Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. The Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on illegal border crossings led to the separations of at least 5,500 families and saw children placed in cages. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, two days after announcing an exploratory committee for president, brought his . At least six migrant children died in US custody, leading to widespread condemnation of conditions in detention facilities. But amid growing conservative anger at the tech giants, Trumps regulators eventually joined the fight and dusted off an antitrust legal playbook that hadnt been used since the breakup of AT&T in the 1980s. Contact info@milesfranklin.com, tell them "Sarah sent you" and receive excellent service and the lowest prices guaranteed. The agency also dramatically cut back on enforcing fair lending laws during the Trump administration. But the Trump administrations National Defense Strategy stands out as one of the most important defense policy shifts of the last generation, reorienting the American military to confront rising and increasingly aggressive powers Russia and China. Mr. Trump signed that pay raise into law when he put his signature on an omnibus budget bill, according to Jacqueline Simon, policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees. Republicans defended the decision by saying the burden on companies struggling to stay afloat amid the recession would be too great. The impact: Not much, yet. The impact: The administrations approach paves the way for less stringent regulation of toxic chemicals. Trump dismantled Obama-era policies that were designed to curb abuses by for-profit colleges, including rules designed to make it easier for borrowers to obtain loan forgiveness if they were cheated or duped by their college. The impact: Pressure from Trump prompted the Federal Communications Commission to launch a controversial rulemaking process to clarify the scope of Section 230. 93. 24. The move: At the end of 2019, Trump signed into law carefully crafted bipartisan legislation designed to ensure phone companies would install technology to verify that calls were authentic and bolster federal enforcement powers. Despite former Attorney General William Barrs anti-trust scrutiny of cannabis deals, the federal government remained relatively hands-off on marijuana policy. Businesses rely on these workers to fill jobs they say they cant fill with U.S. citizens. Stephanie Beasley, Trump made it possible to follow the Pentagons money. "President Trump took a step backward by again suggesting there is moral equivalency between the white supremacist, neo-Nazis and KKK members," Graham added. Mr. Trump forged peace deals in the Middle East for . The behavior all but guarantees that future administrations will follow suit. | Trump signed the Music Modernization Act, the biggest change to copyright law in decades. The bills opponents warned that it would hurt consumers and wasnt necessary at a time when the industry was racking up record profits. The document titled "Trump Administration Accomplishments" lists what the outgoing . Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the Obama administrations approach was too lenient, akin to allowing borrowers to access free money at taxpayer expense. The impact: Already it has led to a reordering of the Pentagon budget and new investments supported by a bipartisan majority in Congress, including billions of dollars to beef up the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific. The impact: The health exchanges didnt collapse, as Trump had hoped. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the time described the practice as "nothing less than government-sanctioned child abuse.". Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 has induced chaos throughout the Middle East. Once you strip away the misleading claims from this . It is true that the First Step Act calls for the Bureau of Prisons to significantly expand these opportunities, but because of a lack of funding, around 25 percent of people who spend more than a year in federal prison have not completed any program, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which backed the bill. Michael Stratford, Trumps Interior Department set a new standard for ignoring Congress, David Bernhardt testifies during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), a project that monitors the health of democracy across the world, in its 2020 reportsaid the US has become more autocratic in the Trump era. But a Sessions-led crackdown never materialized. Unfortunately, people are still getting blindsided by medical bills. Ron DeSantis has dropped from 30 to 25 percent in the RCP average. This article is a year old, and it's from the New York Times so it's hardly unbiased. . The move: In late 2019, the Interior Department temporarily stopped all non-emergency use of its mostly Chinese-made drones after officials from several agencies including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice warned that drones and drone equipment made in China might be used for espionage. After the violence, Trump released a video acknowledging that a new administration would take over, but he did not explicitly concede. 42. The upshot: While Trumps moves made Obamacare plans increasingly unaffordable for the unsubsidized, Democrats quickly tamped down their criticisms since it accomplished their goal of significantly boosting funding for Obamacare. In 2018, President Trump launched the Pledge to Americas Workers, aimed at boosting the private sectors role in training American workers. . Trump fulfilled a major GOP priority in 2018 by signing the first big bank deregulation bill since the landmark Dodd-Frank Act was enacted in 2010. Bidens campaign also pledged to double the number of OSHA investigators to enforce the law and existing standards. Trump in a July 2020 interview said he had not confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin on the matter. . While it was no surprise to anyone who followed his 2016 presidential campaign that Trump wanted to crack down on illegal immigration at the southern border, his administration also imposed tighter restrictions on legal immigration, even of the high-skilled workers he claimed to want in the country. Ben Lefebvre, Legal marijuana spreads across most of the country, Allison Johnson, an employee of Buckeye Relief LLC, works on topping a marijuana plant, in Eastlake, Ohio. 108. Officials now predict the Defense Department wont be able to pass a full audit until 2027 at the earliest. Trump received the Bipartisan Justice Award at a historically black college for his criminal justice reform accomplishments. The economy has since begun adding back jobs, but is far from a full recovery as the US struggles to contain the coronavirus and Biden takes over. to punish robocallers is limited. Zachary Warmbrodt, A Transportation Security Administration employee stands at a booth to learn about a food stamp program. 58. While it is likely the Biden administration will take a more holistic look at future chemicals EPA reviews, it is unclear whether it will have time to re-analyze the chemicals the Trump administration already finished reviewing. 4.) The impact: The foot-dragging in providing even basic information stretched to written requests from Congress and the public. The data is mixed on whether drug prices are going up or down. The concept, known as silver-loading, grew government subsidizing of the exchanges by upwards of $20 billion per year. Omer Messinger/Getty Images. Congress raised that further, to 3.1 percent. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. 41. 66. Trump recently signed 3 bills to benefit Native people. Public health experts have cited Trump's nonchalant approach to the virus and tendency to reject science as one of the primary factors in why the US emerged as the epicenter. The upshot: Cannabis has become a massive business, generating billions in state revenues. Imposed tariffs on China in response to Chinas forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices, has agreed to a Part One trade deal with China. We asked POLITICOs best-in-class policy reporters to recap some of the ways Trump changed the country while in office, for better or worse. Leah Nylen, Leo Wang, whose H-1B visa was denied in 2019, packs a suitcase at his home in San Jose, Calif. 19. But Congress deserves most of the credit for the unanimous 2018 passage of this transparency law, which prohibits gag orders that prevent pharmacists from sharing prescription drug prices with customers. The credit for the passage of this legislation goes to a bipartisan group in Congress, namely Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, and Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey. He repeatedly attacked the media, leading UN experts to warn that Trump's rhetoric raised the risk of violence against journalists. The data suggest an increase of about 6 percent in federal appropriations, grants and contracts from the 2016-2017 academic year to 2017-2018, the most recent year for which such data is available. Womens unemployment rate is at a 65-year low. The White House published a long list of President Donald Trump's accomplishments during his presidency. 27. Brian Kemp took jabs at Trump for his tendency to look backward. His tax bill included a rollback of the tax penalty for those who did not enroll in healthcare. Trump administration will provide H.I.V. Low-wage workers are benefiting from higher minimum wages and from corporations that are increasing entry-level pay. In fact, the country gained more jobs about eight million between 2014 and 2017, the last years of the Obama administration. The attitude flowed down to sub-agency heads as well. Biden and Congress will now face pressure to provide such clarity. Arguing that the main barrier to broader homeownership is affordability rather than racial discrimination, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was eager to pare back an Obama regulation hed once derided as social engineering.. The upshot: Bidens EPA is expected to take a more holistic approach to assessing and addressing chemicals risks, but because of strict timelines set under the 2016 law, it is unclear to what extent it will be able to redo assessments done under the Trump administration. 60. The tax cuts signed into law by President Trump promote school choice by allowing families to use 529 college savings plans for elementary and secondary education. 45. 119. Mr. Trump also signed the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Programs Reauthorization Act, which revises an existing grant program. True. | Heres what I found when I looked into these claims. African-American unemployment is at an all-time low. Under Trump, the Agriculture Department scaled back the $60 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food support program for low-income Americans formerly known as food stamps. But Trumps EPA opted only to look at risks from exposures that couldnt be regulated under other laws; for instance, they wouldnt weigh potential exposure to a chemical in drinking water since it could be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, even if it wasnt. Looking back on President Donald Trump's first year in office, he has compiled a shockingly strong record and long list of accomplishments. The upshot: The Department of Transportation is moving forward with its effort to implement the new rule, despite multiple petitions to hold off. Median household income has hit the highest level ever recorded. Peter Blanchard. Trump urged Ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals as he simultaneously withheld about $400 million in congressionally approved military aid from the country, which is fighting an ongoing war against pro-Russian separatists. But Carol Evans, chairwoman of the Spokane Tribal Business Council, said most of the credit for the law goes to two members of Congress from Washington, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, and Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican. This is bad timing for those companies, since the FAA is getting ready to greenlight new commercial uses, such as drone-based delivery services, which will increase sales. . 107. 109. Coronavirus lockdowns in early 2020 and reduced consumer spending led to tens of millions of job losses as whole segments of the economy sputtered. The Trump administration updated the North American Free Trade Agreement, fulfilling a campaign promise. True. True. It is grossly misleading to claim this as a Trump accomplishment. It has limited powers to solve the problems of the veterans who call in from around the country. | The impact: New projects can be more polluting or damaging to the environment over the long term and still be approved and community groups will have less leverage to challenge them. The goal of the rule was to prevent federal money from flowing to firms with a history of such infractions. Trump recently signed 3 bills to benefit Native people. Trump signed a law ending the gag orders on Pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving information. The impact: Cannabis is now legal in some form in 36 states, meaning that a majority of Americans have some form of legal access even though the drug remains officially illegal at the federal level. 104. Obama used his stimulus leverage over the auto manufacturers to negotiate landmark federal rules to curb carbon dioxide pollution from new vehicles through 2025 a central component of his work to fight climate change. Businesses seeking these non-immigrant worker visas also saw an increase in requests to provide more evidence in their applications and a higher rate of visa denials. Trump signed an order allowing small businesses to group together when buying insurance to get a better price. The First Step Act provides rehabilitative programs to inmates, helping them successfully rejoin society and not return to crime. True. Issued an executive order requiring the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to submit a joint plan to provide veterans access to access to mental health treatment as they transition to civilian life. The impact: Vehicle emissions represent the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and the rollback was likely the biggest climate-related action of Trumps term, especially as electric utilities continue to move away from coal on their own and as electric vehicles are slow to take hold in the U.S. Trump appointed 5 openly gay ambassadors. The upshot: Both lawsuits will continue into the Biden administration and possibly beyond. To put this in perspective, former President Barack Obama appointed 55 circuit judges in his two terms in the White House. As Business Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roigreported: Trump signed the First Step Act into law in December 2018, marking the first legislative victory in years for advocates seeking to reform the criminal justice system. US stock market continually hits all-time record highs. Defense policy documents are so abundant they could wallpaper the Pentagon. Under the new rule, agencies need only consider emissions caused by the building of a project but not the use of the project, such as increased vehicle emissions caused by a highway expansion. Democratic ads are focused on. Ben Margot/AP Photo. Though the White House claimed Trump was not initially briefed on the matter, reporting from multiple outlets suggests otherwise. In signing a $738 billion defense spending bill just a few days before Christmas, Trump officially established the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces the Space Force. Here are some tips. 9. Five people were killed in the process. Among the 11 million new voters rallying to Trump's candidacy were millions of Latinos, as the president split the Hispanic vote in Florida and gained 10 percentage points over 2016 to earn. 3. 86. President Trump's policies are helping to lift Americans out of poverty. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died, and millions are unemployed. Tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act was a provision that gave all federal workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave for the first time in history. The former president was acquitted in a Senate trial, but will still go down as just the third president in US history to be impeached. If the Biden EPA leaves the laxer evaluations intact, its subsequent regulations will not be able to limit certain ways people are exposed meaning Americans may not get comprehensive protection. And theyre hoping the incoming Biden administration will go much farther than Trump did. 23. Although NATO countries were already modestly increasing their military spending before Mr. Trump took office, there is evidence that his public complaints led to a deal that allowed the United States to decrease its own spending, while some other countries increased their share each year that he has been in office. Mr. Trump has signed a number of bipartisan bills that call for improvements to medical care for veterans, including more access to walk-in clinics. This is a tax break for those who send their children to private schools. 29. But there was more to the Trump presidency than attention-hogging political drama and conflict; often unnoticed, Trump and his administration actually did succeed in changing some of the ways Washington works. It is true that Mr. Trump signed this bill. It offered relatively modest changes to the federal prison system, but was praised as an important step forward by groups and activists seeking to end mass incarceration. U.S. Reps Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna also have endorsed Trump. . According to the Tax Foundation, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act doubled the maximum child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, while the phaseout threshold was increased from $75,000 to $200,000 for single filers and $110,000 to $400,000 for married couples filing jointly. That said, recent polling suggests that most Republicans want their party to nominate someone other than Trump in 2024, raising questions about his electability. Congress should also get the credit for passing it. 11. Made a deal with the European Union to increase U.S. energy exports to Europe. Despite its name, the new branch has not been established to protect the planet from extraterrestrial threats, but is tasked with protecting the US military's assets in space. Free shipping for many products! Drew Angerer/Getty Images. The upshot: Bidens role in the Obama administration, which proposed the original rule, and his sweeping pro-worker agenda indicate that he will likely overturn the Trump rule and issue his own overtime rule though when, exactly, that will happen remains unclear. President Trump has called on Congress to pass school choice legislation so that no child is trapped in a failing school because of his or her ZIP code. The upshot: While theres bipartisan support for revamping the law, those GOP-led efforts focused on the bias charges are likely to be blocked by Democrats in Congress. More than 7 million jobs created since the election. Not really. 1 terrorist leader to justice," Trump said at the time. 48. 56. Their fears were founded: In January 2018, Sessions rescinded the Cole memo, an Obama-era Justice Department guidance that called for deprioritizing marijuana enforcement. TRACED Act will extend the period of time the FCC has to catch & punish those who intentionally break telemarketing restrictions. After weeks of rejecting the election result and attempting to overturn the outcome, the president provoked an attempted coup at the US Capitol on the day lawmakers met to certify Biden's Electoral College victory. Members of both political parties in Congress deserve much of the credit. 88. And US economic growth was set to average just above 0% for Trump's first term because of the pandemic recession, according to The Washington Post. The move: DeVos rewrote the Obama administrations rules that govern when federal student loan borrowers can have their debt wiped out as a result of their colleges misconduct, imposing stricter standards of proof. If anything, the biggest critics of the rules want them to be tougher and go into effect faster. The impact: The Trump rule applies to just 15 percent of full-time, salaried workers, whereas the Obama rule would have applied to twice as many. Some takeaways: Few items are outright false, which is something to celebrate in the age of QAnon conspiracy theories. 16. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin personally negotiated the anti-money laundering safeguards with Republicans and Democrats who crafted the deal. 112. The impact: Trump elevated concerns about Chinas trade practices and acquisition of American technology to a new level and helped usher in what many now are calling a cold war between the worlds two largest economies.
list of trump's accomplishments as president
