Research Paper Post: Trump's performance as the leader of the GOP

The Stable-Genius-In-Chief won 308 electoral votes in route to becoming the President. This would indicate that he had at least gained the unified support of the Republican Party in the general election of 2016. How has he done as their leader since then? It depends how you define success. According to my definition, he has failed the party. He has done well at unifying his base, and until Covid 19 destroyed the economy, he was poised to win reelection in 2020 with that unified base. But what he has done to the identity of the Republican Party is unsustainable, and the ramifications will be felt for years to come, unless the party makes some major changes after his Presidency ends.

 First, let's look at some of his accomplishments:

Tax Reform
 - In his third year as President, Trump and the GOP passed a new tax bill called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
 - The bill included reforms such as cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% (the biggest change since the 1980s).
 - Although this is considered an accomplishment because it passed, it still has a low approval rating to this day.

Prison Reform
- In December of 2018, Trump signed the First Step Act with the goal of ending mass incarceration and recidivism
 - The Bill was formed and supported by both parties
       - represented the first major addressing of mass incarceration at the federal level in decades

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
- In October of 2019, US forces captured and killed the world's most wanted terrorist and ISIS leader


Now, let's look at some of his failures:

Healthcare
- One of the biggest promises of every Republican candidate in the 2016 race (including Trump) was to "repeal and replace" Obamacare
 - Despite this promise and Trump's additional promise to make sure every American had access to healthcare, he has yet to replace Obamacare.

Impeachment
 - Despite being acquitted in the Senate trial, Donald Trump became the third President in American history to be impeached
 - The House impeached him on two accounts
 - Regardless of the outcome, the trial process revealed a lot of Trump's worst moments as a leader
 - This will likely have little to no affect on his approval or electability, nonetheless.

Iran and Syria
- In 2019, Trump decided to pull the United States out of the nuclear agreement that President Obama got us into.
 - Regardless of one's judgement of the original deal, the way Trump handled the withdrawal had disastrous results and created unnecessary tension with Iran, including the attack on a U.S. Embassy in Iraq by Iranian forces.
 -Also in 2019 (October), Trump pulled the U.S. troops out of northern Syria.
 -This abandonment of our Kurdish allies was vastly unpopular.

       All of these accomplishments and failures are products of the President being human and making good and bad decisions. They don't differ extremely from the accomplishments and failures of past Presidents. However, the following mistakes come only as a result of the personal shortcomings of Donald Trump, and they are the main catalyst for the damage he has done to the Republican Party:

"I alone can fix it"
 - It is a deeply rooted Conservative belief that the Government's principle job is to protect the People's rights, and that's it. This is why Conservative leaders in all levels of Government have advocated for limited Government principles for decades. In 2016, many of these Conservative leaders were outspokenly disgusted by Trump's approach to fixing the country's issues.
 - Due to his consistent firing of staff and anyone who disagrees with him on anything, Trump has bullied out any of the possible dissent he could receive from Conservatives on his ideas.
 - a prime example is Linday Graham, a man who in 2016 called Trump a "jackass" and Biden “as good a man as God ever created”. Now, because he wants to keep his job, he has flipped his stance on both statements. THIS is the dilemma that Trump has forced Conservative leaders into.

Racial Issues
 - It is a commonly held opinion that the President is a racist. This is exacerbated by his comments on issues such as the Mexican-American border and the riots in Charlottesville.
 - Conservatives have been forced to support him on his statements, which could be very damaging to the future of the party. If the Conservatives can't regain some standing with the growing population of minority voters after Trump's time is over, they may never be the Republican Party as we know it ever again.

  Foreign Affairs
 - Although Trump may not be worried about this, Global confidence in US leadership fell 11% between 2016 and 2017.
      - 41% of Germans think Trump is more dangerous than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
 - This obviously presents an issue for Republican leaders of the future. If they care about our standing in global politics, they will have to choose between doubling down on Trump's extreme nationalistic stance, or returning to previously held Conservative standards of international politics.