Saturday, June 16, 2018

Jason Smith: America is more secure after President Trump's first 500 days in the White House

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

The single greatest responsibility for public officials is the safety and security of the people they represent. In the 500 days that President Trump has occupied the Oval Office, he has been hard at work to make America a more secure country. He has reasserted American leadership on the world stage, his policies have created a secure economy, and he is standing up to threats to our country at the border and across the globe.

In order to have a secure America, you need to secure the country from threats across the border. President Trump has ended the Obama-era policy of catch and release, ramped up border patrols, and his administration charged more than 4,000 MS-13 gang members last year for their crimes. 

Liberals will tell you securing our borders is somehow wrong, but fentanyl seizures at the Mexican border have jumped 750 percent. As of April, Border Patrol agents have seized close to three hundred pounds of this powerful deadly substance being pushed on the vulnerable in our country and fueling the opioid epidemic.

The U.S. faces threats across the globe, not just when they come to our door at the southern border. Vicious terrorist groups like ISIS behead Christians and want to destroy everything about the American way of life. While the United States was facing more growing threats worldwide, the Obama Administration chose to slash defense funding in favor of new social programs. But now, ISIS is on the run. Since President Trump has taken the reins as Commander in Chief, ISIS has lost close to 90 percent of the territory they occupied on his first day. He has empowered officials on the ground to make quicker decisions and installed qualified and respected leaders like General Mattis to lead the military to wipe out these terrorists.

The most public threat facing the United States has been North Korea’s pursuit of nuclearized weapons. The issue has been a thorn in the side of every modern president, but I’m optimistic about the historic North Korean peace talks that took place this week. 

President Trump negotiated from a place of strength and laid out a possible path to peace. It is up to Kim Jong Un now to decide if he will take it. We can’t forget who we’re dealing with here: We have to remember North Korea’s threats against our people, its human rights violations, and its support for international terrorism. Until there is complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the maximum amount of pressure and sanctions should remain on this hostile regime.

Here at home, President Trump’s policies have led to economic security and optimism for the future. Three million jobs have been created since the President took over, and the unemployment rate has dropped to 3.8 percent, the lowest rate in almost five decades. A record number of Americans believe now is a good time to find a quality job and consumers are extremely confident in the economy.

The border is more secure, and our economy within it is stronger. Our international threats are on the run, and President Trump is standing up for America on the world stage. Any way you look at it America is more secure after President Trump’s first 500 days in the White House.

8 comments:

onetjefferson said...

Keep drinking the koolaid. North Korea was a disaster to anyone with a military background. Agree to withdraw from South Korea which totally weakens our position in the region. Because a known liar said ok I'll do what ya ask. He has said this iver and over and never complies.

Anonymous said...

Ha

Anonymous said...

How about we hold off on the snap judgements? I think the odds are better that those involved in the negotiations know more than Tommy C. No disrespect, Tom.

Anonymous said...

@ Tommy There was NO agreement to withdraw ANY troops from S. Korea. Only a cessation of wargames with S. Korea. This is all we have given up and in return we have received four American prisoners, no more rocket tests over Japan, possible ending of N. Korea nuke and ballistic missle programs, and most importantly, an end to the Korean War and a possible peace. Now granted everything is extremely fragile and all must be verified. Great progress in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

I am with Tommy C. This area will eventually go to China as will most of Asian peninsula and since we backed out of TPP which was not probably great still kept our feet in the water. As with Canada, Mexico and Europe we are becoming a laughing stock of the world with little credibility left with Heil Trump in charge. Most of this goes back to spineless republicans afraid to call him on matters of importance. He must have files on them bigger than Hoover did on his imagined enemies. Vote in November for semblance of intelligent thinking versus blind obedience to the party and feel for those less fortunate.

Anonymous said...

Hey look! Is this how the North Korean summit idea got started?

"By Mark Mazzetti and Mark Landler

June 17, 2018

WASHINGTON — An American financier approached the Trump administration last summer with an unusual proposition: The North Korean government wanted to talk to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser.

The financier, Gabriel Schulze, explained that a top North Korean official was seeking a back channel to explore a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, who for months had traded threats of military confrontation. Mr. Schulze, who lives in Singapore, had built a network of contacts in North Korea on trips he had taken to develop business opportunities in the isolated state.

For some in North Korea, which has been ruled since its founding by a family dynasty, Mr. Kushner appeared to be a promising contact. As a member of the president’s family, officials in Pyongyang judged, Mr. Kushner would have the ear of his father-in-law and be immune from the personnel changes that had convulsed the early months of the administration.

Mr. Schulze’s quiet outreach was but one step in a circuitous path that led to last week’s handshake between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim at a colonial-style island hotel in Singapore — a path that involved secret meetings among spies, discussions between profit-minded entrepreneurs, and a previously unreported role for Mr. Kushner, according to interviews with current and former American officials and others familiar with the negotiations.

In reaching out to Mr. Kushner, the North Koreans were following the example of the Chinese, who had early on identified the 37-year-old husband of Ivanka Trump as a well-connected “princeling,” someone who could be a conduit to Mr. Trump and allow them to bypass the bureaucracy of the State Department." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/us/politics/north-korea-back-channel-kushner-gabriel-schulze.html

It's not too hard to imagine what North Korea might have dangled in front of young Mr Kushner to attract his attention.

Only the Trump Administration and it's mindless supporters would view totally bypassing the State Department as a smart move.





If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you. Paul Newman



The Dunning Kruger effect makes the Trumpaloos predictable negotiators.

Anonymous said...

And what if it all works?

Anonymous said...

Oh, it has already worked. Your egomaniac-in-chief has promised the American suckers that there is NO THREAT of nukes now. He has called of the military exercises with South Korea which was a big surprise to South Korea and the U.S. China and Russia are scrambling to give Kim Jong Un the attention that he wanted all along. He will now keep what he wants to keep and tell effing moron Trump to stuff his sanctions while China and Russia support them.