President Trump is the Best President Ever, or is he?

Curious about why supporters of Mr. Trump think he’s the best president, ever, I went to a Facebook page entitled, “Mr. Trump is the Best President Ever #MAGA 45.” I joined the group and posted, “I’m a writer and plan on writing an article about why people think Mr. Trump is the best president, ever. Please jot down your thoughts.”

Leo Kerrison, who lacks information about himself on his Facebook page, pointed out that black American unemployment rates are at its lowest level and that the president is up-spending on black colleges and universities. In May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. economy gained 2.5 million jobs and the unemployment rate dropped from 14.7 percent to 13.3 percent. According to Fred Economic Research, Kerrison is right. The unemployment rate was at its lowest for African-Americans in August 2019 at 5.4%. As of May, 2020, due to the lockdown, Black unemployment is at 16.8%. Kerrison is right about allocating funding for Black institutes of learning. On December 2019 the president signed a bipartisan bill that provides more than $250 million a year to the nation’s historically black colleges and universities and other institutions that serve minority students. 

Andi Denney, a woman from Yucca Valley, California, studied American history during the lock down. The ‘authority’ says, “Our President has been unfairly called a racist and every other word said to discredit him.” She also stated, “Perhaps in my opinion alongside Abraham Lincoln, no other President has been so hated but prevails for the good of the country and I add now THE WORLD.” According to a May 3, 2020 article in American Thinker, a Conservative blog, Donald Trump, at the age of 39, broke ground when he purchased Mar-a-Lago, his golf resort in Palm Beach, Florida. According to the article, “Under Trump’s ownership, Mar-a-Lago has been open from the beginning to anyone who could qualify, regardless of race or religion. Influenced in part by Trump’s ground-breaking example, other clubs in the area slowly began doing away with discriminatory policies.  Today, all high-society clubs in Palm Beach are open to blacks and Jews.  Long before he ran for president, Donald Trump was dismantling racial barriers in South Florida, not something a racist would do.” 

However, an August 2019 article in the Huffpost paints a different picture. Trump has been quoted as saying, “I’m the least racist person you have ever met.” But why have white supremacist groups supported and praised him? Here are a few reasons: First, Trump implied that a Hispanic federal judge presiding over a class action suit against the for-profit Trump University, could not fairly hear the case due to his Mexican heritage. In 1973 the Justice Department sued Trump Management Corporation for alleged racial discrimination against black people looking to rent apartments in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. There’s more…Workers at Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City accused him of racism. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission investigated the claims and eventually fined the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino $200,000 in 1992 managers removed African-American card dealers at the request of big-spending gamblers. I could go on, but read the article for yourself and decide.  Do you agree with Denney that President Trump is being treated unfairly?

Felisha Matthew, a resident of Canada says, “(Trump) doesn’t pander to elitists” and “he can’t be bought by the promise of money, fame, and power.” During the 2016 campaign and over the last three years of his administration, Trump has targeted intelligence agencies, the media, foreign allies, the Department of Justice, established politicians, scientists and the Congressional Budget Office. He has refused to accept the judgment of intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He has also stated, without proof, that millions of illegal voters cast ballots during the last presidential election. He has also blamed vaccines for autism despite a trove of scientific papers debunking the notion. The funny thing is, Trump is an elitist, himself. Before becoming president, he lived above New York’s Fifth Avenue in a billionaire’s luxurious suite. His ally, Wayne LaPierre, President of the National Rifle Association, makes more than five million dollars a year. And Trump tends to fawn over the king of elitists in Russia, President Vladamir Putin. 

Matthew also stated, “I heard he put an end to lobbying.” On January 28, 2017 President Trump did sign an enforceable agreement against members of his administration not to become lobbyists unless the order is rescinded by a future president. However, in an article by Derek Kravitz in the National Memo, at least 184 people have left the Trump administration. Of those, at least six former officials are now registered lobbyists and several others work at firms in roles that resemble lobbying in all but name.

According to her Facebook page, we know little about Josie Cole. Of Trump, she says, “He is a man who is not afraid to speak his mind.” She feels “he runs the country like a business.” And “he is the only president to date who has kept every pre-election promise.” Running a government like a business has its problems. Henry Mintzberg writes in Harvard Business Review, “Governments experience all kinds of pressures that cannot be imagined in many enterprises, especially the entrepreneurial kind run by Trump. Has Trump kept his pre-election promises? Let’s take the border wall. He promised Mexico would pay for it. Hasn’t happened. Though he has awarded contracts for 247 miles of wall construction, it has been challenged in court. He also promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but bipartisan concerns regarding the destabilization of insurance markets derailed his efforts. He did reform taxes with the biggest tax cut in history, but 83% of the benefits went to the top 1% of earners, according to the Center for American Progress Action. And to his credit, Trump promised to appoint conservative judges and filled 123 vacancies as of June 19, 2019. 

Lisa Lind from Wausau, Wisconsin said, “With this pandemic, he has done everything to protect Americans…..when he knew of a possible treatment, he wasn’t waiting for the CDC and WHO to get out of their own pockets and save lives…..he boldly told people so that treatments could be implemented by whoever was listening.” Actually, Trump didn’t do much to protect Americans from Covid-19. There was a plan in place left by the Obama Administration that Trump abandoned, as well as science. When the president was informed of the novel virus in Wuhan, China, back in late 2019, there was no meaningful science policy infrastructure in place because Trump dismantled it upon taking office. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) was ignored for two years until a new director was confirmed by the Senate on January 2, 2019. Until November of that year PCAST members lay dormant. And on February 3 and 4, 2020, when the council met, there was no discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic. The work the PCAST has done during the Trump years amounts to zero. Does that sound like a president doing everything he can to protect Americans? 

Finally, Yvette Archuleta from Santa Fe, New Mexico says, “President Trump fights for the protection of children.” Since Trump took office there have been 263 school shootings. His solution—arm the teachers. He has failed to embrace common sense suggestions like raising the minimum age for assault rifle purchases. He refuses to endorse universal background checks or any other provision to take guns from troubled people. This is not surprising. During the 2016 election, the NRA spent more than $21million on Trump’s campaign providing him with $9.6 million on ads and $12 million attacking Hillary Clinton. It seems quite evident Trump is being influenced by the NRA and his policies toward American children proves it. 

Is Trump America’s greatest president? Actor Jon Voight hails Trump as “the greatest president of this century.” However, Business Insider doesn’t agree. In a 2019 article, “RANKED: The greatest US presidents, according to political scientists,” had 200 political scientists rate America’s presidents, Abraham Lincoln was perceived as America’s greatest president, with Barack Obama as number 8, Ronald Reagan in the number 9 slot, and Donald Trump came in dead last, right after James Buchanan.  

What makes a great president? Calm and level-headed, openminded, honest, compassionate, and taking full responsibility for his actions. Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who has worked with eight presidents, said, “[they] have a willingness to listen and accept advice from others.” In a 2016 Face the Nation interview he said, “Trump has a go-it-alone mentality that could be harmful if he’s elected president.” According to Gates, and Trump’s behavior in office over the last 3.5 years, “the president seems to think that he has all the answers and that he doesn’t need advice from staff or anybody else.”  

Trump supporters seem to think that’s okay because many of them believe Donald Trump was sent by God. Facebooker Chris Pappy Heuer, a resident of Mount Zion, Georgia says, “He’s not a career politician. He’s a true God and Country loving American Patriot that can’t and won’t be manipulated.” Others, like surveyor Martin Fox think Trump is a “washed-up reality show actor and a functional illiterate, amoral and an egomaniac.” 

Whom do you believe? Vote accordingly on November 3, 2020.