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President Trump: A year of real change
President Donald J. Trump
Washington Examiner
January 20, 2018

Estimates predict the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of more than 3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year – just like it did in the two quarters before that. The economy has created more than two million new jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest rate in 17 years: 4.1 percent.

Just before Christmas, we enacted massive tax cuts and tax reform for the American people. For the first time in 30 years, we reformed the tax code to make it simpler and fairer. We have lowered rates for both individuals and businesses, expanded 529 education savings accounts to be used for K-12 education, and doubled the child tax credit. These changes will not only allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money, but they will help make American workers and businesses competitive again.

Over the year, as Americans have seen increases in their paychecks and retirement accounts, American companies in every sector have grown their business and created more jobs. I have created a more business-friendly environment by mandating, early on in my administration, that for every one regulation an agency proposed, two regulations must be eliminated. Many said that could not be done. Not only did we meet that goal, we far exceeded it, eliminating 22 regulatory actions for every new regulation.

Immediately upon taking office, I directed the rebuilding of our military, a new national security strategy, a comprehensive nuclear posture review, and the fielding of state-of-the-art ballistic missile defenses. I personally engaged with 150 world leaders at home and abroad, and our great military is executing new strategies that have liberated Mosul and Raqqa, retaken almost 100 percent of the land that ISIS had seized in Syria and Iraq, and lifted restrictions on U.S. forces in Afghanistan to defeat the terrorists and create conditions for a negotiated political settlement.

In recognition of the amazing job our military does protecting the homeland, a debt we can never truly repay, I am making sure this government fulfills its obligation to our veterans. We have already enacted major reforms to strengthen the Department of Veterans Affairs’ ability to provide high quality healthcare and benefits to millions of veterans and their beneficiaries.

Finally, I have filled numerous vacancies in our federal courts with judges who will interpret the law as written – including our exceptional new Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch.

Read the full op-ed here.