Merry Christmas? Thank Trump!

Opinion: Writing for The Daily Caller, Kim Guilfoyle December 20 produced a list of accomplishments by President Donald J. Trump worthy of repetition. It is, upon Tulsa Today's editorial review, one of the best articles of politics published during the current Holiday Season - including all celebrations of faith and self-identified Holiday groups of civic, cultural and social nature.  [Political correctness is so very exhausting.] Guilfoyle begins:

While we revel in the company of friends and family this holiday season and reflect on the previous year, we can celebrate the many ways Americans are thriving this Christmas due to President Trump’s policy achievements in 2018.

Just as passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a historic way to close out 2017, the Senate passed sweeping criminal justice reform on Tuesday night, when they voted overwhelmingly for the First Step Act, which was championed by President Trump, Republicans and Democrats alike.

As a former prosecutor, I have firsthand experience in the criminal justice system. I know the First Step Act is a necessary step toward giving our fellow citizens a second chance at redemption after serving their time in prison.

Americans of all walks of life have prospered this year because we have a president who puts their needs and security above all else, just as a president should. Here are just a few examples of how President Trump made America great again in 2018.

Let’s start with the 2018 economic boom. Over the last year, American workers saw their largest nominal wage growth in nearly a decade. The economy has added nearly 4.5 million jobs since President Trump’s election, and at this very moment, there are a record 7.1 million job openings available to American workers. Even the New York Times, in a June article, admitted they had “run out of words to describe how good the jobs numbers are.” Imagine that.

We’re experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in 48 years, and the lowest African-American unemployment ever.

More than 4.2 million Americans have stopped collecting food stamps since President Trump’s election. Thirty-three percent of Americans say they are financially better off this year compared to last year, according to an American Barometer poll.

In October 2018, consumer confidence hit the highest level since 2000, and it hasn’t waned much since. Greg Maloney, a contributor to Forbes magazine, wrote in a recent column, “It’s beginning to look a lot like the best holiday shopping season since, well, last year. … We went into this holiday season with one of the strongest underlying frameworks for the consumer that I can remember in some time.”

As CNBC finance editor Jeff Fox explained, “Trump’s economic program was very simple: an attack on taxes and regulations with an extra dose of spending on infrastructure and the military that would create a supply shock to a moribund economy.”

Indeed, in fiscal year 2018, President Trump eliminated 12 regulations for every new one, inspiring business investment and hiring. And as for the critics who claimed the U.S. couldn’t achieve 3 percent economic growth, well, the GDP has grown by 3 percent over the past four quarters, including 4.2 percent in Q2 and 3.5 percent in Q3.

Of course, Trump has always had a knack for achieving what others, including past presidents, couldn’t. This was especially true in 2018.

In May, President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel and relocated the U.S. embassy to the Holy City, doing what past presidents had promised (but never had the political and moral courage) to do.

The same month, the president secured the release of three American detainees from North Korea, and a month later, he became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean head of state. (President Trump convinced Kim Jong Un to return the remains of U.S. soldiers who died in the Korean War, and to commit to denuclearization.)

Back on the homefront, the president replaced our outdated trade deals and held countries like China to task for their unfair trade practices. At our southern border, the number of apprehensions went up from the previous year, and our brave border patrol agents seized an astounding 332 pounds of fentanyl and 10,382 pounds of methamphetamine from Oct. 1, 2017, to Aug. 31 of this year.

President Trump has authorized our trade delegates to renegotiate outdated trade agreements. He put Chinas and our other international trade partners on notice that the U.S. will hold them accountable for their theft of intellectual property, punitive tariffs and unfair trade practices.

The Kavanaugh family with President Donald J. Trump

President Trump also kept his promise to protect our Constitution with his judicial nominations, and the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was just the capstone. With the confirmation of 29 federal circuit court judges and a grand total of 84 federal judges at all levels, the president broke a record for the number of confirmed judges by the end of a president’s second year in office.

After years of dangerous sequestration, President Trump secured $716 billion to meet our national security needs through the National Defense Authorization Act. This included a much-deserved 2.6 percent pay raise for our men and women in uniform — their first raise in nine years — and an increase of 15,600 troops across all branches of the military.

Speaking of our military, the president also proposed a new sixth branch of our armed forces — one that will propel our country toward space dominance: the U.S. Space Force.

President Trump also made history in the 2018 midterm elections, despite what the media may say. Since 1982, presidents have lost an average of five Senate seats in their first midterm elections. President Trump gained three.

Historically, the party that holds the presidency loses an average of 25-30 seats in the House, and 2018 was no exception. The Democrats have a bad habit of overreaching. The party is now dominated by its radical base.

If 2018 is any indication, we can look forward to 2019 with an optimism and confidence that only a president who keeps his promises — and puts Americans first — can inspire.

Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle at the White House on July 4, 2018. (From: Instagram)

Merry Christmas (we can say that again!) to all and best wishes for another happy and prosperous New Year.

Kimberly Guilfoyle @KimGuilfoyle is vice chairwoman of America First Policies, a nonprofit organization supporting key policy initiatives that will work for all citizens in our country and put America first.

This article first appeared in The Daily Caller, December 20, 2018 here.