by WorldTribune Staff, January 16, 2018
As he closes in on one year in office, doesn’t President Donald Trump have “every reason to be rather high on himself”?
“What is there to be humble about?” asks R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., editor in chief of The American Spectator.
“In his first year in office he has created a vibrant economy, made extensive appointments to the federal judiciary (in fact, he has made more appeals court appointments in one year than any president has since the appeals court was established in 1891), deregulated on a vast scale, got his tax reform through with the elimination of the Obama era mandate, and now he is starting on immigration reform and the building of his promised wall,” Tyrrell wrote in a Jan. 9 op-ed for The Washington Times.
Trump, Tyrrell noted, “amassed some of his wealth as a builder. Actually, I believe he is the only American president who made a fortune as a builder. George Washington may have built a shack or two on his estates, for he was pretty much a self-made man too, but I expect Donald Trump even transcended George as a builder. Now the 45th president wants to make good on his promise to build a wall across on our southern border to keep out the jihadists, the drug gangs, and the illegal aliens – all promising members of the Democratic coalition.”
In a piece last month for New York magazine titled “55 ways Donald Trump Structurally Changed America in 2017”, Nick Tabor noted that “In the background, Donald Trump’s Cabinet members and their collaborators have been working hard to deliver on Steve Bannon’s vision of dismantling the ‘regulatory state.’ With Trump’s blessing, they have made drastic, structural changes on education, immigration, environmental protections, broadcasting and internet laws, and rules of military engagement, among other issues. Most often the changes have taken direct aim at Obama’s legacy, but some apply to regulations and programs that date back decades.”
Sometimes builders also need to take a wrecking ball to faulty structures.
Trump’s border wall “is a part of his overall immigration policy, which is intended to fix our broken immigration system,” Tyrrell wrote. “Before President Trump entered the White House illegal immigrants were overwhelming our southern border. Now, even without a wall the number of illegals has declined. They know that Donald keeps his promises. Already he is demanding alterations in immigration policy to end ‘chain immigration’ by which legal immigrants can bring in members of their extended family, often dozens of family members, many with fictitious connections to them.”
During his campaign for the presidency, Trump “argued that a country that cannot control its borders has very little claim to being a country,” Tyrrell wrote. “He might also argue that a country that does not demand anything else from would-be immigrants than the luck of the draw or a ‘diverse’ background is not much of a country either. In the 21st century, with terrorism arising all around the world and many of the terrorists aiming their invidious weapons against the United States, I think it is time to bring our immigration standards up to date. Immigrants ought to demonstrate a love of America before they arrive here. Let them demonstrate some knowledge of the land they might be adopting.”
In recent weeks, Tyrrell noted, the president has been forced to “respond to calumnies directed at him by a past employee who, while in the White House, dressed like a garbage man and by a glabrous hoaxer who has already admitted that his rude book about the Trump administration abounds with falsehoods. Yet he published it anyway.”
But Trump, Tyrrell wrote, “remains unruffled, angry yes, but calm.”
The president tweeted: “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.”
Trump “spoke of building a wall costing 18 billion dollars,” Tyrrell wrote. “He also spoke of reviving the confusing immigration laws. Go to it, Mr. President, and, by the way, develop a dress code for the White House. Be wary of shabbily dressed counselors.”
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