Scorecard 2

This is a continuation of sorts of my evaluations from yesterday.

In the environmental arena the administration maintains that the impact of human activity is not as significant as almost all scientists maintain.  They have rolled back what they consider unnecessary anti-competitive restrictions that were designed to reduce global warming.  In addition they have withdrawn from the Paris accord which they felt penalized America.  Many of these action's are being challenged in the courts and almost all of it was done by executive order or agency policy.  It hasn't resulted in a revival of the coal industry, one of the stated aims.  To the extent the executive orders stick, they may have helped some industries who explore and exploit carbon reserves, but generally much of what they were trying to do is happening because of economic forces.  With natural gas being cheaper and cleaner, few new coal plants are being built.

Health Care has been an area where they have been unable to achieve their stated objectives, namely to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  Whether that was a worthwhile goal is another question.  They admittedly got close and lost because of a single Senate vote.  They have taken actions to weaken it and have eliminated the penalty for not having insurance.  We certainly have not replaced it with a "much better" system and after the last election the debate has certainly changed.

They have also not been able to build a border wall that was promoted and touted as being paid for by Mexico.  That is still in negotiation although the chances right now don't look likely.  Whether such a wall would be effective or not is questionable, it just hasn't been funded

The stated objective of improving America's trade deals is a mixed bag.  New agreements seem imminent with Mexico and Canada to replace NAFTA and at the very least it has updated areas that were not of concern when the original agreement was signed.  Are they significantly better?  I don't think we will know that until they are implemented.  We have withdrawn from the trans-pacific agreement which gives some of our competitors an advantage and we have ongoing issues with China and other countries over tariffs.  Good or bad remains to be seen.

In foreign affairs we have withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal although most indications are they were complying with it and have imposed additional sanctions.  There may or may not be improvement in our relationship with North Korea, although at this time it has not resulted in any notable reductions in their nuclear capability.  Some of our interactions with our allies have deteriorated although the long term outlook is unclear.

It is the midway point of the administration and the next two years it is going to deal with a divided congress.  Considering that it's party controlled both houses for the first two years, it didn't accomplish much of significance except the tax package.  That may be a good thing considering how you feel about the stated goals but its clear that it has a shortage of skills needed to get things passed.

So I would say it is about a C at this point, which is pretty generous.  Certainly not the most effective president ever.