By CHARLOTTE EARL
Trump. For the last few years, this five-letter word has completely dominated the political discourse. Whatever happens in this upcoming election, Donald J. Trump will go down in history as the man who took the Republican establishment by storm and then shocked the world by proving every poll and prediction wrong by being elected president in 2016. The huge impact that Donald Trump has had not just in the United States but on the whole world will be felt for decades to come. I am writing this article as I fundamentally believe that this huge impact has been a net positive. I firmly believe that America needs four more years of Trump. He has not ‘Made America Great Again’ yet, a pandemic prevented that from happening, but with four more years in the Oval Office, Trump can and will do great things for the United States.
Several key foreign policy wins stand out on Trump’s track record, particularly those concerning China. Trump’s hard-line stance on China was a key discussion point back during the 2016 election and this stance has been reflected in his actions in office regarding the growing Eastern superpower. The Trump administration has constantly attempted to push back against the increasing Chinese influence operations that we have seen not just in Asia but around the world. This has included restrictions on Huawei in the United States. The administration has also cemented the USA’s support of Taiwan and taken a hard-line stance on China’s attempted land-grabs in the South China Sea. Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute argued that “getting the United States on sounder footing to confront and compete with the [Chinese Communist Party] is the most significant achievement of this administration”. Four more years of Trump will see further resistance against the CCP and their regime and will place America on an even “sounder footing” than it already is.
A Trump victory will also be vastly more beneficial to the United Kingdom than a Biden victory. The Sunday Telegraph recently reported that Joe Biden plans on rejecting the emphasis that the Trump administration has placed on the USA’s ‘special relationship’ with the UK if he wins on Tuesday. Biden would instead focus on strengthening ties with the EU at the expense of the UK. As the United Kingdom rapidly approaches the end of its Brexit transition period and prepares to truly become a globally facing nation, the ‘special relationship’ has never been more imperative. A Trump victory would ensure the continuation of the relationship and prevent any potential fracturing of relations that we might see under a Biden administration.
Now turning towards the domestic side of things, Trump is the best choice for president in terms of the economy and his track record helps prove this. On the campaign trail, Biden has constantly attempted to delegitimise Trump’s impressive record on the economy by arguing that he is not responsible for building the good economy, he simply inherited it from Obama. This is simply not true. Critics of Trump and the Republicans branded the tax cuts, which came into force in 2018, as radical and irresponsible. However, they have helped drive an increase in both business and consumer confidence in the last few years. The average American has seen their pay grow by three percent a year under Trump. The number of people requiring food stamps has rapidly declined over the last four years. Surveys of the American population has shown that people have faith in Trump when it comes to the economy. In February, the American people rated this as the best economy since the late 1990s. Of course, much of this economic progress has been wiped out as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It was reported back in July that there was a -32.9 percent drop in GDP based on the previous quarter. Effectively dealing with this dire economic contraction is a seemingly impossible task for any President, but the economic successes of the Trump administration pre-coronavirus prove that Trump is the right person to get the economy back in track.
Trump is by no means the perfect president. There are many elements of his track record that I would be more than happy to criticise him on, particularly on parts of his handling of the pandemic. I also will not deny that his volatility and unconventional approach are sometimes out of place and I would prefer to see a more statesmanlike approach on certain issues. Regardless of these criticisms, I still maintain that Donald J Trump is a vastly superior candidate for President than Joe Biden. The unconventionality of Trump has meant he has challenged the status quo on foreign and domestic economic matters, and I believe that these challenges have worked. We do not live in ordinary times; America needs a President who is willing to embrace the extraordinary to get things done and get in back on track.
To read the case for Joe Biden, click here.
Image: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead