Here are some ways Trump has been good for America:
- Lowering the effective corporate tax rate so that we're in line with the rest of the developed world, including Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. This will make US companies more competitive globally, spur business investment, grow the economy, create new jobs, and increase tax revenues.
- Getting serious about reducing the regulatory burden on business, a daunting task that seeks to balance competing policy objectives.
- Creating incentives for capital investments by allowing businesses to deduct the full cost of capital expenses in the first year of purchase. More capital investment will increase productivity and lead to higher wages.
- Creating incentives for energy-saving capital investments, such as smart HVAC systems, thereby reducing US GHG emissions.
Note: new equipment, machinery, and buildings are much more energy-efficient than the old stuff, but they're also expensive and it often takes years for businesses to recoup the investment.
- Calling out political correctness and its smothering of debate.
- Resetting relationships with allies, trade partners, and enemies, disrupting the less-than-optimal status quo.
- By virtue of their antipathy to Trump, making Democrats into vocal deficit hawks and free traders so that even if they win back Congress or the Whitehouse, it would be hard to change their tune.
Some things about the Trump administration don't concern me too much, being more ramped-up Obama era policies (e.g., oil drilling leases on federal lands, strengthening the border) than new directions in governing. Other things do bother me: the recklessness, the autocratic tendencies and indifference to democratic institutions, the insistence on loyalty and fomenting of division. To name a few.
I didn't vote for Trump and I can't imagine ever voting for him. Still, I think he's been good for America in many ways.