By Asish Samson

The US media make their bread and butter writing about Trump, his policies, his tweets, his children, his wife, his hairstyle, his choice of food and how he eats it, how he hold water bottles, how many diet coke he drinks and how many hours of television he watches a day among others. There are people who love him dearly and support everything he does with strong passion and much fanfare and there are people who hate him with same passion and decry every single thing he does. Love him or hate him, we just can’t ignore him. Trump is a man of action and he has proved that by his sweeping changes, executive orders and his policies. So without further delay below are ten of Trump’s top accomplishments since he took office.
10.GDP and Economy: This was one of Trump’s biggest promises in his election campaign and from the numbers seen since he took office he has delivered big time already. The Gross Domestic Product or GDP of the US has seen a significant growth. According to the Bureau of Economic analysis GDP has grown at a rate of 3.1 percent in the second quarter and 3.2 percent in the third quarter and it is expected to rise even more by next quarter. The Consumer confidence index, measured last October was at the highest level in the past 17 years. The Dow broke records 70 times this year and it rose 5,000 points in a single year, the first time in history!

9. Unemployment : This was also one of Trump’s biggest talking points during his campaign and Trump delivered here too. The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment fell to a 44 low this year. That is it has fallen to a low never since December 29, 1973. Trump’s promise of him going to be “ The greatest jobs president God ever created!” seems to be shaping up in his first year itself.

8. Judicial Appointments : Trump had repeatedly made promises to nominate a conservative Judge to the supreme court and he fulfilled this promise by appointing Neil Gorsuch, a strict constitutionalist of the conservative leaning to the highest court in April. This was welcomed by conservatives and judges nationwide. His administration also nominated 73 new federal judges in the same vein.

7. North Korea : Trump took a particularly strong stance against the North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un. His administration imposed multiple sanctions on Pyongyang all throughout the year. It also initiated a resolution in the U.N Security Council that cut the country’s export revenue by a third. Trump also pressured China to keep Kim under check and eventually caused China’s Central bank to immediately stop its dealings with North Korea. The US also deployed the THAAD missile defence system to South Korea, Pyongyang’s long time rival.

6.Immigration : Perhaps the issue which headlined Trump’s presidential campaign Immigration reform and Border Control were always high on Trump’s agenda. In the first month since Trump took office alone, illegal border crossing has dropped by 40%. By his 100th day in office it has dropped by a staggering 73%. The Trump administration also cancelled Obama’s DACA programme. The number of deportations also increased by 28% compared to 2016. On Oct 4th the Homeland Security gave approval to Trump’s Border Wall bill and new waiver for construction and 10,000 additional border agents and officers on the US-Mexico line. Trump’s Travel Ban against select countries to prevent the threat from imported terrorism also was approved recently by the Supreme Court.

5. Trade deals : In this particular issue Trump brought forth his “ America First” agenda without any delay. He pulled US out of the disastrous NAFTA deal. More than $2 Billion in fines were assessed to Canada and China alone for illegal trade practices. Trump struck a $10 million a year deal with Argentina that allowed Pork from the US to enter Argentinian market for the first time since 1992. In September Trump began the process of renegotiating the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. During his visit to China in November, Trump announced a $250 billion dollar trade and investment deals that would generate jobs and revenue to American workers, farmers and ranchers by increasing US exports to China.

4. Military and Defence: Trump has always been strong on defence and he doubled down on this by increasing military and defence spending. In June the Trump Defence Department authorised the set up of troop levels in Afghanistan and Somalia while maintaining a strict non-interventionist attitude. Trump highly elevated America’s cyber security programme. Trump also negotiated a lucrative deal with Lockheed Martin that allowed the US to purchase 90 F-35 jets for the lowest price in the programme’s history saving $725 million and other additional savings. In December Trump signed a $4 billion dollar Anti-missile defence system bill in light of the North Korean threat.

3. Veteran Administration reform : This is one area in which Trump actually did much more than he ever promised. In April, Trump signed the VA Choice and Quality employment Act which authorised $2.1 billion in additional funds that allowed veterans get better and faster treatment outside VA system. In June Trump established the new White House Veterans Hotline to help veterans and which was fully staffed by veterans themselves. In the same month Trump also resolved the problematic information sharing rift between the VA and the Department of Defence. Trump also signed the Veterans Accountability and Whistle Blower Protection act which allowed and better governance and safeguards to protect whistle blowers. In August Trump signed the Harry W.Colmery Educational Assistance Act which granted educational benefits to veterans, service members and their families which included books, tuition fees, housing and other additional costs. He also streamlined the lengthy process the disabled veterans had to undergo to appeal for disability by signing a special act and thereby resolving the problem for more than 470,000 veterans who were waiting.

2.ISIS : This is one issue in which even the anti-Trump section of the media like the New York Times or USA Today had to admit recently that Trump had done a really good job. The Trump Administration literally drove out ISIS from its strong hold in Iraq and Syria. One ISIS expert recently even commented that ISIS was “no more.” It all started in April when the US dropped the GBU-43B also know as the “Mother of all bombs” or MOAB the largest non-nuclear bomb in existence on ISIS tunnels which at least 94 ISIS militants including 4 commanders and weapon stockpiles. By November- December the U.S. Armed forces along with the Iraqi Military took back virtually all territories from ISIS thus ending it’s reign of terror.

1.Tax Reform bill : In the biggest accomplishment for Trump this year the senate passed the Tax reform bill which created huge tax cuts. Corporate tax was cut from 35% to 21% and the middle-class also experienced a big tax cut along with small businesses. Many companies announced thousands of dollars of bonuses to American workers over Christmas. This was a move which was sure to create more job and increase the GDP and economy further.

There many other accomplishments for the Trump administration like Deregulation, sweeping changes in Law enforcement and education along with religious liberty laws, EPA reforms, Human rights laws, Government transparency among others. Trump achieved all these and much more in less than a year in office. If it was in his own words Trump would say that he was winning “ BIGLY!”.