I am feeling brave enough to revisit something I wrote for private consumption some years ago, headed “Heresy”and listing some of the things Trump did well. I didn’t dare share it with many others. I certainly didn’t dare put it on this website. Anyway, it was just a list of
bullet-points.
I first felt somewhat emboldened when, in January 2024 after Trump won the Iowa primary, The Spectator came out with an editorial saying, more elegantly and obviously more comprehensively, almost exactly what I had written.
I wrote it either in late 2020 or early 2021, after Covid had struck but while we were still suffering under the extended regime of seemingly endless lockdowns.
Now that Trump has mercifully survived the attempted assassination and most people seem to be predicting that he is likely to win in November, it is worth looking at again. I said then, and repeat now, that I’m not denying some of his appalling personal characteristics: I am
focussing on what he did. I am also not discussing his possible reaction to the war in Ukraine, which hadn’t then started.
There were eleven items. I’m setting them out below in italics - and then adding some up-to-date comments, many derived from the editorial in The Spectator.
1 Economy did well (pre-COVID, admittedly).
The Spectator says this too, adding implicitly that this may have been helped along by his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. I ask myself whether one can always credit political leaders for economic success occuring during their time - although Bill Clinton famously did think so (“It’s the economy, stupid”).
2 Unemployment down (caused in part by his protectionism which I’m not convinced by, but I wouldn’t like to have to explain to an unemployed American why it’s such a good idea to import things from China).
The Spectator agreed about unemployment and added that “Poverty rates for black and Hispanic Americans reached record lows”. No wonder he gets support from the white working classes and from black and Hispanic voters.
3 Taking action against illegal immigration.
No comment. Maybe the proverbial Elephant in the Room is about to emerge.
4 Getting out of the Paris accord on climate change. (Controversial obviously, but no one explains what good the accord can realistically do).
The Spectator maintained a discreet silence on this one, still perhaps supporting the climate policies of the then government and indeed all the then opposition parties. I make no comment other than to urge people to watch Climate: the Movie, in which many of the world’s leading climate scientists explain the science - actually, the lack of science - behind the climate alarms and the absurdity of the policies being adopted. It is available on YouTube.
5 Supporting us on Brexit. Good for us, including those who opposed it.
6 Taking what I think is the right attitude on COVID after he recovered - by which I mean trying to persuade people not to be needlessly frightened. No other political leader has been brave enough to do this. Even though un-frightening people has got to happen before life can continue remotely as before.
This must have been written before the Americans (other than a few states, such as Florida and one of the Dakotas) embarked on various extended lockdowns. I guess that the Covid responses were largely matters for the states rather than the federal government. The Spectator suggests that Trump’s action was to allow that to be so. The editorial also says that Trump was proactive in the generation of the vaccines.
7 Taking a stand against political correctness. No “virtue-signalling” from him.
8 Making progress towards peace in the Middle East by getting an agreement between Israel and the UAE (and also with other Arab states, including Egypt).
This was referring to the Abraham Accords. The Spectator reported that they were working well until the Hamas atrocities.
9 Taking a stand against Iran’s nuclear plans.
10 Standing up to China.
11 Keeping America out of war.
My list was written, as already indicated, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tony Herbert
18 July 2024
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