How well does then Presidential-nominee Donald Trump’s speech when he accepted the nomination for the Republican Party hold up a year later?
As written for The Daily Caller by Alex Pfeiffer:
It will be one year Friday since President Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination and declared to Americans that he will be their “voice.”
Trump’s convention speech was a long-winded one filled with attacks on his opponent Hillary Clinton, descriptions of an America descended into chaos, and promises to voters.
What follows is a Daily Caller analysis of how many of these key promises have fared six months into the presidency.
“The first task for our new administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities.”
“When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country. I will work with, and appoint, the best and brightest prosecutors and law enforcement officials to get the job done. In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate.”
These proclamations by Trump at the RNC came after he rattled off statistics about rising crime in major American cities. A recent analysis by FiveThirtyEight showed that for the third year in a row murders are expected to rise in large cities.
However, President Trump’s Justice Department has certainly implemented a tough on crime stance. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded former Attorney General Eric Holder’s guidelines directing federal prosecutors to not pursue mandatory minimum sentencing in many cases in order to help so-called low-level drug offenders.
In effect this decision by Sessions will eventually lead to more prosecutions and higher sentencing. The day after sending out his memo to U.S. Attorneys, he said, “These are not low-level drug offenders we in the federal courts are focusing on. These are drug dealers, and you drug dealers are going to prison.”
“To make life safe for all our citizens, we must also address the growing threats we face from outside the country: we are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS.”
“We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror. This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel.”
It might be a bit early to judge President Trump’s goal of defeating the “barbarians of ISIS,” but his administration has made progress in the fight against ISIS. Just last week, Iraqi security forces working with the U.S. and other allies liberated Mosul from ISIS control.
This large Iraqi city is where ISIS declared its caliphate and its just one example of territory the terrorist organization is losing. At that Republican convention, President Trump bemoaned the loss of life in Europe due to ISIS attacks and the terrorist group continues to take responsibility for terrorist attacks on the continent.
The U.S., however, has yet to to encounter an attack from ISIS under Trump. As for Trump’s call to end the “failed policy of nation-building,” it is unclear exactly if this is being completely fulfilled. The Trump administration launched an airstrike against Syria after a chemical weapons attack in April, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s reign is “coming to an end.”
However, at the same time the U.S. has cut off support for anti-Assad rebels and President Trump has continued to assail interventionist policies. The president recently told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the U.S. has gotten “nothing” from its involvement in the Middle East, and insisted he’d rather spend money on American infrastructure.
“Lastly, we must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.”
The Trump administration has worked to accomplish this goal, but the White House has ran into several obstacles.
Looking At Trump’s Convention Speech A Year Later