As much as I see Trump as incoherent, he did win the U.S.A. presidency on his first serious try (in a major party), spending little relative to others, and not getting more votes than were necessary to win (a real strategic and tactical feat). The Left keeps whining about how he barely made it in (thanks to the rules of the electoral college), but that is the most efficient way to win, right? Vote-getting is expensive.
A candidate either has to spend a lot or offend a lot less people with principled remarks if he wants to get over 50% or even 55% of the popular vote. The evidence suggests that Trump optimized his strategy and spent just the right amount of cash needed, dropping the precise quantity of babble (incoherent or otherwise) required, thus offending just the right number of people. His strategy allowed him to maintain some of his "principles" and "integrity" and still win the presidential race. Any honest enemy should admit that doing so was impressive. Trump might have won by dumb luck, but he might also be the genius that he purports himself to be (or has hired people around him who are, thus making the "smart" move).
Furthermore, he fulfilled payoffs to his constituency right away. He did appoint pro-life judges (especially Gorsuch to the Supreme Court), he did cut taxes, even if a little, he did take away funding from the UN, he did pull the U.S.A. out of the ridiculous (radical-ecology-movement-driven) Paris climate accord, he did allow plenary oil drilling again throughout the U.S.A. Those five policies of his first year in office are libertarian-favored and none of them would have been achieved under either Hillary or Sanders. Consequently, libertarians like me that do not like Trump should be happy that America has had him rather than the democrat, no?
Yet, we must balance that positive news at least a little bit by considering, too, his anti-libertarian policies. He has kept his (largely anti-libertarian) promises by pardoning contemptuous, anti-immigrant ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona, he has attacked sanctuary cities, too, and has limited entry to the U.S.A. for certain Arab or Muslim immigrants. Furthermore, he has boosted warfarism, pushing the doomsday clock to its closest mark to midnight since the U.S.A./U.S.S.R hydrogen bomb testing in 1953 or the Cuban Missile Crisis a decade later. Plus, Trump continues put in motion his efforts to plan and build his stupid Mexican border wall and he seems to have let his cabinet trample Internet neutrality.
The guy does not seem to be a "genius" to me but he is doing all that he said he would–or at least trying to in the case of health care. Like it or not, Trump will soon go down as one of the most productive American presidents. Even if he himself is not that bright, he has evidently been bright enough to surround himself with competent people that can do what he could not do alone. He gets credit for that, too.
Or was it all just dumb luck? Things are looking very much in his favor at the moment. I hate to admit it. Again, while I do not like him, I must admit that (so far) Trump is probably a more "libertarian" American president than Obama, Bush, Clinton and maybe any other since Grover Cleveland (president 1885-1889 and 1893-1897)–with the possible exceptions of non-libertarians Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan.
I do not like Trump, democrats or republicans. I am a libertarian. There is good reason that Trump's approval rating (42%) is the lowest of any president in his first year ever. I am merely objectively commenting on Trump's effectiveness in following through with what he said he would do, even though I do not like much of it.
I know that many think Trump is a moron and incoherent. He speaks so poorly that he sounds like an incoherent moron much of the time. Having heard some of his speeches, I have to agree. Yet his actions (or those of the people he hires) speak of accomplishment. Is it not ironic that the same people that classify Trump as a cretin also accuse him of being clever enough to collude with the Russians to bring down his democratic opponents? The Left simply cannot have its cake and eat it, too. Either he is an incoherent cretin and moron, or he is an asuste, clever and even diabolical enemy. They cannot have it both ways. Somehow he, or at least the puppet masters that control him, are getting it done. Let's not underestimate Trump or any other enemy of liberty.
John Cobin, Ph.D.
Escape America Now
