Writes Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe on the record of Donald Trump:
As a candidate for president, Donald Trump promised voters that his election would usher in an era of nonstop winning.
…He was wrong. In his four years as president, Trump did put important wins on the board — tax reform, judicial confirmations, the crippling of ISIS, significant deregulation, and Middle East peace accords. But the winning that occurred on Trump’s watch was dwarfed by all the losing.
To begin with, there were the electoral losses. When Trump took office, his party controlled both houses of Congress. But in the 2018 midterms Republicans lost 41 House seats, along with their majority, as dozens of Trump-endorsed candidates went down to defeat. In 2020, the “winning, winning, winning” president lost his bid for reelection by solid majorities in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. For two months following the election, Trump’s lawyers filed a torrent of lawsuits challenging the outcome; they lost every one. Last week the two candidates he supported in the Georgia Senate runoffs were also defeated. When Trump leaves office, the White House and both houses of Congress will be in Democratic hands.
Then there were the policy losses.
…[O]nly a sliver of Trump’s proposed 1,000-mile wall was ever built — just 15 miles of barrier where none existed before. Most of the costs were borne by the Defense Department; none were paid by Mexico.
…Obamacare remains in force to this day.
…The tariffs he imposed on foreign goods saddled American households with higher prices and ended up reducing US exports. Trump swore he would slash America’s trade deficit; instead, it grew bigger than ever.
Trump’s years in power have been replete with ideological losses as well.
…Trump has managed to turn Americans against pretty much every position he promotes.