The first hundred days

I’m going to use this column to write about Donald Trump’s first hundred days as seen by a Democrat in heavily Republican territory. Withhold your conclusions until the end.

I, as anyone who invests in the stock market, am interested in how the DOW does immediately after a presidential election and Trump fares pretty good when compared to other Presidents. After the first 30 days in office, the stock winner is Theodore Roosevelt (R) who saw the stock market in 1905 rise 6.55 percent. Second was another Republican, William McKinley who in 1901 saw the stock rise 5.58 percent. Third was William Taft (R) who witnessed at 5.07 percent increase, fourth was the only Democrat in the top five, Franklin Roosevelt who in 1945 saw a 4.13 percent increase and coming in 5th was our current President, Donald Trump (R) with a 4.02% increase. My stocks are levied across the board so even though the DOW doesn’t represent ALL stocks, it’s a very accurate predictor of whether you’re making money or losing money and, so far, I’m making money so that’s a good thing.

You’ll notice that four of the five top stock market gains occurred when a Republican was elected and that’s not a shock because the Republican Party has always represented the moneyed class in America. There was a time when four Democrat Presidents in a row saw a significant increase in the stock market after their election but these were exceptions rather than the rule.

In other matters, President Trump is still a loose cannon the same way he was during the primary campaign. He says outlandish things, promises things he knows he can’t deliver and puts down opponents on a daily basis but his supporters stand behind him every step of the way because he’s unlike any President we’ve ever had before. As we all know by now, President Trump had never been elected to anything before being elected to the highest office in the land. Strangely enough, this was a qualifying attribute to his supporters because they didn’t want another politician occupying the Oval Office and they didn’t get one. Sometimes we learn more about what the President really feels and believes through his tweets instead of formal presidential actions. But despite his bluster, he’s found governing to be much more difficult than campaigning. Of all the things he said were going to be changed during his first day in office, none of them were, especially the one thing Republicans have been trying to get rid of for eight years and that’s the Affordable Care Act. The plan the Republicans came up with was going to cost even more for middle class and lower class families than Obamacare and they knew they would lose elections and possibly either the House or the Senate if they laid that kind of burden on their supporters.

The Democrats got all upset a couple of weeks ago when Trump ordered the ‘mother of all bombs’ to be dropped in Afghanistan along with his verbal contempt of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-Un. Kim Jong-Un once believed he had America right where he wanted us under President Obama and now he’s not so sure. He’s convinced that America elected a madman as President and he doesn’t know how to handle him since he’s a madman too! So Trump’s unpredictability combined with his incredible ego has Jong-Un wondering now about Trump instead of being certain as he was a few months ago about Obama.

One thing the President does have to come to grips with is that we have three branches of government for a reason and that reason is checks and balances. That ensures that one person or one party cannot arbitrarily rule the country without the advice and consent of the other two branches. This is a far cry from being the owner and CEO of your own private enterprise where people either do what they’re told to do or they’re fired. He can’t fire Supreme Court Justices, or Senators, or Congressmen. He has to convince them that his way is the right way through hand-shaking, cajoling, complimenting and anything else he’s forced to do to get them to support his policies. This is foreign territory for the President and I’m sure that the success or failure of his Presidency will depend almost exclusively on how he’s able to bridge the gap between being the President of his own company and being the President of the United States.

The Republicans never gave President Obama a chance! They were nipping at his pants for the entire eight years he was President and they still are. I thought that was wrong then and I think it’s wrong now for Democrats to treat President Trump the same way. He was duly elected, he’s going to be our President for the next four years and we need to do whatever we can to make sure he has some success.

Not for him, mind you, but for the country.