By Dexter Liu
Editor’s note: Mr. Liu is the son of a diplomat from the Republic of China (Taiwan), and although born in Bethesda, Maryland while his father served as Naval Attache to Washington D.C., he re-entered the United States in 1968, eventually naturalizing as a U.S. Citizen. With a New England education, Mr. Liu enjoyed a successful 30-year career in the invention, design, marketing and manufacturing of consumer products for the toys, games and entertainment industries. He lives with his wife and son in Oriental, NC.
UNITED STATES – Whether you believe the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump or not, you might at least take solace in the knowledge that the President’s remarkable legacy of successes with his ‘America First Agenda’ are unimpeachable, or so any reasonable person might think.
In a recent conversation with a friend regarding our mutual concerns over the worrisome state of the economy and the crisis-ridden state of our nation, we invariably began drawing a comparison between the conditions during President Trump as compared to the current disaster we find ourselves in today under the Biden administration.
Shockingly, my friend said emphatically, “Sure we had a couple of good years with Trump but the economy was already coming back because of the efforts of the Obama administration. Trump merely rode the coattails of the ‘Obama recovery’ but he left the economy in shambles for Joe Biden!”
If a photo had been taken of my face at that moment, it would have shown my lower jaw dropping to the curb with incredulity and utter disbelief. All I could think of was – “What in the world is he talking about? He must have been ingesting some seriously Woke-spiked Kool-Aid!”
Before President Trump took office, the U.S. GDP was at an anemic 1-1. 5 percent growth rate – which doubled over the first six quarters of his presidency. For eight years, Obama put the heavy boot of the federal government on the carotid arteries of American Business, which Trump promptly lifted upon taking office. That freed the private sector of the deadly “productivity killing shackles” which held back American business. This brought manufacturing back into the United States in droves with investments then pouring in from all over the world.
Trump’s America First policy stopped the NAFTA debacle favoring the fairer and more productive bi-lateral trade deals. This enabled domestic manufacturers to switch gears and expand their U.S. operations as well as building new production capacity, further accelerating job growth and contributing dramatically to the well being and vibrancy of the once devastated communities across the country under NAFTA. America went to full employment for the first time since WWII under Trump with the highest percentqge employed across all ethnic minority and demographic groups.
Keeping with his campaign pledge, Trump supported our brave men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol, while building the wall to secure our border and stopping illicit drug smuggling and human trafficking. Crimes in our cities were down, our Police were respected and were effective in their jobs. America’s military got a much-needed boost because Obama had stripped it down to dangerously low levels of unpreparedness. Inflation was under control, gas was hovering around $2 per gallon, industries and small businesses were thriving, the mood of the country was positive (despite Left-wing insurgency and anarchism like BLM and Antifa violence, riots, looting and ransacking cities plus exploiting every excuse to tear down our historical monuments in their continued assault on America’s heritage).
Under President Trump, America became 100 percent energy independent for the first time in our history, because he took away Obama’s restrictions, draconian regulations, bans on drilling and exploration. He supported pipelines and refineries, which contributed to lowering oil prices and our energy independence. America became for the first time ever, an exporter of energy under President Trump. The oil and gas industry boom added tens of thousands of jobs including growing thriving communities throughout the Midwest, Ohio, North Dakota, Texas and places where natural gas is plentiful.
Internationally, America regained respect with President Trump after Obama’s eight-year long ‘apology tour.’ Plus, the most dangerous and misguided foreign policy deal Obama had pushed, the Iran Nuclear Treaty (which would provide Iran a pathway to become a nuclear power) was stopped by President Trump (sadly now being reinstated by Biden).
Jerusalem is the proper city where the U.S. Embassy belongs, as was promised by multiple U.S. presidents but was never delivered until President Trump. Vladimir Putin was kept in check because American energy exports and Trump’s foreign policy made it impossible for him to finance his invasion of Ukraine, but Biden’s war on American energy immediately upon taking office gave Putin the green light and enabled the Russian-Ukraine war.
Our military was executing a plan under Trump to get out of Afghanistan that would not have left $85 billion of hi-tech US weaponry for the Taliban — but when Biden killed that plan to implement his own – the result was a humiliating retreat for the history books which made a mockery of the United States.
On Trump’s watch, Communist China was getting real and necessary push-back for the first time in decades, but now the weakest person ever to occupy the White House is selling America out just as Obama had done, leaving our nation vulnerable to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ambitions that do not have America’s best interest at heart. I am saying this as a Chinese American who understands the gravity of this existential threat to America, having worked in China and have had a decades long business partnership there. President Trump understood the threat of the CCP, sadly it is evident Biden and the Democrats do not. Sure, the Pandemic did enormous damage to our nation, but you must ask yourselves, who helped fund the China Wuhan Lab that enabled this unthinkable atrocity? It wasn’t President Trump. The shocking answer: Fauci under President Obama.
My misguided friend had quipped quite correctly that it’s difficult to decipher the “truth” these days with all the Fakenews and untrustworthy pundits out there. I certainly agree with that! So, on this idea of “discrediting Trump regarding his achievements in creating America’s miraculous boom economy during his tenure,” there appears to be a coordinated media campaign attacking President Trump well in advance of the 2024 elections. In fact, there currently exists an unprecedented number of articles and media stories all attempting to discredit Trump right now even when Biden, the sitting president, isn’t receiving anywhere near the same type of obsessive scrutiny as to what he’s doing to fix everything that has gone so terribly wrong on his watch.
So why is the media so obsessively focused on attacking the former President now when there are clearly so many critically important issues that currently affect the daily lives of every American? The obvious answer is because the Democrat and the Woke Left are determined to destroy Trump’s chances of a 2024 comeback even in advance of the midterms. Call me a cynic, but if you have not been paying attention, that’s what’s going on folks!
It is reprehensible enough that we are not getting the necessary scrutiny of the current president’s accountability for the disastrous conditions in America today. Instead. the Democrats and the media are working overtime to create a completely distorted and fraudulent narrative of Trump’s legacy (ad nauseum) to tarnish his reputation in advance of the midterms. Could this be because they themselves have absolutely no positive message or accomplishments to gloat about under the current Woke-Democrat regime in charge which continues to leave devastation in its wake?
Dexter is a frequent contributor to the County Compass.
