You’ve heard it many times: A voter says he doesn’t like Donald Trump, citing his unpleasant personality, his ability to cause division, or his tendency to say stupid things. But then he says he’ll vote for him anyway: “Because I liked his policies.”
What policies? Voters rarely say, and journalists don't keep track either. Inquiring minds, and mine in particular, want to know: What are they talking about??
Trump was by far the most policy ignorant of the seven presidents I've covered, and four years in office did not educate him: as former advisers attestHe refused to do his homework and relied on his instincts. Trump had positions on many issues, often ill-informed and misguided. As president, of course, he executed policies, although the best-known ones — cutting taxes, for example, and appointing right-wing federal judges — were largely the work of Republicans in Congress.
Opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
Filling Trump’s political vacuum was the impetus behind the Republicans’ massive — and hugely unpopular — MAGA campaign. Project 2025 The plan for a second Trump term, but let's forget about future policies. Does it make sense to fondly remember Trump 1.0's initiatives?
Are economic and immigration policies what these voters have in mind? Center consequently show more voters prefer Trump over Kamala Harris in these areas.
First the economy: Trump inherited a growing economy from the Obama administration, and He left behind an economy devastated by the pandemic Biden and Harris. Their big lead in voter perceptions of economic issues largely reflects their dismay at rising inflation under Biden and the higher interest rates set by the Federal Reserve to control it. But inflation has been A global problemlargely due to the rebound in demand for goods following the pandemic. Had Trump been re-elected in 2020, he would surely have faced a price increase as well.
With prices still elevated, voters have yet to sense how much inflation has fallen — faster here than in other nations — and just last week the Fed finally cut interest rates and signaled more cuts to come. Meanwhile, the economy’s output and employment growth has been higher under Biden-Harris than under Trump, despite Trump’s lies and voter vibes to the contrary.
Trump had two main economic policies and now he promises more of the same: tariffs, which increase The prices of many goods Americans buy and the loss of jobs in industries that rely on imports (Biden kept most tariffs in place, unfortunately) and the deep tax cuts that favored the rich and piled up debt. The $8.5 trillion in new debt Trump racked up was twice as much as Biden did, and he did far less than Biden has done to cut annual deficits.
As for immigration: Yes, the influx of unauthorized immigrants was lower under Trump and increased under Biden. But new restrictions have since reduced illegal border crossings to levels last seen at the end of the Trump administration. In any case, despite all of Trump's measures, fake talk Now, about his wall and immigration crimes, he did not close the border in any way.
Voters who have immigration in mind when they back Trump's past policies should remember the forced separation of children from their families, with no plan to reunite them. Years later, hundreds of them remain essentially orphans, but last year Trump celebrated His cruel achievement: “It stopped hundreds of thousands of people from coming, because when they hear ‘family separation,’ they say, ‘Well, we better not go.’”
Trump's three Supreme Court nominations and votes to overturn Roe may result in a victory for a few voters, but the majority of Americans… oppose The 2022 ruling. At a rally Monday in Pennsylvania, Trump boasted about the overturning of Roe. Despite the growing horror stories of women who have suffered or even died under the new state bans, saying We women will “no longer think about abortion” — “I will be your protector.”
In foreign policy, Trump was guided by his admiration for autocrats, especially Russian assassin Vladimir Putin. He rejected the U.S. intelligence community’s findings about Russian interference in the 2016 election, weakened NATO and other U.S. alliances, and withheld statutory military aid to Ukraine when Russia threatened to invade. Could these be the policies some voters have in mind? Let’s hope not.
We know you can't be thinking about Trump's major infrastructure initiative or his better, less expensive alternative to the Affordable Care Act because, despite his repeated promises, he's never even come up with a solution. “concepts of a plan” Either way. “Two weeks,” he said, and all would be revealed. We are still waiting. Meanwhile, Biden signed an infrastructure program into law and expanded Obamacare.
Speaking of inaction, for four years Trump did nothing to acknowledge, much less mitigate, climate change, even as its effects were increasingly evident in eroding coastlines, droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather patterns. If a do-nothing policy is what some voters liked, they will certainly get more of that if Trump is elected: He has promised to dismantle Biden's landmark climate law, with its clean energy projects, and “Drill, baby, drill.”
Amid the biggest crisis of his tenure, Trump's policy for dealing with COVID-19 was ultimately malpractice: delays and mistakes have occurred. held responsible for tens of thousands of preventable deaths. Trump pushed for the historic development of a vaccine against the disease, only to cave in to anti-vaxxer sentiment. It fell to Biden to administer the vaccines to Americans.
Then there’s Trump’s latest policy as president: undermining confidence in our elections and rejecting the peaceful transfer of power. Do voters who say “I liked his policies” really want to see more of that, as they look to cast their ballots this fall?
Trump’s political record is bad enough, but even a laudable Trump initiative should not offset voters’ concerns about his obvious character flaws. Those flaws alone merit a vote against the man. Those thinking of supporting Trump “anyway” should check their vague memories. And beware of Trump 2.0.
@jackiekcalmes
