#Trump may have lost the 2020 election, but he proved America can win again

Whatever happened in the 2020 election, the first draft of history should be clear: President Donald Trump proved that American decline can be resisted and reversed. He showed that our nation can be stronger than the forces arrayed against it — foreign or domestic, economic or cultural. 

Speaking in 2016 of Trump’s economic promises, President Barack Obama asked, “How exactly are you going to negotiate [a better deal]? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn’t have an answer.” Once in office, Trump responded to Obama with action. Unbeholden to the same corporate and establishment interests as other politicians, he confronted the globalist status quo, aggressively altering America’s trade posture. Gone was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which promised to leave American manufacturing more exposed than ever to cheaper, overseas labor markets. Gone was NAFTA, replaced by Trump’s USMCA — a deal that provides, among other things, added protection for American auto manufacturing. Gone, too, was the Paris Climate Agreement, which effectively forced the United States to endure industrial cuts that its competitors, especially China, could avoid. At the same time, to encourage investment and growth, Trump cut taxes and red tape. He opened America for business. 

While the factors involved in any economy can be complex, Trump’s economic results were inarguable. As the Wall Street Journal noted, prior to the pandemic, “the economy reached historic milestones for jobs, income and stock prices.” Crucially, “poverty and inequality fell.” 

Trump likewise promoted America’s international security interests. He insisted that NATO’s signatories meet their collective defense obligations. During his tenure, the ISIS caliphate was destroyed. Where the Obama administration paid Iran to temporarily abandon its nuclear ambitions, Trump imposed sanctions to compel the permanent end of those ambitions. And while Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry asserted that “there will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world” apart from a Palestinian agreement, Trump has done much to achieve just that. Today, because of Trump, Iran is under pressure to change its dangerous course, while Israel and the Arab world are increasingly connected under the Abraham Accords. Peace in the Middle East seems more possible than it has in generations. 

As “progressives” continued to express anti-American sentiments, President Trump defended American values and stood up for the country. At Mount Rushmore on July 4th, Trump was unequivocal: “Our Founders,” he stated, “launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty and prosperity. No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America.” 

Trump, by his actions, also refuted claims from the right that American culture is a lost cause. Some claimed Trump’s own tough language to be part of the cultural problem. But the president used the resources available to him, including social media, to fight on an extremely uneven playing field. He challenged leftist ideology at the sources of its power, namely, the mainstream media and the academy. And Trump took what is, perhaps, the most important political action on behalf of American cultural life: He put well over 200 judges on the federal judiciary, including three justices on the US Supreme Court, who will uphold the Constitution and protect fundamental liberties, not least religious freedom. 

The coronavirus pandemic, when it came, left devastation across the world, and the United States was not spared. COVID-19 may have also cost Trump another term in the White House. But for all the criticism leveled at him, history should recognize that the president’s response to the virus was strong. Most exceptional was his sponsorship and championship of Operation Warp Speed. Citing “expert” insight, NBC News reported that it would take “a miracle” for a vaccine to be produced in 2020. What it took, instead, was confident, creative American leadership — the willingness and ability to challenge status-quo, consensus opinion. 

It took Donald Trump, no miracles or magic wands needed. 

Augustus Howard holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.