Trump: Captain Chaos or Agent of Change?

When a left-wing journalist tells you to change course, you know you’re probably doing something right and should continue doing what you’re doing. That’s what happened to President Donald Trump recently when CNN’s Chris Cillizza concluded:

A course correction is clearly needed. But, this is Donald Trump we're talking about. To make a course correction, you would first have to admit a mistake in navigation has been made. And he doesn't admit to making mistakes. Not ever.

The basis for his conclusion is that Trump allegedly is a chaos president. Out of his seventy-three first days, supposedly only two days have been victories. The rest have been chaos.

If Cillizza wasn't such a partisan journalist, he would recognize that most of the chaos has been instigated by Democrats to actively and deliberately undermine the presidency and rule of law. The U.S. has a long tradition of peaceful transition of power, where all people rally behind the new president to show that the nation is united under a common set of laws. This includes giving the new man in charge some space to prove himself for the first one hundred days.

This time Democrats and the left-wing media have flagrantly disregarded the peaceful transition and relentlessly attacked Trump and his administration from day one. A significant portion of Trump’s presidency has been spent on an absurd hunt for Russian ghosts. Does anyone seriously believe that Trump and his “America First” team are conspiring with Russia?

Another big chunk of the media coverage has been devoted to the temporary ban on immigration for security reasons from seven majority Muslim countries. Rather than being outraged by the fact that several judges have blatantly disregarded the Constitution and taken on roles as political activists, the media has labeled this as “chaos” and evidence of incompetence on Trump’s part.

Yes, it does create chaos when one party is undermining the institutions of the U.S. Had Cillizza been honest, he would have placed the blame for this chaos squarely on those who refuse to accept Trump as president.

For those who voted for Trump, however, there have been many days of victory. It was a victory when Trump appointed climate skeptic Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA and signed an executive order to curb its power and size significantly. It was a win when Trump revived the Keystone pipeline and rolled back Obama’s climate change regulations of the coal industry. Other wins for team Trump were the appointments of Jeff Sessions, James Mattis and Betsy DeVos, and the executive orders for slashing regulations.

Stock markets have surged since the election of Trump and Americans are more optimistic about the economy than they have been in a long time. Unless you are wearing ideologue glasses, that counts as a win for Trump too.

To the ordinary American, Trump looks like an effective agent of change. He keeps his promises and gets things done. What the left calls chaos, Trump calls “draining the swamp.”

Only in one area does Cillizza have a point. So, far Trump has not been successful in repealing and replacing Obamacare as promised, and it is somewhat embarrassing to the president and Republicans that they could not agree on a replacement plan. The blame for this chaos should not be directed at Trump, however, but at the Republican Party who had eight years under Obama to come up with fresh, innovative ideas. The failure of Trump’s first attempt at repeal and replace essentially uncovered grave incompetence in the Republican Party, not chaos in the White House.

There is still plenty of time to rectify the situation. If Trump can solve a better health care plan for America in time for the next election, he will not be remembered for any of this transitional turmoil. And the question will then become, what will Mr. Cillizza have to complain about now?