[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          REVIEWING PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FIRST 6 MONTHS IN OFFICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, we are now at the 6-month point in President 
Trump's time in office, and I think it is time we check in and do his 
review. President Trump has made a lot of campaign promises, and we 
should take a look at how he is living up to them.
  First, creating jobs. Let's start with his claims that he would be 
the ``greatest jobs producer that God ever created.''
  We haven't seen any major action on President Trump's jobs plan. His 
infrastructure week included no concrete details--pardon the pun--and 
his Made in America week meant nothing because his own products have 
long been made overseas.
  Despite bragging that he was saving jobs at Carrier in Indiana, we 
have learned that Carrier is laying off 600 employees this month and 
sending those jobs to Mexico.
  After the Trump administration lobbied hard for Ford to not move to 
Mexico, Ford announced it was moving the production of its Focus model 
to China instead. Not exactly a deal closer.
  As for creating jobs, that is an F.
  Draining the swamp. How about his promises to drain the swamp?
  President Trump has stacked his administration with insiders, opened 
the floodgates to more lobbyists, and is loading his administration 
with so many Goldman Sachs employees that the CEO of Goldman Sachs 
called it an ``inconvenience.'' Donald Trump hasn't drained the swamp. 
He has merely built a high-rise luxury condo on it. That will get him 
an F as well.
  Accomplishments. President Trump has yet to sign any major 
legislative accomplishments into law. From repealing the Affordable 
Care Act to tax reform, to an infrastructure package, not one of his 
major initiatives has yet made it through Congress in over 6 months. 
Now, that may be good news for the working men and women of this 
country, but, still, as a grade, that gets him an F.
  Tweeting. Now, we have seen a lot of action on Twitter from this 
President, from insulting women and threatening journalists to 
relitigating the election against Secretary Clinton and shouting ``fake 
news.'' In fact, President Trump tweeted 991 times in his first 6 
months in office with ``fake news'' being mentioned almost twice as 
much as the word ``jobs.''
  While he scores high on the volume of tweets, he is low on the 
content of tweets, so we are going to give him an incomplete in this 
area.
  Golfing. President Trump's second favorite activity after tweeting is 
golfing. According to CNN, in his first 6 months, President Trump spent 
21 of his first 26 weekends in office at Trump properties and spent 40 
days at Trump branded golf properties. So he is golfing for sure. Let's 
give him an A.
  Covfefe. Now, that is not a word in the dictionary or that I know in 
the universe. I guess only Donald Trump knows what it really means, so 
I am guessing he would give himself an A because there isn't a grade 
higher until he invents one of those, too. But for the rest of us, that 
is not even incomplete. That is just incoherent.
  Conflicts of interest. American taxpayers have been footing the bill 
for pricey trips to Trump branded properties and trips benefiting the 
Trump family business in Canada, Uruguay, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, New 
York, and many others places. President Trump's failure to separate 
himself from his conflicts of interest shows special interest groups 
around the world that influence can be sold to the highest bidder. I 
will give him an A because apparently he is excelling at selling out 
potential.
  Job approval. President Trump has finished first in one area. We all 
know he likes to be a winner. With a 36 percent approval rating, 
President Trump is the first President to have that low of a 6-month 
approval rating of any President in polls dating back 70 years. So from 
the American people, apparently that is an F.
  This has not been an impressive first 6 months, Mr. Speaker. If this 
were a reality show, I think we would be hearing the famous ``you are 
fired, Mr. President.'' But outside of that 6 months, just this week, 
Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump embarrassed himself with inappropriate 
comments before the Boy Scouts and insulted transgender Americans 
serving in the military.
  My only question, Mr. Speaker, is: When will the leadership on the 
other side of the aisle quit enabling him and start standing up for 
this country?
  America is not a reality show.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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