History judges American Presidents—at least in part—by how well they managed to get their stated agenda passed into law without being stalled by Congress, overturned by SCOTUS, or repealed by the next administration. For the sake of putting down an historical marker right here and now, here follow ten major agenda items upon which I will be evaluating President Trump four years hence. If he does not accomplish at least half of these things, he is clearly not living up to the expectations he has set for American voters.
1) Build the wall
Federal law currently provides for 1,125 kilometers of fencing to be completed along an international border which is 3,201 kilometers long. If President Trump cannot get Congress to authorize at least 2,000 more km of security fencing, he will have broken this promise to his base.
2) Make Mexico pay for the wall
Trump has claimed that Mexico would pay for the wall at almost all of his rallies. If they do not actually do so, he has failed to keep this promise.
3) Pass significant new tariffs
Trump has proposed a 45% tariff on imports from China. If he doesn’t get this tariff (or something similarly debilitating to international trade) through Congress, he has failed to meet expectations.
4) Withdraw the U.S. from at least one major international trade deal
Trump has stated that “NAFTA is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country,” and with GOP control of the Senate, he should have no problem rolling it back or at least significantly renegotiating its terms.
5) Repeal Obamacare
Pretty much self-explanatory. If the ACA is not repealed, Trump has failed this objective.
6) Replace Obamacare
Somewhat less self-explanatory. This objective will be met if the GOP passes something we can reasonably refer to as a national health care bill.
7) Ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
Trump boldly and unequivocally called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” back in December of 2015.
If any Muslims are allowed to enter the U.S. during the second half of his term, Trump will have failed to live up to this goal.
8) Appoint “pro-life” justices
Trump’s judicial appointees must be willing to uphold state laws which place ever increasing burdens on women who seek to terminate their own pregnancy, as promised.
9) Massive tax cuts
Trump has promised us the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan. No idea how this matches up with the Ryan budget and GOP promises of deficit reduction, but they will have to square that circle somehow.
10) “Lock her up”
To the best of my knowledge, Trump has not actually promised to imprison his erstwhile political opponent, but the folks at his rallies have made their expectations quite clear on the matter. He has said he would appoint a special prosecutor to go after her, and fails this final objective if he does not do so.
If you can think of any major political promises which I missed, please leave a comment below. Don’t forget to check back in four years to see how it all turns out, assuming you don’t have any preexisting conditions right now.
