Donald Trump’s campaign slogan will be in our minds for a long time: Make America Great Again. The question is, though, has he? You’ve probably heard the term ‘the first hundred days’ being thrown around if you’ve been in any history class. This is the idea that the first hundred days of the president’s administration is when presidents attempt to push bills, reforms and policies through Congress. What has Donald Trump done in two years? Has it lived up to what he claimed would happen in his administration?
The biggest promises President Trump made on his campaign trail, according to Politifact, were to repeal Obamacare/the Affordable Care Act, build a wall, suspend immigration, cut taxes for everyone, and cut the business tax rate. He also, in his many speeches on the campaign trail, promised to protect the workers of the United States.
How much of that has come true? How much of that, too has helped the working class?
Trump healthcare
A major factor of President Trump’s election was repealing Obamacare- which he attempted to do, multiple times. But according to a 2015 CNN article, “76% of Obamacare-eligible [low-income] individuals… actually signed up for a plan,” and most people have been pretty happy with it. His attempts to push an Obamacare repeal failed, in part due to the majority of the public opposing a repeal. It’s clear that what President Trump wants doesn’t quite line up with what the people of America want, and with a repeal, more than 30 million Americans would have no coverage. President Trump talked about helping the working man, but that can’t happen while the working man is unable to get healthcare, can it?
Recently, a judge in Texas ruled Obamacare to be unconstitutional. The mixed reactions of the people show that a full repeal of Obamacare might not be in the public interest. The individual mandate required American citizens to get healthcare. Most Americans disliked that, so it was repealed, but the other parts of Obamacare, such as expanded Medicare and Medicaid, are what Americans don’t seem to have a problem with.
So in those regards, maybe President Trump has been successful. But while he did manage to strike down an unpopular aspect of the Affordable Care Act, he’s been gunning for a full repeal these last two years, which is not what the public, and especially the working class, want.
Immigration
By now, there isn’t anybody who doesn’t know about President Trump’s campaign to “build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it!” Obviously, that hasn’t quite happened yet. Recently, though, Trump has increased his efforts for a wall, and as a result, put the United States into a partial government shutdown. He’s been rallying for 5 billion dollars to put into border security, but Congress refuses to provide that money.
Who really wants this? Donald Trump centered his campaign around a wall, but what’s the cost? The border wall needs an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion. But Mexico won’t pay for it. According to the Washington Post polling, “most Americans think that its construction isn’t a priority… most Republicans consider it an immediate priority for the government, but most independents join most Democrats in saying that there’s no urgent need for it.” Most Americans – the taxpayers that will be paying for the wall – don’t even think it’s a priority, and Republicans agree that the wall is urgent, but it’s not as if Trump can only cater to Republicans; he has to cater to the needs of the entire nation.
Taxes
Trump promised to cut taxes for the nation and cut the business tax rate. Well, did he actually?
In 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This act cuts individual income tax rates, doubles the standard deduction, and eliminates personal exemptions, as well as cutting the corporate tax rate. The Washington Post reports that “it has fattened the paychecks of most American workers, padded the profits of large corporations and sped economic growth,” which is important in the recently fluctuating economy. Wage growth has not been reported, either. Higher overall worker pay hasn’t yet happened. For the working class who voted for Trump on those grounds, it has been a disappointment.
So how effective has President Trump been? Some of his promises have followed up on, sure. What he’s campaigned for either hasn’t happened or many Americans don’t want it, though. It certainly hasn’t worked out for the working class. President Trump promised to help them, and so, in those regards, he has failed.
The question is, where do we go from here? If President Trump hasn’t done what he’s promised to do, then he has a responsibility to change. A president is meant to attend to the needs of the people, after all. If his constituents aren’t happy, then he needs to change. I’m not a political analyst, but I am a citizen, and I just don’t think that we need to spend this much on a wall. There are hundreds of thousands of federal workers going without pay because of the government shutdown. There are people who aren’t getting government aid- we can’t just use a shutdown as a playing card when it hurts citizens. The wall isn’t as important as the American people being hurt by this shutdown. We need to look at what will really help citizens, and this wall certainly won’t.
