Conservative Political Forum

I thought this might be a good time to assess how Trump's performance has been so far. Overall, he has pleasantly surprised me some moves I did not anticipate. OTOH, he has been exactly what I thought he would be. Here are some bullet points as my observations.

1) His appointments have been very good, including judge Gorsuch.

2) He is following through on his pledge to tighten immigration. I am not hung up on "the wall" as I never saw it as a physical wall, but the use of laws and his power to make sure our borders are secure.

3) I have been impressed with his foreign policy decisions although he could smooth some of his rough edges. In just seven months he has brought America as a leader in international affairs.

4) He has confirmed our belief that he is not a true conservative, but he has shown himself not to be a liberal as some of us feared.

5) His tweets are an effective way to communicate. However, I come down on the side of as president he should stay away from announcing policy by Twitter. He steps on his good results with all the tweets.

6) Stop all the campaign speeches or use them to talk about policy. I am a little weary of hearing him repeat how he won the nomination and election.

7) He has been a disaster putting together a good WH staff. He may be figuring out now. I am afraid he listened to too many GOPe types in putting together a WH team.

These are short and sweet, but as you folks know I am not into epistles.

Other thoughts?

I think it has become very obvious that he didn't have a clue about the functionality of the three branches of government; he's learning.  I agree with others that one of his biggest downfalls is filling his cabinet and some of his appointments.  As I recall he met with many people in order to fill his cabinet.  People like Cruz, Romney, Giuliani, Condi Rice, etc.  I know that I'm biased, but of all people he met with, he should have listened to Cruz.  Using twitter has been unsettling for me, I don't think the President of the United States should be tweeting.  He for the most part should keep silent and have others deflect the rumors and all the fake news and accusations.  He should keep press conferences to a minimum and go about his business and move forward. His bantering back and forth with the MSM and the liberal mental midgets wastes time and draws negative attention.

I see him far more patriotic than I ever expected.  He kept his word and appointed a conservative to the supreme court. He has been fairly tough on illegal immigration but we desperately need that wall.  That is what he campaigned on and that is what he promised.  Yes, I realize that Congress has put up road blocks, but he's got to find a way to keep that promise; that would ensure our majority in 2018 and will ensure him the 2020 election (if he wants it).

I'm still waiting for him to really get this economy going; I've always thought that would be where he would really succeed.  I think he's done some good for our military and is rebuilding the USA's reputation as a leader of the world once again.

Above all else, IMHO he needs to rally the help and support of Cruz, Lee, Paul, the Freedom Caucus and other conservatives.  Tell the RINO's to pack sand and move forward.

Reagan was also close to Tip Oneal, and whether it was real, or "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer", Reagan was smart in befriending Tip because it only added Teflon to his already impenetrable armor, simply because Tip would not speak ill of Reagan as much as the left wanted him to.

I don't know if Trump is a good comparison, but then, Trump might be playing smarter than we know, which is why the media despises him, and maybe because they see him as a turncoat traitor to the leftist cause for wearing the (R) next to his name.
Only time will tell, we'll know the real Trump come midterm elections.

I was out doing some errands this morning and something popped into my mind.

Acknowledging Reagan was more conservative than Trump. However, Reagan had some moderate positions on some social issues. Probably because of Nancy's influence. That being said, let's look at the similarities:

The democrats hate him.

The MSM hates him.

Many in his own party hate him.

He and Reagan had the enviable ability to "rally" the troops by going around the three first statements.

The MSM paints both as bumbling idiots.

What would make them more alike would be if Trump took a page out of Reagan's playbook. He needs to ignore those who would like to distract him. A picture of Reagan is burned into my head. Remember him putting his hand to his ear as if he couldn't hear a question from the MSM? He probably heard them and chose to ignore them. Trump could learn from that.

Do you really think the left will treat Pence any better?