With the 2020 elections right around the corner, and Trump‘s impeachment trial finally behind us, we want to reflect on the past of what Trump has done during his reign as President.

According to Politifact, Obama kept more promises during his time as president, though he had two terms to work with. Trump’s administration has more in the works that may go unfulfilled if not elected for a second term.

Trump’s Term So Far

Trump has tried to dip his finger into every pie with his promises. Everything from Tax cuts to cutting funding for planned parenthood. This has created both benefits and controversy.

Some of the recent things Trump has accomplished is that he ordered and killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for the deaths of many US troops.

Trump was also the first president to sit and talk with one of the most dangerous men in the world, Kim Jong-un, to try and barter peace. He has recently revealed a peace deal for Israel and Palestine, though it was quickly rejected by both countries.

What drove Trump’s campaign is immigration. Stating he will reverse Obama’s DAPA and DACA orders, but only successfully eliminating DAPA. The other and most iconic is the wall that he wanted Mexico to pay for to further solidify the border. This has been an undertaking which will most likely go unfinished if not re-elected. The most recent development from that front is a section of the wall collapsing towards Mexico.

There is also the large anti-Muslim factor to his immigration standards that fell through since his time in office. Originally wanting to “Ban Muslims from entering the U.S.,” by creating executive orders. If claimed that it was for national security, the supreme court said that it could be done. Though many Americans and world leaders didn’t like this idea of a “Muslim ban,” Trump did meet in the middle and enacted a travel ban that targeted “terror prone” places such as “Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela,” according to an article by Miriam Valverde of politifact.com.

Eliminating and cutting taxes was another big driver in his campaign, with which he has been able to achieve. One such act is the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. Though this act did reduce taxes for income brackets across the board according to the Tax Foundation, “bringing jobs back to America ” is a tall order for internationally based companies. Companies like Apple had to repatriate billions of dollars in offshore shares, losing millions if not billions in the process of converting currency and foreign tax.

Trump’s tariffs have created backlash when they were enacted creating higher pricing for industries that rely on foreign industry. Retailers such as Best Buy took a 20% drop in stock prices due to roughly 60% of their stock being Chinese manufactured. Though both have been in a trade war, there are rumors China will cut tariffs by 50% for imported goods.

Under Trump the economy has been slightly boosted. stock market and GDP have been on a steady rise while unemployment has been reduced. He has saved $33 billion by cutting and repealing regulations according to Heritage.org.

Finally he promised to expand the military efforts in the middle east, expanding the Navy by capping to 350 ships and submarines, adding to the Air Force over a thousand new fighter aircraft, and building the Marine corp to 36 battalions. He asked for the removal of troops from Syria. He also followed through with his promise to beef up military action in the middle east, deploying more than 14,000 troops to Afghanistan. the number has risen with the recent attack on the US embassy in Iraq, adding another 750 to the roughly 5,200 deployed there.

Obama’s Time in Office

Obama accomplished a lot in his 8 years as president. No president is perfect, and Obama had many blunders along with other liberal policy enactments and accomplishments.

First and foremost is Obama’s legacy on healthcare, The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. This act mandated that every citizen of the United States was required to have health insurance or pay a fine (recently redacted fine when the Tax Cut and Jobs act passed). It did much more than that as it put caps on co-pays, restricted the ability for insurers to deny coverage to those with severe illness and so forth. Many people however found it a burden on the Taxpayer as Obamacare forced others to pay for insurance for someone else. Insurance premiums in most cases more than doubled or tripled, making it very unaffordable healthcare.

Obama was the president who was in office when the man who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, was killed. He was pulling troops from the area when this act crippled Al-Qaeda. Some argue that by leaving Iraq at this crucial moment this gave ISIS time to establish and claim dominance as the new world terror.

His other most controversial act was to reduce military and nuclear arms in US possession as close to zero as possible. By the end of Obama’s second term, the administration was able to decommission roughly 553 nuclear arms. The stockpile was at 4,018 by the end of his term. He was also the first US president to visit the Hiroshima bomb site.

Obama also tried to fuel the US economy, but instead of focusing on big business he created the JOBS Act, which would help small businesses and start-up. Some aspects regulated crowdfunding and investing. This would make it more difficult for one investor to make all the decisions and allow for more diverse input.

He also had the Dodd Frank Act, which targeted agencies that supposedly caused the recession and financial crisis in 2008. This act targeted large companies and liquidated assets from them to prevent the collapse of the stock market in the event of the companies failure. This also heavily regulated banks from investing financial assets, limiting a banks growth but supposedly protecting consumer investment in the bank.

Obama was also a large advocate for climate reform. Pushing hard on regulating oil, methane, coal and other fossil fuels, Obama pushed for clean energy. Regulations such as the Clean Power Plan required states to reduce carbon emission as they see fit, so long as it is done. Also helped regulate deep water drilling after the BP oil spill.

The Common Ground

What do Trump and Obama have in common? According to FRED (Federal Reserve) he and Obama have both had somewhat positive effects on the economy. Both lowered unemployment rate, raised GDP and both had negative effects like raising the national debt. They both helped boost wages, jobs, and reduce unemployment.