Legacy of President Donald J. Trump

On January 20th 2017, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. Under President Trump, US economy saw greater increase compared to his predecessor President Barack H. Obama, stable decline in unemployment rate, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ reaching their record highs, tax cuts through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, repealing regulations, replacing over 400 miles of border with new walls, and a huge upscale in military spending. However, all these achievements have been sidelined as a result of COVID-19 pandemic which struck America hard resulting in the economy, market, and unemployment rate to all crumble. President Trump’s response to the COVID-19 has been both criticized by his own experts, media, and foreign dignitaries. President Trump’s “ban” of all entries from China resulted in a catastrophic failure as relatives and others residing in the US could still enter America or simply travel from Europe. As previously stated, American economy suffered a great loss which saw the GDP to fall 32.9% in an annualized rate, over 30 million Americans receiving an unemployment check, and unemployment skyrocketing to 14.7% in April of 2020. Now, all these losses have been moderately erased as GDP grew back 33.1% in an annualized rate and unemployment rate declined to 6.7%. President Trump’s success before the pandemic has been all wiped out, however, President Trump still succeeded at limiting the number of both legal and illegal immigration, spending over $2.2 trillion in defense funds, and S&P 500 reaching over $3,800 and NASDAQ reaching over $13,200 in 2021. President Trump also held the first ever meeting in the United Nations to stop religious persecution and defend religious freedom around the world. From the point of view of his fellow Republicans and his supporters, he may be regarded as “The Best President,” however Democrats mostly view President Trump’s accomplishments from a pessimistic viewpoint regarding his failures in COVID-19 response, his two impeachments, the “insurrection” on January 6th, and attack on the Black Lives Matter protests. From the point of history, the biggest story of this Trump administration is not the increase in military spending or replacing the walls, it is going to be the stain such as his impeachments and January 6th. President Trump is viewed as a strong ally to conservatism and against the Chinese Communist Party by the look of his tariffs against China in 2018 and the China-United States Trade War, however, economists raise concerns that these actions in reality led to decrease in factory jobs in America. These tariffs had almost no impact on China as they used the rerouting tactics to relocate their factories to other Asian nations or products which would be outside of the tariffs set by the United States. These would be considered non-Chinese goods and would be outside of the remedies of the tariffs set by President Trump. The China-United States Trade War saw almost no benefits for the United States and even his “strong” stance against China would seem to be dubious as President Trump’s legacy. In conclusion, the legacy of President Donald J. Trump seems to be his economic boom and the two impeachments to his name.