Marc Thiessen: Trump could be the most honest president in modern history

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/marc-thiessen-trump-could-be-the-most-
honest-president-in-modern-
history?intcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork

Donald Trump may be remembered as the most honest president in modern
American history.

Don't get me wrong, Trump lies all the time. He said that he "enacted the
biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history" (actually they are the
eighth largest) and that "our economy is the strongest it's ever been in
the history of our country" (which may one day be true, but not yet). In
part, it's a New York thing -- everything is the biggest and the best.

But when it comes to the real barometer of presidential truthfulness --
keeping his promises -- Trump is a paragon of honesty. For better or
worse, since taking office Trump has done exactly what he promised he
would do.

Trump kept his promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem, something his three immediate predecessors also promised yet
failed to do. He promised to "crush and destroy ISIS," and two years later
he is on the verge of eliminating the Islamic State's physical caliphate.
He promised to impose a travel ban on countries that he saw as posing a
terrorist threat, and after several false starts the final version of his
ban was upheld by the Supreme Court. He promised to punish Syria if it
used chemical weapons on its people, and, unlike his immediate
predecessor, he followed through -- not once but twice.

Trump pledged to nominate Supreme Court justices "in the mold of Justice
[Antonin] Scalia," and now Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh sit on the
high court. Trump also pledged to fill the federal appellate courts with
young, conservative judges, and so far the Senate has confirmed 26 -- more
than any recent president at this point in his administration.

Trump vowed to pass historic tax reforms, and signed the first major
overhaul of the tax code in three decades. He vowed an unprecedented
regulatory rollback, with a strict policy to eliminate two existing
regulations for every new regulation. Instead, in his first year he
eliminated 22 existing regulations for every new rule, achieved $8.1
billion in lifetime regulatory savings and is on track to achieve an
additional $9.8 billion this year.

During the campaign, he told African American voters, "What do you have to
lose? ... I will straighten it out. I'll bring jobs back. We'll bring
spirit back." On his watch, African American unemployment reached the
lowest level ever recorded, and his tax reform included a little-noticed
provision creating "Opportunity Zones" to try to revitalize struggling
towns and inner-city communities.

Trump promised to cancel President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan,
withdraw from the Paris climate accord, approve the Keystone XL and Dakota
Access pipelines, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to
exploration. He fulfilled all of those pledges.

On trade, he kept his promise to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership and impose tariffs on steel and aluminum. He also committed to
renegotiating NAFTA and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement -- and
recently signed new deals with Mexico, Canada and South Korea. He
committed to imposing tariffs on China to force it to open its markets and
stop its theft of intellectual property -- and is following through on
that pledge. Whatever one thinks of Trump's trade policies, he is doing
exactly what he said.

The president pledged historic increases in defense spending, and
delivered. He pledged to bring back manufacturing jobs, and manufacturing
jobs are growing at the fastest pace in more than two decades. He pledged
to sign "Right to Try" legislation to give dying Americans access to
experimental treatments, and did. He pledged to take on the opioid
epidemic, and will soon sign a sweeping bipartisan opioids package into
law.

Where Trump has failed to keep promises, such as building the wall or
repealing Obamacare, it has not been for a lack of trying. Only in a few
rare instances has he backtracked on a campaign pledge -- such as when he
admitted that he was wrong to promise a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces
from Afghanistan and reversed course. I'm glad he did.

But whether one agrees or disagrees is not the point. When Trump says he
will do something, you can take it to the bank. Yes, he takes liberties
with the truth. But unlike his predecessor, he did not pass his signature
legislative achievement on the basis of a lie ("If you like your health
care plan, you can keep it") -- which is clearly worse than falsely
bragging that your tax cut is the biggest ever.

The fact is, in his first two years, Trump has compiled a remarkable
record of presidential promise-keeping. He'd probably say it's the best in
history -- which may or may not end up being true. It's too soon to tell.



--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.