CHICAGO — Despite the countless cries of outrage and shrieks of horror from left-wing activists, radical environmentalists and the mainstream media, Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office have unquestionably been a rousing success.
Let’s start with the economy. After eight years of sluggish economic growth, $10 trillion of additional debt and the imposition of crushing, incomprehensible regulatory schemes under the Obama administration, Trump has implemented a series of reforms that have reignited the American economic engine and set the nation back on the right course.
Number of workers employed full time has risen by 1.3 million since Trump was elected in November
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of workers employed full time has risen by 1.3 million since Trump was elected in November. In the five months prior to Trump’s victory, the economy only added 958,000 full-time jobs. Trump already has topped that by 31 percent..
Spurred by Trump’s commitment to reducing the toll taken on businesses by Obama-era regulations and his multiple executive orders repealing burdensome government requirements, investors seem more confident than they’ve been in well over a decade.
From October 2014 to October 2016, the Dow Jones Industrial Average improved by a meager 2.49 percent. From October 2016, just prior to Election Day, to today, the market has risen to an all-time high, increasing by more than 11 percent, which means Americans’ retirement accounts are much more secure.
Consumer confidence has also increased dramatically under the Trump administration; it’s now at its highest level since December 2000.
Other major problems indirectly related to the economy have improved as well. For instance, the number of people crossing illegally into the United States has plummeted.
Trump’s early energy actions have paid job dividends in coal country
According to John Kelly, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, the number of immigrants caught crossing the border illegally in March, about 12,000, was 72 percent lower than the number reported in December.
Trump has also called for a rollback of bloated federal agencies, proposing in his budget to slash spending at the Departments of Justice, Labor, Agriculture, and State by at least 20 percent. He’s also called for a 31 percent reduction at the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency.
On the energy and infrastructure front, Trump has been just as active and effective.
On February 10, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sold drilling rights on 278 parcels of federal land for $129.3 million, the largest lease sale in four years.
And, following executive orders from Trump to review and rescind unnecessary and unjustified limits on energy production on public lands, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ended DOI’s moratorium on issuing new coal leases and directed the BLM to rescind regulations limiting hydraulic fracturing.
Trump also reversed Obama administration policies blocking the completion of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. The result: The Dakota Access Pipeline was swiftly completed, and oil now flows through it today, while work is expected to begin soon on the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Keeping his promise to miners, Trump’s early energy actions have paid job dividends in coal country.
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Mining sector, which has been plagued for years with layoffs, has added 35,000 jobs
Economist Stephen Moore notes that since Trump’s election, the mining sector, which has been plagued for years with layoffs, has added 35,000 jobs.
Additionally, the two largest coal companies in the United States, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, which had previously been forced into bankruptcy in part by Obama’s climate policies, are once again viable.
Perhaps most importantly, Trump successfully filled the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat with one of the most highly qualified, well-respected federal judges considered for the nation’s highest court in recent decades, Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Like any presidential administration, Trump has faced multiple challenges and setbacks in his first 100 days, but considered in its entirety, Trump’s presidency thus far has been wildly successful and a substantial improvement over the largely ineffectual and reckless Obama administration.
Justin Hawkins is executive editor of publications and H. Sterling Burnett is a research fellow on energy and the environment at The Heartland Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Readers may write him at Heartland, 3939 North Wilke, Arlington Height, IL 60004
Justin Haskins is executive editor of The Heartland Institute, a think-tank devoted to free enterprise. A summa cum laude graduate of Richmond University, Justin holds master degrees in government and journalism from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. Readers may write him at The Heartland Institute, 3939 North Wilke Road Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004 or e-mail him.
