On his podcast, Ben Shapiro used to have a recurring segment called “Good Trump / Bad Trump” where he would describe some action Trump took or something Trump said and put it in either the “Good Trump” or the “Bad Trump” category. Since Trump is largely a “Ready, Fire, Aim” -type guy, it’s always up in the air.
Starting with that paradigm (and adding a couple of extra categories), here’s my take on the first month or so of Trump’s Second Term.
Good Trump
Here’s where I think Trump has done the most good
- Eliminating the DEI stuff in the Federal government: DEI, as it is currently promulgated, is un-Constitutional as well as harmful. It’s gotta go
- Eliminating the trans-enabling stuff in the Federal government: There’s no reason for the U.S. government to encourage mental illness
- The U.S. pulling out of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accord: The WHO is now owned by China — let them pay for it. The Paris Climate Accord is completely worthless as it allows developing countries to keep “polluting”
- Removing funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): A garbage organization that is simply a front for Hamas terrorists. There was no reason for Biden to re-instate UNRWA funding after Trump cut it during his first term
- Putting the Houthis back on the terrorist group list: Why Biden took them off in the first place is a topic for another blog
- DOGE going after the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): This appears to be a big slush fund for Progressives and their projects. It should be completely re-focused if not fully eliminated
Why Trump?
This is the stuff that Trump does that either doesn’t make a lot of sense or is something that isn’t something he ran on (so why is he doing it?).
- The Poster Child “Why Trump” action has gotta be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Why? This does nothing more than annoy map makers. It just seems like a giant troll to me and comes off kinda childish. Honestly, was anyone clamoring for this change?
Wait and See Trump
This is the stuff that initially looks kinda bad but may end up with something positive down the road
- I’ll put Trump’s foreign policy work with Israel here. So far, I’m not seeing much difference between Trump’s and Biden’s handling of Israel/Hamas other than in rhetoric. Some of the rhetoric has been fine (e.g., “He** to pay”, etc.), but a lot has been wait and see (e.g., clearing out Gaza and building hotels).
- Putting RFK Jr. as the head of HHS. This could be fine or could be horrible. Some of what RFK Jr. says about additives in food, for instance, is good. But then there is always the fact that the guy has a brain worm. Who knows what he could come up with?
Bad Trump
- I put some of the Ukraine rhetoric here. Claiming Ukraine started the war with Russia is just a bald-faced lie. I have no idea why the last group of Presidents (George W. Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden) have been so soft on Putin. He’s a Soviet-era, ex-KGB, Russian thug. Period. Referring to Zelensky as a “dictator” but not saying a single bad thing about Putin? C’mon. And then today, the U.S. joined Russia in voting against a U.N. resolution to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I have no idea how this can be good.
- Dropping charges on NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Part of me wants to put this in the “Why Trump?” category because it really doesn’t make sense for Trump to go out of his way to help out a Democrat mayor. But, ultimately, I put it in the “Bad Trump” category because I believe in Rule of Law. If Trump thought Adams might be getting railroaded, then he should put fair, impartial prosecutors in charge and let them do their assessment. Just dropping the charges is not the right way to go.
- The Tariffs. Normally, I might put tariffs in the “Wait and See Trump” category, but the way the tariffs are being dished out is what makes this bad: Trump seems more intent on imposing the worst tariffs on nominal allies like Canada, while reserving less harsh tariffs for bad actors like China. It’s completely backwards.
- The OPM email: On the one hand, I’m sure there are a bunch of government workers that need to be let go. On the other hand, the chaotic, haphazard way in which this was accomplished is just mind-bogglingly (spousal correction: “mind-bottlingly”) awful.