Impact Features write this article looking for positive Trump policies, with full knowledge of the difficulty of objectively reporting politics without the report being read as the journalist’s unadulterated views. This writer is not a Donald Trump supporter, and this appears to be the norm here in the UK, making the quest for positive aspects of his policies difficult.
Trump is viewed in this country as a fascist who supports ‘zealous nationalism’ and ‘a desire to ethnically purge’ the USA (New Statesman), though he still has a large amount of supporters in the USA. According to Real Clear Politics polls, Trump has the most support in the run up for Republican presidential candidate. This begs the question – is the American Republican party really so right wing that they will put someone who is seen by many as a fascist forward for presidential election, or does Trump have some legitimate policies that we might support that are overcast by the shadow of negative media coverage he gets?
Of course, this is the problem with politics – policies that people agree or disagree with are personal, and no matter what one’s political stance, there are scarcely any objectively ‘good’ or ‘bad’ policies. This article is a search for facts based on things that the candidate himself has said.
We in the UK are conscientious about the current refugee crisis and many find Trump’s policies on immigration appalling, though those who believe his claims that ‘great amount of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants’ may support his calls for stronger borders (The Hill) – ignoring the fact that crime is a result of social pressure and lack of governmental support rather than anything else. Trump is a man who wants to ‘bomb the hell out of ISIS’ (The Washington Post) and complains when people try to migrate to a better life.
“Trump is a man who wants to ‘bomb the hell out of ISIS’”
Trump used to hold a neutral stance on abortion but now is pro-life. He also says that it’s ‘unfair’ that people who make ‘a tremendous amount of money’ pay ‘virtually no taxes’ (The Washington Post) – a socialist standpoint, but at the same time he confesses that he tries to ‘pay as little tax as possible’ (NBC News). He does, however, promise to create jobs, though what forms these jobs take we can’t be sure, especially when he promises to ‘take [these] jobs back from Japan … Mexico … [and] Vietnam’ (The Greenville News), whatever that means.
Not that all his policies seem unrealistic, over-the-top or just plain confused – he seems to believe in universal healthcare for example, saying you ‘can’t let ’em die in the streets’ (Mediaite), but at the same time he expresses deep distrust in Obamacare due to its cost. A healthcare system created using shortcuts, such as Trump would seemingly create, may not prove to be an effective healthcare system at all. But who can blame a multi-billionaire for wanting to save money, especially one who believes that ‘global warming is an expensive hoax’? (PolitiFact).
Donald Trump gets a bad reputation through general and social media, and while bad reputations can be the case of the blind-following-the-blind, they are often not unfounded. Trump can be admired for his dedication to providing a stronger American economy and increasing American national security, though these must be considered in a wider world context: which minority groups will be affected by Trump’s policies? I’m not even going to mention Nazi Germany here; you’re all thinking it.
“Donald Trump gets a bad reputation through general and social media, and while bad reputations can be the case of the blind-following-the-blind, they are often not unfounded”
Shakespeare once said, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”, but when voting one should consider not just themselves but others, and the repercussions of one country’s politics – especially a country as linked with world affairs as the USA – on other countries. Perhaps in the relatively liberal UK it is easier to find bad press for Donald Trump than good, but a relatively objective look at Trump’s policies reveals that they are disagreeable and incompatible with our own. Of course, people are entitled to their own opinions even if they do not seem moral to us, though the only difference between Dickhead and Dictator is whether or not one has power, and that is something that our friends from over the pond should keep in mind while voting for their president this year.
In short: I started this article looking for agreeable Trump policies, and struggled enormously.
Matteo Everett
Featured image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr. Embedded image: Michael Vadon via Flickr
