Trump may be best remembered for his use of Twitter as a bu…

During his rollercoaster presidency, the focus was often on what Trump was saying and not on what he was doing. But a review of his policies shows that he had a real effect on people’s lives. Here's a closer look 👇

➖ China:

The Trump administration put China’s rise in the spotlight and helped forge a bipartisan and increasingly adversarial U.S. view of the world’s second-largest economy

From a raft of tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese imports to sanctions against top officials and a muscular use of penalties against top Chinese companies like Huawei, ZTE, SMIC and TikTok owner ByteDance, Trump hit Beijing on a variety of fronts

Tensions have risen especially over the past year with Trump repeatedly blaming China for the coronavirus, which originated in the city of Wuhan. The two global powers are increasingly at odds over a range of other issues, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea

➖ Economy:

The U.S. economy under Trump had two distinct phases: pre-and post-COVID-19.

Before the pandemic hit in March of 2020, unemployment had hit 50-year lows, wages were rising for lower-income jobs, and the gap between Black and white unemployment was narrowing

The landmark tax bill Trump signed in late 2017 pushed economic growth over 3% for a brief period.

Things could have been better, but an 18-month tariff war with China, which cost U.S. companies billions.

Three Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2019 helped blunt the impact

The pandemic, and the administration’s failure to control it, risks leaving the economy scarred long after Trump leaves office.

About 21 million jobs disappeared immediately, and 9 million of those still haven’t come back

➖ Climate Change:

Trump routinely dismissed scientific consensus that industry was causing global warming and gutted federal science agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior, and interfered with their scientific advisory panels

Trump also boasted about removing the U.S. from the global Paris Agreement on climate change. He styled himself as a friend of fossil fuels, courting coal workers and oil executives alike and made good on promises to ease costs for energy companies by rolling back regulations

While oil and gas companies praised corporate tax cuts, they grumbled about Trump’s trade war with China disrupting supply chains and jeopardizing demand for U.S. natural gas exports

Many of Trump’s deregulation efforts were successfully challenged in court due to bureaucratic errors in rulemaking procedures

➖ Judicial Appointments:

Trump wasn’t happy when judges he appointed ruled against his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, but his reshaping of the judiciary in a conservative direction is still one of his biggest legacies

During his four years in office, he appointed three Supreme Court justices, the first time that has been done since President Richard Nixon appointed four in his first term.

The court now has a rock-solid 6-3 conservative majority

President Trump can thank Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made judicial nominations a priority, for his ability to appoint not just Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett but also dozens of lower court judges

Read more on how Trump's policies have had a real effect on people’s lives in the areas of energy, immigration, race relations, foreign policy and more https://t.co/shNVNMoDfg

Trump may be best remembered for his use of Twitter as a bully pulpit to stoke controversy or browbeat opponents, but the noise his tweets generated often distracted from the big policy changes he made over his four-year term https://t.co/shNVNMoDfg

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