5 things Trump got right during his first 100 days

“Much ado about nothing.” That’s how S&P Global Ratings characterized Donald Trump’s first 100 days as president. Trump, of course, promised tectonic changes during his first 100 days, including legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, middle-class tax cuts, and a wholesale revamping of trade policy. Instead of political shock-and-awe, however, Trump has delivered bark-and-fade: ACA repeal failed. His bare-bones tax plan fits on a napkin. And Trump has backed away from his most muscular promises on trade.

Since he made such grandiose campaign promises, it’s easy to characterize Trump’s first 100 days as a flop. But he has accomplished a few things as well, even if they weren’t spelled out in his campaign manifesto. Among his early successes:

Focusing intently on jobs

Trump repeatedly calls on business leaders to boost domestic hiring and bring him ideas for how to improve on modest levels of economic growth. A lot of it is mere talk, but CEOs also say, both publicly and privately, that they take Trump at his word and they could, in fact, do more business in the United States if the economic climate were more welcoming. If Trump can prune cumbersome regulations and manage even modest tax reform, it’s quite possible companies will respond as he wants them to—by conducting more business in the United States and creating more jobs.

Bombing Syria

Perhaps the only bipartisan agreement in Washington during the last 100 days came when Trump ordered the US Navy to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield from which chemical weapons attacks were launched against civilians. One of President Barack Obama’s most disappointing moments was his refusal to act militarily when Syria crossed the “red line” Obama had established in 2013, with the repeated use of chemical weapons. Many Mideast experts feel Obama should have responded then as Trump did less than two months into his own presidency. Sure, there was a symbolic aspect to the strike, but it showed more American resolve than Obama’s tepid response.

Allowing the completion of two oil pipelines

Trump okayed the final completion of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, which Obama had blocked. Environmentalists oppose the pipelines, but that may be counterproductive, because the alternative to moving oil by pipeline is rail—a bigger safety risk and an environmental catastrophe when an oil train crashes or derails. It’s prudent to move away from carbon energy, but it’s also reasonable to continue building infrastructure for transporting the types of fuel we use today. Anybody who objects should put their money where their mouth is by refusing to travel by car or plane, or buying anything transported by a truck.

Slowing the flow of illegal immigration

Trump is way too heavy-handed on immigration, and he needlessly conflates the kind of legal immigrants America needs with undocumented immigrants in the nation illegally. But his overall get-tough message on immigration has apparently led to a big drop in illegal border crossings, which is a positive for anybody who supports current laws on immigration. Trump could have accomplished this without deriding Mexicans and other foreigners hoping to get to the United States, many of them simply to earn a better living than they can back home.

Reviewing trade and employment practices

Trump has ordered a bunch of studies meant to determine if trade deals or other factors could be putting American workers at risk. If you put aside Trump’s bombast about how Mexico and China are “eating our lunch,” Trump’s inquiries could do some good. There’s considerable evidence, for example, that so-called H-1B visas are abused by some companies that use them simply to replace American workers with cheaper foreign ones—which is supposed to be forbidden under the program. And respected academic studies demonstrate that some elements of trade with China and Mexico have, in fact, harmed American workers. If Trump could come up with pragmatic ways to fix such problems—without creating new ones—his first 1,000 days might end up a lot more impressive than his first 100.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com

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Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.