President Donald Trump’s legacy will continue to be debated for a long time.
Democrats are trying to erase his achievements; President Joe Biden cannot even bring himself to acknowledge Trump by name for his success in producing the vaccines that are enabling the country, and the world, to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
But Trump’s successes will endure, because what he did simply worked, and will not easily be forgotten.
Unfortunately, there were a few problems he could not fix.
Here is a list of problems to which Trump found answers — or, at least, showed us how to solve over the long run, given the political will:
1. Black poverty. Trump lowered black unemployment and poverty to their lowest levels in recorded history. He did it not by redistributing wealth, but by emphasizing economic growth for all Americans, especially in manufacturing. He launched Opportunity Zones that rewarded investment in black communities, and enforced immigration laws, which helped African Americans compete for jobs and higher wages. While poverty and inequality persist, Trump showed the true path to progess.
2. Middle East peace. Trump tossed out the Washington consensus that claimed peace depended on Palestinian statehood and Israeli concessions. Instead, he made clear commitments to Israel — the embassy in Jerusalem, sovereignty over the Golan Heights — and confronted the terrorist regime of Iran. The result: a flourishing of peace agreements between Israel and many Arab and Muslim states. At the same time, Trump was able to withdraw most U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
3. China. While China obviously remains a growing economic and military threat, the prevailing view in Washington and Wall Street had been that the U.S. was already too dependent on China to fight back. Trump showed that was not true: his tariffs barely dented the U.S. economy, but had a major impact on the Chinese economy before the coronavirus pandemic. He also reduced the danger of conflict with North Korea, which China had used for decades as a proxy to threaten the U.S.
4. Immigration. Americans have long favored a compromise that includes a humane solution for those living here illegally — if, and only if, the border is secure against future illegal immigration. Trump made that possible by “building the wall” — replacing old barriers over hundreds of miles, and beginning to expand into previously open areas of the border. Biden’s approach — abandoning the wall and encouraging migration — has created a new crisis. Only Trump’s approach can work.
5. Climate change. Trump lowered America’s greenhouse gas emissions while growing the U.S. economy, even after exiting the Paris Climate Agreement. His support for fracking helped the U.S. become the number-one supplier of oil in the world, achieving the energy independence that had seemed impossible just 20 years ago. Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, by contrast, killed jobs and will eventually force more wasteful means of transporting Canada’s oil sands to the U.S.
6. Manufacturing. American manufacturing recovered under Trump. He lowered corporate taxes to make production in the U.S. more attractive; he created the new U.S-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement to replace NAFTA, which shipped jobs south of the border; and he was a relentless cheerleader for American jobs. While past Republican presidents had been wary of telling corporate America where to make its products, Trump restored a sense of duty toward American workers.
7. Vaccines. No country handled the coronavirus perfectly, and there were certainly mistakes in the U.S. But Trump showed unique foresight and creativity in emphasizing the development of a vaccine. Many experts assumed a vaccine was years away. But Trump cut red tape and made sure the U.S. government invested heavily in several different options. The result: today the U.S. is far ahead of Europe and most of the world in vaccinating the population, heralding a return to normal.
And here is a list of problems Trump could not fix — mostly because in each case, his opponents had a veto over solutions:
1. Race relations. Trump did not create America’s racial divisions, and his attempts to reach out were often undermined by his own provocative rhetoric and combative style. Regardless, he won more minority support in the 2020 elections than any Republican in 60 years. But Trump’s opponents manufactured hoaxes — such as the Charlottesville “very fine people” hoax — to paint him as a would-be Hitler. And they used the Black Lives Matter movement to inflame racial tensions into violence.
2. Elections. Trump lost in 2020 partly because Democrats managed to change the rules of voting midway through the race in key battleground states. In many cases, they had support from Republicans, who capitulated to left-wing pressure groups. The sad truth is that 20 years after the 2000 recount, America’s voting system remains a mess because neither party has an interest in fixing it. And with Trump gone, the “swamp” continues to expand, with the imminent restoration of earmarks.
3. Media bias. The one-sided nature of the mainstream media, including the Internet, are a serious challenge for American democracy. Unfortunately, the more Trump fought back against media bias, the higher the circulation and the ratings for his opponents. Moreover, while Trump has rightly been criticized for failing to do enough to rein in the tech giants, companies like Google already had so much control over information that they could make good on their commitment to defeat him.
These persistent problems will make it more difficult for Trump’s legacy to endure. But no matter what Biden or future presidents do, Trump’s successors will find it difficult to improve on his policies, which history will ultimately acknowledge.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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