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(Reuters) – President Donald Trump, who said he knew best what afflicted the United States and often ruled by executive order, dismantled or disrupted multilateral pacts, overhauled the tax and immigration systems and, with the help of the Senate Republicans, reformed the judiciary.
Trump’s actions can unravel in many areas over time, but win or lose, his legacy will endure in federal courts, where his conservative lifetime appointments will influence every aspect of American life for decades.
His record will be put to the test on Election Day Tuesday when Democrat Joe Biden challenges him for the White House.
THE JUDICIAL POWER
Working in tandem with the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump may have the most lasting impact in federal courts with judicial appointments that tilt to the right.
In less than four years, Trump has appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, a feat last accomplished by President Richard Nixon, who appointed four in his first four years. The highest court in the nation now has a solid 6-3 conservative majority.
Trump has appointed 53 judges to federal appeals courts, just under a third of the total. By comparison, former President Barack Obama named 55 in his two four-year terms. Trump has appointed roughly a quarter of the district court judges, the lowest rung on the federal judicial ladder.
The appointments, all for life, have led to the ideological “twist” of three of the 13 federal appeals courts in the country, one level below the Supreme Court. The Atlanta-based US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit, and the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit all had Democratic-appointed majorities when Trump became president in 2017.
Trump’s success in the judiciary would not have been possible without Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who made judicial nominations a priority as Senate Majority Leader, confirming those appointments.
Cases in court range from divisive social issues, including abortion, gay rights, and the death penalty, to voting rights, regulatory and trade disputes, labor law, and environmental concerns.
WEATHER
Trump entered the White House vowing to reverse Obama-era efforts to fight climate change as part of a broader strategy to cut environmental red tape that he saw as a hindrance to America’s fossil fuel industry and businesses. in particular.
It began the United States’ withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international agreement to combat global warming, ceding Washington’s historic role as a leader in coordinated efforts to counter climate change. The withdrawal meant that the United States abandoned its commitment to reduce emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels by 2025.
Trump then rescinded or weakened the two main domestic policy efforts initiated by Obama that would have helped Washington meet its Paris goals: the Clean Power Plan (CPP) to reduce emissions from the power sector and national fuel efficiency targets. of vehicles aimed at reducing pollution and climate impact of cars and trucks. The energy and transportation sectors make up the bulk of America’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The CPP, which had been involved in litigation by Republican states since its launch, was replaced by the weaker Affordable Clean Energy rule that did not have strict targets for emissions cuts, while vehicle efficiency targets they softened.
The Trump administration also amended the National Environmental Policy Act that governs environmental reviews of large infrastructure projects to reduce the weight that climate considerations can have on permits.
A new administration could reverse the course of these policies and could also quickly rejoin the Paris accords, as the withdrawal will not be complete until shortly after the November 3 presidential election.
IMMIGRATION
A reform of the United States immigration system was a central element of Trump’s 2016 election campaign. It tightened borders, reduced refugee admissions and access to asylum, and instituted a radical ban that primarily targeted travelers from nations. African and Muslim majority. It imposed bureaucratic obstacles to stop legal immigration.
Trump used tough diplomacy to pressure Mexico and Central American countries to make it difficult for migrants to travel north to the United States and, in a widely condemned move, separated parents from their children on the southwestern border. Although he eventually reversed this “zero tolerance” policy, some separations continued and some parents of separated children have not been located. Under a later policy, nearly all migrants seeking refuge at the U.S. border were denied entry and forced to wait in Mexico, pending the outcome of asylum applications that could take months or years.
He diverted billions of dollars in military funds to pay for a wall on the southern border that he had promised during his campaign that Mexico would pay. Almost four years later, the wall remains incomplete.
COMMERCE
Trump promised to return jobs to the United States and reduce the trade deficit with other countries, particularly China, by introducing new taxes and other obstacles to imports, including Chinese-made steel and industrial components, and by challenging alliances. multilaterals and the World Trade Organization. rules. On his third day in office in 2017, Trump resigned from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country Pacific Rim trade deal negotiated under Obama.
His “America First” trade policies sparked a tit-for-tat tariff war with China that left American businesses and consumers paying much higher tariffs on around $ 370 billion in annual Chinese imports, while farmers and others US exporters saw sales to China fall. Tensions eased with a “Phase 1” trade agreement signed in January, but Chinese companies have failed to meet their commitments to boost purchases of US goods under the agreement, and no “Phase 2” has materialized.
The Trump administration renegotiated the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, blaming it for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs in Mexico, adding digital trade rules and stricter environmental and labor standards, the latter at the insistence of the Democrats.
Subsidies from the US government to compensate for farmers’ lost income now account for a third of their income. The trade deficit jumped to its highest level in 14 years in August.
TAX CUTS
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by Trump in December 2017, was the most significant restructuring of the American tax system since the 1980s.
It drastically reduced the rate paid by businesses in the United States from 35% to 21%, reduced minimum, estate and gift taxes for the very wealthy, and eliminated some deductions for homeowners, especially in the states Democrats with high taxes. It also lowered federal income tax rates for individuals and increased the standard deduction, provisions that expire after 2025.
The $ 1.5 trillion tax cut prompted US corporations to bring home billions of dollars in cash from abroad. However, many pushed for share buybacks rather than increasing equity investment or hiring, drawing criticism from Trump.
Even before the federal government spent trillions on fiscal stimulus to counter the impact of the coronavirus this year, the US deficit was expected to rise to more than $ 1 trillion in 2020, in part due to lower tax revenues. post-reform, despite Republican promises that the cuts would “pay for themselves” through increased economic growth.
If elected, Biden has vowed to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% and raise taxes on Americans who earn more than $ 400,000.
FOREIGN POLICY
Trump has changed some basic principles of post-WWII US foreign policy by questioning the NATO alliance, alienating European allies, and pandering to autocrats.
His disdain for multilateralism sparked a series of withdrawals from agreements and bodies in which the United States had played a leading role, including the Iran nuclear deal, the World Health Organization, and the UN Human Rights Council as well. like the Paris climate agreement.
The relationship with China deteriorated to levels not seen in decades, sparking fears of a new Cold War, especially after Washington accused Beijing of hiding the coronavirus threat from the world. The administration ended Hong Kong’s special status, sanctioned top officials for human rights abuses and seeks to ban Chinese tech companies.
Trump made good on his 2016 campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to divided Jerusalem. At the end of his term, his administration also helped negotiate landmark deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan to normalize relations, which even Trump’s critics applauded.
His hard line on Iran has been less successful. The administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign has imposed sanctions on everything from oil revenues to minerals to Iran’s central bank, but has not forced a change in behavior from Tehran or brought it back to negotiations. over the nuclear deal that Trump abandoned in 2018. Tensions continue to rise.
Trump partially fulfilled a campaign promise to bring troops home from “endless wars,” particularly in Afghanistan, where numbers are falling into the thousands. But his relationship with top military commanders soured when the generals’ advice went against his wishes, including their order for an abrupt withdrawal from Syria.
Despite Trump’s historic engagement to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he has made no progress in persuading Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, David Lawder, Richard Valdmanis, Ross Colvin, Mary Milliken, and Heather Timmons; Edited by Sonya Hepinstall and Howard Goller)
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