous U.S. administration has had. First, Trump had four years of experience during his first term, so he understood the magnitude of the challenge. Second, he had four years between his presidencies to assemble a team, make detailed plans, prepare, and adjust. Like it or not, the results have been unprecedented.
Navigating the immense, complex, self-serving swamp our government has become is like turning a battleship around in a sea of molasses. A briar patch of special interests will inflict death by a thousand cuts, on anyone straying off the beaten path of grift that’s been carefully schemed over generations. The slightest change creates winners and losers. Any change at all is immediately condemned. Trump’s personality and methods can seem downright crude, and his breakneck pace is as intimidating as a runaway bull in a china shop.
So, after a year of this, where are we, here on the ground?
For starters, it costs me almost $20 less each time I fill my pickup with gas. Mortgage rates have dropped. So has the price of eggs. Our business can write off capital improvements 100% the same year, reducing our tax burden. Biden’s staggering 9 percent inflation has slowed to under 3 percent, so prices overall have stabilized. Economic growth has doubled. The stock markets are setting records, so retirement savings in IRA’s and 401k’s are growing.
Our southern border is closed. The illegal-alien population is shrinking; the record foreign-born population has fallen by two million. Deporting known criminals has lowered the crime rate. So has the deployment of National Guard in cities like Washington DC, Memphis and New Orleans. Truck drivers who can’t speak English are being taken off the road.
We’ve reversed course on absurd “gender” policies like boys in girls’ sports. It’s now official government policy that there are two sexes, male and female. We no longer have cross-dressers in charge of our military. Federal funding for the horrific castration and mutilation of children has been cut, so dozens of medical clinics that performed sex change procedures on minors have paused or halted the treatments.
We’re on a path to better health. Eighteen states have followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s call to remove junk food from food stamp programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a new “food pyramid” prioritizing proteins, fruits, and vegetables. Drug prices are being dramatically cut. Research into chronic childhood diseases has been jump-started, and the forcing of vaccines on babies and pregnant women is being challenged.
Racism is no longer government policy. Federal “DEI” guidelines were eliminated on Trump’s first day in office, in favor of merit-based hiring and college admissions. Major corporations are rolling back their DEI policies. Colleges that permit race discrimination, riots and religious harassment stand to lose their federal funding. The FBI is no longer targeting traditional Catholics and anti-abortion groups.
To save taxpayer dollars and combat rampant fraud, the Department of Government Efficiency reduced federal employment by about 271,000 jobs, and terminated 9,474 wasteful contracts. Funding for immigration groups that shepherded millions of illegal aliens into the country was cut off. The administration clawed back extravagant grants to climate alarmist groups and overseas DEI programs. Brazen fraud and corruption in places like Minnesota is in the national spotlight.
In these and countless other ways, there’s been a huge cultural shift toward patriotism and common sense. Despite stubborn resistance, temper tantrums and hysterics by the establishment, the adults are back in charge, and little by little the tide is turning. President Trump may indeed be crass, crude, bullying, annoying and all those other names. Maybe that’s just what we needed at this point in our history. In any case, the sky isn’t falling. Let’s take a deep breath and count our blessings. We’re watching a historic presidency.
An Adams County resident since 1997, Steve Boehme is a local Adams County businessman and political commentator, who published the Adams County CROSSROADS magazine from 2005 until 2019.
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