Op-Ed: Here Are 3 Fronts the Trump Administration Was Successful On

In our republic, the president of the United States has only a select few responsibilities: foreign policy, the appointment of federal judges and using the bully pulpit to rally America during crises.

In 2020, President Trump succeeded on all three fronts.

On all three fronts, the Trump administration proved that enacting an “America first” agenda does indeed mean putting American citizens first. That’s exactly what happened:

Foreign Policy Wins

At the beginning of last year, President Trump announced the strategic drone killing of Iran’s chief terrorist leader, Qassem Soleimani.

Despite the ensuing outrage from the world’s foreign policy “experts,” that single military attack resulted in a drop in terrorist violence against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, where it also helped expedite a drawdown and eventual withdrawal of our military forces.

However, the Trump administration also showed that the pen can be mightier than the sword.

In the last year, Americans have seen the so-called “Abraham Accords” normalize relations between Israel and the likes of Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.

Again, despite anti-Trump critics predicting that President Trump’s relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would destabilize the region, the opposite happened. Peace came to the Middle East.

For the first time since the creation of Israel in 1947, an Arab nation officially recognized the country’s existence.

Judiciary Appointments

While historic, the Abraham Accords did not take away from the Trump administration’s domestic policy agenda.

First, President Trump nominated three Supreme Court justices who were successfully confirmed. Within weeks of her confirmation, Justice Amy Coney Barrett took steps to defend religious freedom, which now has a conservative Supreme Court majority in its corner.

But that’s not all: Since his inauguration, President Trump has appointed 230 federal judges who will protect the Constitution and push back against radical leftism in the lower courts.

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That comes out to the second-most judicial appointments since President Jimmy Carter.

Judicial activism, which aims to shape America in a liberal image, is now backpedaling. Originalism is on the rise.

COVID-19 Pandemic

We cannot mention domestic policy without bringing up the COVID-19 pandemic.

Normal life remains on hold because of the coronavirus. Countless lives have been lost around the world. The situation is tragic. But, without President Trump’s leadership, the situation could have been much, much worse.

Last March, public health “experts” were bracing for millions of deaths. Fortunately, we are nowhere near that number, partly because President Trump halted travel from China as early as January.

Even as President-elect Joe Biden called the China ban “xenophobic,” President Trump stood firm and put America’s people first.

Better yet, everyday Americans are now preparing to receive their doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Months ago, President Trump claimed that the vaccine would be finalized by the end of 2020, and he was right.

Despite the liberal media’s constant alarmism, President Trump was right.

The vaccine — made possible by Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s partnership with the pharmaceutical industry — is set to bring about the end of the pandemic and long-overdue economic recovery.

If that isn’t cause for celebration, then what is? There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Because of President Trump, 2021 is set to be a healthier, safer and more prosperous year than 2020.

There’s a reason why most Americans claim to be better off now than in 2016. The Trump administration may have only received four years to succeed, but the American people know that those four years were successful.

Looking ahead to 2022, we can only hope that President Trump’s “America first” agenda endures long after his departure.