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Newt Gingrich on Trump's First Year: 'We Are Incredibly Fortunate to Have Him'

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich thinks the first year of the Trump administration has been a smashing success, with President Donald Trump even rivaling an iconic conservative president — Ronald Reagan — as an “effective, focused leader.”

In a Fox News op-ed publish Saturday, the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, Gingrich noted that despite the harsh “opposition” Trump faces from liberal activists and the mainstream media, he has still been able to follow through on numerous campaign promises.

In fact, of the nine U.S. presidents Gingrich has known — starting with Richard Nixon — only Trump and Reagan have been so effective in their first year. Americans, Gingrich said, are “incredibly fortunate” that Trump prevailed in the 2016 presidential election.

“It is fair to say President Trump has already achieved so much that he rivals Reagan as an effective, focused leader,” Gingrich wrote.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have him in the White House as our nation’s 45th president.”

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As evidence of this claim, Gingrich juxtaposed the “resistance” effort against Trump to the president’s accomplishments.

The mainstream media and the left have “consistently misrepresented and maligned” him, Gingrich said, leading to a “distorted, minimized view of what has been accomplished by this remarkably energetic and controversial commander-in-chief.”

Pointing out how unexpected Trump’s electoral victory was, Gingrich discussed the response by liberal protesters — seen in the form of the rallies that took place the day after his inauguration.

These protesters “promised ‘resistance’ to the so-called ‘imposter,’ who they simply could not accept as president of the United States,” according to Gingrich.

Do you think President Trump has followed through on his campaign promises?

The Fox News contributor then referenced the now-infamous threat made on the National Mall by liberal entertainer Madonna.

“I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” the singer said at the time.

According to Professor Allen Guelzo, a Civil War expert at Gettysburg College, the last president to face such a hostile attitude from the opposition was Abraham Lincoln, who was despised by southern slave owners.

One year into Trump’s presidency, Gingrich wrote that things have not gotten much better.

For instance, Rear Admiral Dr. Ronny Jackson — the president’s personal physician — recently spoke to reporters at a White House news briefing to reveal the results of Trump’s physical.

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Despite the fact that Jackson, who was appointed to his current role by former President Barack Obama, gave Trump a clean bill of mental and physical health, reporters continued to ask “antagonistic” and even “stupid” questions, according to Gingrich.

Their goal, he said, was to prove that Trump is unfit for office, despite Jackson’s claims to the contrary.

“This Trump Derangement Syndrome that the media unfortunately suffer from has become a major barrier to accurate coverage of the Trump presidency,” Gingrich wrote.

But in the face of this bias, Trump has gotten results.

During his campaign, then-candidate Trump promised to appoint conservative justices to the federal bench.

As Gingrich noted, not only did the president nominate Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, but he has also successfully seated more appellate judges than any first-year president in history.


Moreover, Trump has rolled back many regulations implemented under Obama, becoming the “all-time champion of rolling back red tape,” Gingrich said.

“The current estimate is that the Trump administration is repealing 22 regulations for every new one it has created,” he added. “This is a major contribution to economic growth and a big plus in implementing campaign promises.”

On the foreign policy front, Gingrich wrote that Trump has followed through on his pledge to “enable the military to do its job” in regard to the Islamic State group. As a result, the terror organization has “lost virtually all its territory at minimum risk.”

Though Trump has not yet figured out how to deal with the threats posed by Iran and North Korea, “neither (nation) has imposed its will up to now,” Gingrich said.

The former House speaker also referenced Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — another campaign promise he has followed through on.

Gingrich believes Trump’s actions have helped the U.S. economy grow.

For example, the passage of historic tax reform has led to a response from the American business community that is even “more positive and more visible than anyone could have hoped.”

As The Western Journal reported, since the tax bill was signed into law, more than 164 companies have already announced they will be providing bonuses for their workers and/or cutting prices due to the tax cuts.

Trump also promised to negotiate fairer trade deals for the U.S., and as observed by Gingrich, “Saudi Arabia alone signed as much as $400 billion in contracts with American companies during the president’s visit to Riyadh.”

Thanks to the president’s economic leadership, Gingrich wrote that the “’new normal”’ of less than 2 percent annual economic growth is rapidly being replaced by estimates in the range of 3.5 to 4 percent.”

Moreover, as Trump has highlighted on Twitter, unemployment figures among African-Americans are among the best ever recorded.


Gingrich concluded by saying that Trump still has much to do. He has yet to repeal Obamacare, introduce a plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure or “develop conservative solutions for poverty.” In addition, Gingrich wrote that the president has allowed “symbolic language and arguments about race to drive people apart.”

Still, though, Trump has much to hang his hat on.

“(O)n balance, it is fair to say President Trump has already achieved so much that he rivals Reagan as an effective, focused leader,” Gingrich wrote.

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Joe Setyon was a deputy managing editor for The Western Journal who had spent his entire professional career in editing and reporting. He previously worked in Washington, D.C., as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine.
Joe Setyon was deputy managing editor for The Western Journal with several years of copy editing and reporting experience. He graduated with a degree in communication studies from Grove City College, where he served as managing editor of the student-run newspaper. Joe previously worked as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine, a libertarian publication in Washington, D.C., where he covered politics and wrote about government waste and abuse.
Birthplace
Brooklyn, New York
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Sports, Politics




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