I have sought to articulate some of the reasons I am grateful that Trump is president. I’m not sure it is a useful exercise, but I want to register my gratitude. I have formulated my list in telegraphic style on a provisional basis subject to revision, here (part 1) and here (part 2).
My number 1 reason remains “President Hillary Clinton — not.” The rest are bullet points in no particular order. If we were to conduct a net assessment of the Trump presidency so far, which remains to be done, I would want them all on the credit side of the ledger.
Having taken in the HBO documentary The Final Year (focused on Obama’s foreign policy team in its rush to cement one aspect of “fundamental transformation”), taken in yesterday’s jobs report (New York Times: “We ran out of words words to describe how good the jobs numbers are”), and continued to follow developments in the Mueller Switch Project, I offer the following modest additions and restatements:
• Learning of the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign that would otherwise have been buried.
• Learning of the collusion of the Clinton campaign with Russian officials and Russian intelligence via her campaign counsel and counsel’s contractor.
• Refusal to accept 2 percent GDP growth as the new normal.
• Credible and forthright avowal of love of the United States (no desire for “fundamental transformation”).
• Refusal to accept the status quo with North Korea.
• Refusal to accept the status quo with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.