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100 Days of Productive Leadership

(Never Mind What the Mainstream Media Tells You)

By Gary F. Zeolla

      It is April 29, 2017, the 100^th day of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. There have been many articles and news reports this week about this overhyped milestone. As such, I wasn’t going to write about it, as I figured it would be covered enough. That is until I saw what the mainstream media is saying.

      An article in the Huffington Post yesterday declared, “Trump has accomplished absolutely nothing in his first 100 days.” Other media outlets have declared it has been  “a wasted 100 days.” That is the line the mainstream media is trying to feed its readers and viewers, but it is all a bunch of nonsense. Therefore, in this article I will try to point out some of what Trump has accomplished that you are not hearing about in the media.

29 Bills Signed into Law

      CBN News has become one of my favorite news outlets of late. I just recently noticed that their half-hour nightly shows airs on my local Christian station, WPCB in Pittsburgh, at 7:00 pm weekdays. You probably can find it on a Christian station in your area.

      The first several minutes cover national news. Then there are segments on more directly Christian issues, like missions, persecution of Christians around the world, Christian movies that are being produced, and the like. Each episode ends with an uplifting thought for the day.

      On Thursday, April 28, CBN News reported that in Trump’s first 100 days, he signed 28 bills sent to him from Congress into law. Nearly half of these laws focus on reducing regulations that had been issued by the Obama administration that were stifling businesses and putting burdens on families. House leadership estimates that these laws will save these families and businesses $67 billion.

       CBN News’ website reports it this way:

… he’s signed 28 bills into law, including 13 Congressional Review Acts, which erase last minute regulations issued by the Obama administration. “Prior to this, Congress only one time has a Congressional Review Act ever made it to the president’s desk and been signed,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently told reporters (Trump: 100 Days of Working to ‘Make America Great Again’).

       A few other media outlets are also reporting about these reductions in regulations and their effects:

      Among accomplishments made by the Trump administration in its first “100 days” that likely won’t make the evening news are regulatory reforms, which to date have saved taxpayers more than $86 billion. That’s the conclusion of a new report by the American Action Forum, a policy institute, which lists various Obama administration regulations that President Trump and Congress have either repealed or delayed, The Hill newspaper reports (Trib Live. Regulatory rollback: A good start).

       But you didn’t hear about this in the mainstream media, do you? Instead, they are focusing on the one law that he wasn’t able to get passed (on health care). That is so they can spin the narrative that Trump has been unable to work with Congress to get anything done. But he and Congress together have gotten much done that is already benefiting Americans.

30 Executive Orders Signed

      Trump has also signed 30 executive orders. You may have heard about a few of these in the media, but they have downplayed their importance or tried to spin them into bad things. But these orders have also eased the regularity burden on American families and businesses. They will also help to make America energy independent, so we are no longer dependent on the Middle East and countries that hate us for our energy. That is huge, as being energy independent will both create American jobs and ensure our safety.

      Among these orders are the two pipelines that are now being built that will bring much needed oil into United States. I already wrote about these, so I won’t repeat my comments here (see Pipelines and Energy Production). I also already wrote about Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration. I won’t repeat what I wrote there, except to remind the reader that if a terroristic attack is orchestrated by terrorists who would have been prevented from entering this country if liberal judges hadn’t blocked his order, then don’t blame Trump. Blame the liberal judges appointed by Obama.

      Trump’s latest executive order was also blocked by a liberal Obama-appointee judge. It was to stop discretionary federal grants to “sanctuary cites.” This was to try to keep yet more Americans from being killed, raped, and robbed by criminal illegal aliens that are being protected by these cities and their illegal policies. But you hardly ever hear about these crimes in the mainstream media, as that would not fit their narratives of all illegal aliens being “good” for the country.

      But both of these very bad court rulings are being appealed, and when they reach the Supreme Court, they most certainly will be overturned.

      On a side note, do not fall into trap of calling illegal aliens “undocumented immigrants.” By legal definition, a “immigrant” is someone who has legally entered this country and has attained legal permanent status. Any other non-citizen is by law called an “alien.” It they are here legally, such as on a work visa, they are a “legal alien.” If they entered the illegally, they are a “illegal alien” (as explained by a congressman on Sean Hannity’s radio show)

      But the liberal media and radical left declare “no one is illegal” as a means of labeling these aliens as “immigrants.” This is so they can lump both legal immigrants and illegal aliens together, then declare Trump and conservatives are “against immigration.” We then end up with ridiculous situations like the recent “Day without an immigrant.” That day was to demonstrate how good immigration is for American.

      But Trump and conservatives are not against immigration, so such days are meaningless. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Trump is married to an immigrant, so how can he be against immigration? He and us conservatives are against people breaking our laws to get here. Immigration is great, when it is the right people at the right time. That is what our immigration law are for, to be sure anyone who immigrates here will benefit the country.

      But that is not how the leftist elites sees immigrations. To them, we should have open borders so anyone who wants to come here can enter. They proclaim such is the “moral” thing to do. Well if it is, then why don’t they open up their mansions and estates and let just anyone in who wants to come stay with them and live on their property? You know they would never do that. They instead put up fences to keep intruders out, only letting in servants to serve their every need. Such hypocrites.

    A complete list and description of each executive order is found on the White House’s website at: Executive Orders.

Neil Gorsuch

      If Trump had done nothing else in his first 100 days except to nominate and see Neil Gorsuch confirmed, that would have been huge in itself. There are many cases on the way to the Supreme Court that will have far-reaching ramifications. I already discussed this in my article Gorsuch and Syria.

      But here I will mention that Neil has already heard arguments on one religious freedom case. It concerned of all things, playgrounds. It is “a case involving a Missouri church denied a state grant to make its preschool playground safer” (Christianity Today. Neil Gorsuch’s First Religious Liberty Case Is a Playground Fight).

      Specifically, Missouri has a law giving grants to organizations that run playgrounds for new flooring made from recycled tires. This flooring will help keep children from getting injured when they fall. But when Trinity Lutheran Church requested such a grant, it was denied on the grounds of “separation of church and state.” But how is a playground “religious?” And why is it okay for children playing on a church’s playground to get hurt but not on a secular playground?

      Many similar such cases will also probably make their way to the Supreme Court in coming years. For instance, I saw a report on Fox News about a Catholic hospital that was being sued by the ACLU because it refused to perform a sex-change operation. If this case goes against the hospital, the hospital will either be forced to perform surgeries that it considers immoral and detrimental to people or go out of business, thus hurting the multitudes of people who receive care at that hospital. This is similar to the many Catholic adoption agencies that have been forced to close their doors because they refused to adopt out children to homosexual couples.

    In both cases, people are being hurt due to the left-wing agenda and leftists forcing their radical and sinful ideas on the American populace. But all such nonsense can now be stopped by a Supreme Court with a conservative majority of justices. That is why Trump’s appointment and the confirmation of Gorsuch is so important.

Drawing a Red Line

      The other half of the above article on Gorsuch and Syria was about Trump ordering cruise misses to be fired on the airport from which planes took off and spread chemical weapons on the Syrian people, at the order of their own president Bashar al-Assad. Though I am somewhat critical of this order in that article, at least Trump knows how to draw a red line, unlike our previous spineless President. The cartoon below emphasizes this point very well (click for a larger image).

      The point is, we now have a Commander-in-Chief who is willing to do what it takes to get the job done, with minimal loss of American life. This is seen in Trump’s other major military order.

MOAB

      On April 12^th, Trump ordered the “Mother of All Bombs” to be dropped on a ISIS site in Afghanistan. The media was in a tizzy over how large the bomb was, and it was large. It is in fact the most powerful bomb the USA has short of a nuclear weapon.

      Bible readers will recognize the acronym MOAB as being a Biblical city. It is an appropriate acronym as that ancient city was destroyed by the LORD for its sins (see Isaiah 16-17). But the real name of this bomb is Massive Ordnance Air Blast, but “Mother of All Bombs” has the same acronym and sounds better, so that is how it is commonly referred to. But whatever the name, the bomb achieved its intended purposes, as the picture below shows.

      However, the importance of using this bomb goes beyond how much destruction it caused. Its main importance is it saved American lives and limbs, as explained by a soldier who was a guest on Sean Hannity’s radio show. The soldier had lost both of his legs in Iraq. The reason he lost his legs was the ridiculous orders by Obama.

      In order to avoid any possibility of “collateral damage” which is to say, deaths of civilians, Obama did not allow areas that were known to be booby-trapped to be bombed. Instead, American soldiers had to enter the areas and manually defuse the traps.

      In this case, it was an abandoned town. But despite assurances that the town had been abandoned, the Obama administration would not let the military just bomb the place to remove the traps. Instead, this soldier and others had to enter the town, and sure enough, a booby-trap was tripped, and he lost both of his legs.

      Trump not wanting to make the same senseless mistake ordered the MOAB to be dropped on this ISIS camp, knowing what could happen if troops were to enter the area without the booby-traps being cleared. And not only did the MOAB destroy all of the booby-traps, but at least 94 ISIS fighters were killed, along with a large amount of munitions being destroyed. The use of the MOAB was needed as many of these munitions and booby-traps were buried deep underground or in tunnels, and only the blast from the MOAB would take all of them out. It was thus not a case of Trump just trying to show off, as leftists are portraying it. There were very logical strategic reasons for using the MOAB (CNN. ‘Mother of all bombs’ killed 94 ISIS fighters, Afghan official says).

Meetings with Foreign Leaders

      During his first 100 days, Trump has met with the leaders of many foreign countries. Most of these meeting have been very productive, with Trump improving our relations these leaders and their countries that Obama had all but ruined.

      Foremost among these was a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minster of Israel. Obama’s disdain for Israel and its leader became obvious last year, when Netanyahu came to speak to Congress, and Obama refused to meet with him. That severely hurt our relationship with the only country with a representative government and basic freedoms in the Middle East. And unlike Obama, Trump has vowed to support Israel in its fight against Iran, ISIS, and other adversaries. For further details, see my article Tiny Israel Amidst a Massive Sea of Muslim Lands.

      Another important relationship Trump has improved is with China. Many in the media are saying this is a mistake, as China is a communist country. But we need China to help us keep North Korea in check. As such, it is good that Trump and the Chinese leader Li Keqiang got along so well. In fact, they were originally scheduled for a half an hour meeting, but that grew into two, three hour meetings.

      China has even more to lose than we do if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un makes good on his threats to use nuclear weapons. The North Korean madman is trying to provoke a war with the United States, Japan, China, or anyone else he seems to think is a threat to his reign. This is a very serious situation that should not be taken lightly. And if we have China on our side, that is a very good thing. But the media just doesn’t seem to get the seriousness of it all. Instead, they are upset Trump did not call China a “currency manipulator.” But if he had done that, it would have ruined the possibility of an agreement about North Korea, a much more pressing issue.

      We also need our other allies with us as we fight against ISIS and other Islamic terrorists. Therefore, Trump’s meetings with the leaders of Britain, Germany, and other NATO countries, along with meetings with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and other Middle Eastern countries, were also vital. And by all reports, all of those meetings also went very well.

      Bottom line is Trump knows how to build relationships. It helps that he is willing to call a spade a spade in calling Muslims extremist what they are, Muslim extremists. This is all a far cry from our former President, who could not even name the enemy, let alone build the kind of relationships we need with our allies to fight against these enemies.

      But the mainstream media will tell you none of this, as they are still fawning too much over Obama to say anything critical of him and hate Trump too much to say anything complimentary about him.

Meetings with Business Leaders

      Trump has also had several meetings with the leaders of American business, both CEOs of major corporations and those who run small businesses. He even held a meeting with a large group of female small-business entrepreneurs, but you probably never heard about that in the mainstream media. That is because such a meeting would not fit with their narrative of Trump being a misogynist. That is why Kelly Ann Conway made a point of discussing this meeting when she appeared on an episode of Justice with Jeanine Pirro on Fox News.

      In these meeting, Trump has been asking these business leaders what they need from the federal government to make their businesses more prosperous. And that is what has led to Trumps’ executive orders and bills he has signed into law reducing the regularity burden on businesses, and their suggestions will be incorporated into Trump’s planned reform of the tax code. But again, the media has barely reported about these meetings, as it does not fit their narrative of Trump being a do-nothing president.

Reduction in Illegal Aliens

      The number of illegal aliens crossing the southern border into the United States has dropped dramatically since Trump took office, “Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday that the number of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has ‘dropped off precipitously’ by almost 70%” (CNS News. DHS Secretary: Number of Illegals Crossing Southern Border Down by Almost 70%). This is a very good thing, and it shows that Trump is keeping his promise, despite the attempts by liberal to keep the flow of illegals coming into country going.

Improving Economy

      Since Trump took office, the stock market has been seeing consistent gains, housing sales are up, manufacturing is up, consumer confidence is up, jobs are being added, and the national debt is being lowered (Gateway Pundit. Complete List of President Trump’s Major Accomplishments in First 100 Days).

      You probably have not heard any of this in the mainstream media, but facts are facts. The economy is doing very well, and this is directly due to the regularity burden on businesses being reduced, along confidence on the part of businesses that Trump will keep his promises about health care and tax reform.

Yet to come

      These are just highlights. Trump has accomplished much more, and honest news outlets will list all of them, but the mainstream media will instead focus on what Trump has yet to accomplish. But they will call them “failures” not things yet to be finished. Foremost among these is health care reform.

      I have expressed previously my frustration over Congress not having a health-care consensus bill ready the day Trump took office. The Republicans in Congress have been proclaiming for eight years that Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced, even voting 60 times to repeal it. But those were all show votes, with them knowing Obama would veto them, and they did not have the votes to override his veto. But now that they had a chance to actually repeal that horrid law and replace it with something better, they were not ready and instead tried to send a less than desirable bill to Trump. Fortunately, the Freedom Caucus held its ground and defeated that proposal.

      My point is, the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare is to be laid at the feet of Congress, not Trump. But Trump is working with Congress to produce a bill that will be much better in the end. And that is all that matters, that a quality bill gets signed into law that will truly improve our health care system, not how fast it gets done.

      The same goes for tax code reform. That is the next big item on the agenda after health care. It will take a lot of work and a lot of time, but again, I’d rather Congress and Trump take their time and get it right than rush to get it done by some imaginary deadline.

      Third, there is the wall. You know what wall I am talking about. The media has had a field day saying Trump has backed down on his promise to build a wall on the southern border. But he has done no such thing. He just delayed the need to fund the wall from the deadline this week to later so that the government would not be shut down by Democratic obstructionism.  But eventually, the wall will get built, and Senator Cruz had a great idea this week on how to fund it.

      Drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera (aka, El Chapo) is now in custody. It has been estimated that he has assets worth of $14 billion, which just happens to be within the range of estimate for the entire wall. Seize his assets and those of any other drug lords that are captured and use that to pay for the wall and border security in general. That sounds good to me (CNN. Ted Cruz wants ‘El Chapo’ to pay for Trump’s border wall).

Conclusion

      Trump has accomplished much more than what is highlighted in this article. I discuss these accomplishments elsewhere on this site. But here; let me say, no matter how much the mainstream media tries to spin it, the facts are Trump has accomplished a lot in this first 100 days in office. See President Trump’s First 100 Days on the White House’s website for a complete list.

100 Days of Productive Leadership (Never Mind What the Mainstream Media Tells You). Copyright © 2017 By Gary F. Zeolla.

Joe Biden's Failing Presidency

      This series of five books provides the definitive record of Biden’s failures in his first two years as President. These failures should not be forgotten, as they laid the foundation for his continual failures in his subsequent years as President. He has been failing miserably on both domestic issues and in foreign policy. Those failures are all chronicled in these five books.

The above article was posted on this website April 29, 2017.

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