Trump -- Midterm Report

A couple of years ago, I made predictions of Trump's first term. Now that it's more than halfway over, how did I do?

Has it been interesting so far? Check.

LGBT concerns: I think Trump is tracking pretty much as predicted. He hasn't gone after gay marriage, but has indeed pushed for religion freedoms for those who disagree. He did make some questionable calls, such as banning trans-people from serving in the military.

Obamacare: Trump and friends failed to repeal and replace this legislation. Evidently the Republicans were unable to agree on a replacement. Though, the mandate penalty (my biggest complaint of the law) is now officially lowered to $0. As an actuary, I wonder what this means long-term, as without a replacement, this could spell disaster. Health costs are still high, and the insurers are still a pain to work with.

Immigration: Trump has indeed kept many of his promises. He's finally started working on his wall. I was a little happy to see an increase in enforcement, but at the same time I'm deeply saddened by some of the policies that he's adopted that are frankly inhumane. Potential asylum seekers are placed in prison-like conditions and are sometimes separated from their children (some of whom are still not reunited). People are dying while reaching out to our country for safety, only to be rejected because of blanket asylum policies aimed specifically at Central American countries. Many who try to come legally through the gate are met with months of runaround until they can no longer wait, and they ultimately decide to cross illegally in desperation. Trump has created a mess, and to fix it he sends troops and construction workers instead of social workers to help handle the load. There has to be a better way to handle this.

H1-B visas: Yes, he's cracking down on these. I fear for my foreign friends whom I may not see anymore.

Muslims: Surprisingly, Trump has laid off big time in this area. He did try one travel ban that included a religious test, which was rightfully contested by the judicial branch. But then Trump removed the religious test, and the revised travel ban was allowed. Though Trump is mostly leaving Muslims alone, he's still indirectly pushing "religious freedoms" when he really means "Christian (and Jewish) freedoms."

Black people: I still hold that he is not racist toward black people. It's just not there. He continues to say stupid things that sound racist, but really aren't. It's so easy to take things out of context. Though, I do think that he really is racist toward Mexicans (see above).

Trump as Hitler: He's nowhere close. There are no concentration camps (the detention centers at the border are not concentration camps). No thought police. Before, I said his ignorance would bring on a disaster, and so far that hasn't happened.

Fake news: I'm still appalled at Trump's continual attempts to discredit news outlets. However, I've come to learn that he is not "silencing" them ... just helping them to look stupid. I've also watched the quality of CNN and other liberal-leaning outlets drop like a rock in response. Now everyone seems to be as bad as Fox News.

Federal Reserve: Yes ... he's trying to tell them what to do, but at least he's not taking any measures to undermine this intentionally-independent organization.

Corporations: I'm very happy about the tax cuts, but am disappointed that it wasn't balanced out by raising capital gains taxes and reduced spending in Congress. Our deficit is growing at a rate faster than it had on average during Obama's 2nd term. Still, the markets are high and there are more jobs.

Foreign concerns: I'm sure Russia loves Trump to death, because everything he's done has helped them to become stronger -- not because of any collusion, but because of his ignorance and his susceptibility of being manipulated by Putin. Even our recent withdrawal in Syria has allowed Russia to strengthen their position.

National unity: Much to my disappointment, Trump has done everything in his power to increase the divide between conservatives and liberals. His tweets, name-calling, attacks on news outlets, and silly distractions have done nothing but galvanized his base and pushed liberals more into the unconstitutional "Resist" movement. We are truly in a sad state, and I see no way out of it. I, personally, would love to see Trump removed from office so we could have someone more sensible like Pence to help bring us back together. All of the Democrats running for office seem to me to be just as bad, and more than ready to push dangerous agendas just to galvanize their own bases. Can we really not have a good moderate president that won't divide us further?

Summary: Trump has accomplished a few things that makes me excited, but has also been a great embarrassment to the conservative cause and to our country overall. I no longer feel like he's going to lead us into a disaster, but I really wish I could trust him. I wish I could see him as being "presidential." I wish he could grow up and actually start leading ALL of us and help us to be proud to be American again.