Press: Giving thanks to Donald Trump

Thanksgiving Day is my favorite holiday — and probably yours, too — for a couple of reasons. First, because it has none of the shopping and gift-giving pressures of Christmas. It’s just a great chance to get together and spend time with good family, friends, food and football.

But also because, living in this great country of ours, with so many wonderful opportunities, even if we didn’t win the lottery, we all have something to be thankful for: good health, family and friends, exciting new technology, a world at peace.

Just ask him. Even President Trump has something to be thankful for: Himself! Asked by reporters on Thanksgiving morning what he was especially grateful for, Trump said, most of all, he thanked himself “for making a tremendous difference in this country.” Indeed, he added, “This country is so much stronger now than it was when I took office that you wouldn’t believe it.”

{mosads}

On Sunday morning, in the same spirit, he followed up with a similarly self-praising tweet: “So great that oil prices are falling. (Thank you, President T).”

Which doesn’t mean much to American consumers. I hate to rely on pesky facts, but last year, according to AAA, the average price of gas on Thanksgiving was $2.509 per gallon. This year, it was five cents higher: $2.561.

Which got me to wondering: If we can’t thank Donald Trump for cheaper gas at the pump, what can we thank him for? Certainly, not for getting much done. In two years, even with a Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, Trump only delivered on one major piece of legislation: a tax cut for wealthy Americans and big corporations that even many Republicans now disown. He scored a big fat zero on every other campaign promise, including infrastructure, repealing ObamaCare, immigration reform or building his wall.

We certainly can’t thank him for dealing with the threat of climate change. Just Friday, 13 federal agencies warned again of the disastrous impacts of climate change on the American economy. But climate denier Trump continues his one-man war to block all efforts to deal with climate change, from pulling out of the Paris accords to trashing the Environmental Protection Agency’s  Clean Power Plan.

Nor can we thank Trump for reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. Au contraire.

He trashed the Iran Nuclear Deal, enabling Iran to get back in the nuclear arms business. He vowed to repeal a nuclear arms reduction deal with Russia signed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and proposed a tenfold increase in America’s nuclear arsenal.

We can’t thank him for improving the level of political discourse, either. In fact, he’s dragged political rhetoric lower than any other politician in our lifetime: labelling political opponents “dogs” and “traitors,” insulting their IQ, calling Democrats “dangerous,” and calling reporters “the enemy of the American people.” Last week, just days after calling for decorum in the White House, he sank to a new low, attacking the incoming chairman of the House  Intelligence Committee as “little Adam Schitt.” With no apology.

True, Trump gets some credit for a relatively strong economy. But, in effect, all he did was continue the eight years of economic recovery begun and sustained by former President Obama — progress which Trump’s own tariff war with China threatens to erase.

Overall, it’s not a record to be proud of or grateful for. In fact, given his performance in office so far, the only thing about Donald Trump we can be thankful for is that he’ll be out of White House in two years. Or less.

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”