Trump's biggest accomplishments and failures

Trump's biggest accomplishments and failures from his 1-term presidency .President Donald Trump has been among the most controversial presidents in US history. He's just the third commander-in-chief to be impeached, one of 11 incumbent presidents to fail to win reelection, and also the only America president to be impeached twice.  Though his accomplishments are not popular with his critics, Trump, for better or worse, has been a consequential president.  President Donald Trump entered the election year as just the third commander-in-chief in US history to be impeached.  He was ultimately acquitted, in an impeachment trial that would soon become a distant memory amid a pandemic that's killed over 386,000 Americans and left millions unemployed.  But with just a week left in office, Trump was impeached once again - this time for inciting a violent insurrection at the US Capitol. He's now the only American president who has been impeached twice.  Trump is just the 11th incumbent president who won their party's nomination but failed to win reelection. He was defeated by President-elect Joe Biden in an election he has baselessly written off as fraudulent.  To many, Trump has been the most controversial and divisive president in modern US history, but has enjoyed a remarkably steady approval rating thanks to his staunchly loyal supporters. Even as polling has repeatedly shown that most Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his overall approval rating has barely changed.  Here are Trump's biggest accomplishments and failures as president, measured by their overall impact and taking into account the general response from Congress, the public, and the world.

Accomplishment: Reshaping the federal judiciary Trump's most lasting impact on the country will be the reshaping of the federal judiciary.  So far, Trump has installed three Supreme Court justices and 220 judges overall to the federal bench — all for lifetime appointments. Amy Coney Barrett became Trump's third Supreme Court justice on October 26, barely a week before Election Day.  By December 2019, Trump nominees made up roughly 25% of all US circuit court judges, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. 

Accomplishment: Space Force  In signing a $738 billion defense spending bill just a few days before Christmas, Trump officially established the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces — the Space Force.  The Space Force is the first new military service since the US Air Force was created in 1947.  Despite its name, the new branch has not been established to protect the planet from extraterrestrial threats, but is tasked with protecting the US military's assets in space.  "This is not a farce. This is nationally critical," Gen. John Raymond, who Trump tapped to lead the Space Force, told reporters recently. "We are elevating space commensurate with its importance to our national security and the security of our allies and partners."

Accomplishment: Tax reform  Three years into his presidency, Trump's signature legislative achievement remains a Republican tax bill that made sweeping changes to the tax code — the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  The law was the biggest overhaul to the nation's tax code in three decades, and the president pitched it as "rocket fuel" for the American economy.  It permanently slashed the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% while also providing temporary benefits for individuals and their families. The law has achieved none of the ambitious goals that Republicans put forward — and there are scant signs they ever will.

Accomplishment: First Step Act Trump signed the First Step Act into law in December 2018, marking the first legislative victory in years for advocates seeking to reform the criminal justice system.  The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. It offers relatively modest changes to the federal prison system, but was praised as an important step forward by groups and activists seeking to end mass incarceration. The passage of the bill marked the first major legislative win in decades to address mass incarceration at the federal level.  The bill overhauls certain federal sentencing laws, reducing mandatory minimum sentences for drug felonies and expanding early-release programs.  The bill also makes retroactive a 2010 federal sentencing law reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses.  The bill also aims to lower recidivism by offering more rehabilitation and job-training opportunities, and it includes provisions intended to treat prisoners humanely — banning the shackling of pregnant inmates, halting the use of solitary confinement for most juvenile inmates, and mandating that prisoners be placed in facilities within 500 miles from their families.

Accomplishment: Defeating ISIS's caliphate and killing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi  ISIS shocked the world in 2014 when it took over a large swath of territory across Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate.  The terrorist group's territorial holdings were the basis for its so-called caliphate, and provided it will a major base of operations to conduct attacks across the world. After a five-year effort led by the US, ISIS's caliphate was finally defeated in March 2019.  In late October, a US raid led to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Failure: Charlottesville and George Floyd  Trump's response to a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, remains one of the most controversial moments in his presidency.  It was emblematic of Trump's struggle to bring the country together after tragedies, and more generally. His response also typified his controversial record on race relations and white supremacy.  The president was excoriated by Republicans and Democrats alike over his response and his failure to offer a swift and forceful condemnation of white-supremacist violence.  The president had peaceful protesters tear-gassed near the White House so he could pose for a photo with a Bible at a nearby church. He's consistently demonized anti-racism demonstrators, and controversially sent federal agents into US cities to squash unrest and intimidate the local population. Trump has elevated conspiracy theorists and people who've threatened protesters with guns.

Failure: America's global image is in shambles America's global image has declined significantly under Trump, who has repeatedly insulted key US allies while cozying up to dictators.  The president's tendency to push important allies away and isolate the US, including by pulling out of landmark international agreements like the Paris climate accord, has had a palpable impact.  People across the world have expressed negative views on Trump. Pew Research Center in January 2020 released a survey of 32 countries that showed a median of 64% said they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, and just 29% expressed confidence in the president.  Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has also left the US embarrassed on the world stage, and created a void in global leadership that China has rushed to fill.

Failure: Family separations and the deaths of migrant children  Trump in 2016 campaigned on reducing undocumented immigration, pledging to take a hardline approach.  He made good on that promise when coming into office, but has been accused of human-rights abuses and violating international law by the UN.  The Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on illegal border crossings led to the separations of at least 5,500 families and saw children placed in cages. Lawyers say they are still struggling to find the parents of 545 children who had been separated at the US-Mexico border.  The UN human-rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, in July said she was "shocked" by the US government's treatment of migrant children and the conditions they faced in detention facilities after crossing the border from Mexico.  "As a pediatrician, but also as a mother and a former head of state, I am deeply shocked that children are forced to sleep on the floor in overcrowded facilities, without access to adequate healthcare or food, and with poor sanitation conditions," Bachelet, the former president of Chile, stated.

Failure: Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan  Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 has induced chaos throughout the Middle East.  It remains one of Trump's most unpopular decisions in the global arena, and has been condemned by top US allies who were also signatories to the deal.  The president has failed to thwart Iran's aggressive behavior in the region through a maximum pressure campaign, meant to squeeze Tehran into negotiating a more stringent version of the pact.  Trump's decision to pull US troops out of northern Syria in October is also among his most disastrous foreign policy moves. In doing so, Trump effectively abandoned US-allied Kurdish forces who bore the brunt of the US-led campaign against ISIS to a Turkish military invasion.  Trump has repeatedly pledged to end "endless wars," zeroing in on Afghanistan. He wanted to remove all US troops from Afghanistan by the November election, but that didn't happen. The US is engaged in ongoing but tenuous peace talks with the Taliban that have occurred in concert with ongoing violence in the country.

Failure: Replacing the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare)  The late Sen. John McCain's iconic "thumbs-down" vote denied Trump a full congressional repeal (even a "skinny repeal") of former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.  But Trump has had success in dismantling parts of the law. His tax bill included a rollback of the tax penalty for those who did not enroll in healthcare, and the Trump administration has had some success in the courts regarding the individual mandate.  What Trump has not done in his first three years is offer a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. As the Associated Press points out, as a candidate Trump promised "insurance for everybody" and a more immediate replacement to the nearly decade-old ACA.

Failure: Impeachment  Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019. The House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump, one for abuse of power over his dealings with Ukraine and one for obstruction of Congress over his efforts to stonewall the impeachment inquiry.  The president was acquitted in a Senate trial, but will still go down as just the third president in US history to be impeached. GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah also made history by voting to convict Trump, marking the first time ever that a senator voted to convict a president from his or her own party.  

Failure: COVID-19 pandemic   Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely go down as one of the biggest disasters in US history. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died, and millions are unemployed.  The US has the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, with over 23.1 million confirmed cases and over 386,000 reported fatalities (as of mid-January). The US has had more coronavirus cases than the populations of many countries. And more Americans have died from the virus than the number of US soldiers killed in combat in every war since 1945 combined.  Trump has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and contradicted top public-health experts, flouting recommendations from advisors on his own White House coronavirus task force.

Failure: The US economy  Trump often took credit for the robust US economy before the pandemic, ignoring that much of the growth began during the Obama administration. The US is now facing one of the worst economic crises in its history under Trump, which is intrinsically linked to his disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Coronavirus lockdowns in early 2020 and reduced consumer spending led to tens of millions of job losses as whole segments of the economy sputtered. The economy has since begun adding back jobs, but is far from a full recovery as the US struggles to contain the coronavirus.  Expanded unemployment benefits provided via the relief legislation enacted in late March have expired.  Roughly 22 million jobs were lost from February to April. Though nearly half of those jobs have been recovered, the unemployment rate is still at 7.9% (estimated to be about 12 million people). The pre-pandemic unemployment rate was 3.4%.  The US national debt is at the highest levels since World War II, and US economic growth is set to average just above 0% for Trump's first term because of the pandemic recession, according to The Washington Post.  Though the economy is still far from recovered, Trump also failed to bring Congress together to pass a second coronavirus stimulus package prior to Election Day as Americans across the country struggled to cover rent and other bills. The GOP-controlled Senate instead prioritized confirming Trump's Supreme Court nominee, essentially placing the economy and the livelihoods of Americans on the back-burner.

Failure: Contracting COVID-19  As the president of the US, Trump is the most heavily protected person on the planet. The fact he contracted COVID-19 stands as a catastrophic failure and a national-security crisis for the US.  The president routinely flouted public-health recommendations before getting infected. Less than a week before he was diagnosed, Trump mocked former Vice President Joe Biden for routinely wearing a mask in public.  Top public-health experts have repeatedly urged Americans to wear a mask or face covering, touting the practice as the best tool available in fighting the virus.  Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 just days after essentially holding a super-spreader event in the Rose Garden at the White House to announce his Supreme Court nominee. Attendees did not social -distance, and many were seen without masks.  Well over a dozen people in Trump's orbit tested positive for COVID-19 after the event.

Failure: Damaging democracy  Trump has eroded democratic norms in many ways during his tenure. He's repeatedly attacked the media, leading UN experts to warn that Trump's rhetoric raised the risk of violence against journalists. He's threatened to deploy combat troops to American cities, over the objections of their elected leaders, and ordered illegal actions like demanding poll workers stop counting ballots.  Trump's relentless dissemination of disinformation on an array of topics, particularly the electoral process, has led historians and experts on fascism to compare him to dictators like Benito Mussolini.  The president's rhetoric has often been viewed as a source of encouragement by far-right extremist groups, and Trump has frequently equivocated when asked to condemn such people.  Though President-elect Joe Biden was the clear winner of the 2020 election, Trump has refused to concede. Trump rejected the results and has made baseless allegations of fraud.

Even as world leaders began to congratulate Biden, a major sign of the president-elect's legitimacy, Trump continued to deny reality. After weeks of rejecting the election result and attempting to overturn the outcome, the president provoked an attempted coup at the US Capitol on the day lawmakers met to certify Biden's Electoral College victory. He riled up his supporters in an inflammatory speech, urging them to march on the Capitol and "fight like hell." They listened.  The president is undermining the political system in the US and sowing doubt about the integrity of the country's elections. Every president prior to Trump allowed for a peaceful transition of power after they'd served two terms or lost an election.  Trump is also set to skip Biden's inauguration. And he’ll be the only President who was impeached twice in the same term of office.