That President Trump is a man of many flaws is a surprise to no one in 2020. This point has been covered relentlessly — in good faith and not — by the media and others over the last four years, and the minutiae need not be repeated here. Yes, he is crude and boorish; no, he is not genteel or eloquent or particularly agreeable. But we’re not hiring a new hostess at Applebee’s — we’re choosing the next President of the United States, and we can’t afford to make such a critical decision based on considerations of personality or character alone. Policy must come first, and on this basis there is only one choice — because what Trump leaves to be desired in tone and personal qualities, his substantive record more than makes up for.
In 2016, after he clinched the nomination, there was concern among some Republicans that Trump would not govern as a conservative. In 2020, only the most vehement “Never Trumpers” could still hold this view. While his administration has departed from some positions — like an unqualified commitment to free trade — that were previously axiomatic within the establishment GOP, he has otherwise proven to be an ardent and effective champion of conservative causes. Whether his positions on abortion, religious freedom, and other topics are sincerely held is inconsequential — what matters is his record, which on these and other crucial issues has been near-immaculate. The Trump administration has seen over 200 district and appellate court judges appointed in the last four years, providing a bedrock of conservative judicial restraint that will be felt in the American judiciary for generations. And with Monday’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as Trump’s third Supreme Court appointee, the nation’s highest court now enjoys a 6-3 textualist/originalist majority, finally making possible the ultimate pro-life victory: the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
If his reshaping of the judiciary isn’t enough, consider Trump’s remarkable foreign policy record. Since 2016, the Trump administration has overseen the obliteration of the Islamic State; the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, by suicide amid a US raid; and the death of Iranian general and terrorist sponsor Qasem Soleimani. He has gone where previous presidents wouldn’t dare, moving the American embassy in Israel to the country’s rightful capital, Jerusalem; cultivating a strategic relationship with the volatile North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un; and gambling on peace in Afghanistan through a deal with the Taliban. He has brokered deals to normalize relations between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Sudan, and it appears that at least five more Arab states may follow. His administration has pulled the US out of both the capitulatory Iran deal and the farcical Paris Agreement. But perhaps Trump’s best accomplishment is not what he has done, but rather what he hasn’t — that is, being the first president in generations not to embroil the country in another foreign war.
Concrete victories at home include the Trump tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit the middle class, with an average household saving $2,140; the First Step Act prison reform law that reduced a number of the mandatory minimum sentences that disproportionately affected black Americans; and a vibrant pre-pandemic economy with rock-bottom unemployment and significant real wage growth for low- and middle-income Americans; among many others.
But these feats are not enough for some. Many establishment GOP politicians voting against the president this election — a long list of whom the New York Times published in September — cite Trump’s incivility and dishonesty. Anti-Trumpers like these frequently bemoan the perceived loss of the “dignity of the office” — and they have a point. But we cannot simply vote for the person who least offends our sensibilities — there are much graver issues to consider. President Obama, for one, was the ultimate gentleman — a man who truly possessed the kind of poise, character, and dignity becoming of the presidency. But he also presided over a ghoulish abortion regime, undermined religious freedom, oversaw the quasi-socialization of the American healthcare system, and destroyed American credibility overseas with a ruinously flaccid approach to foreign policy — to name just a few. That Obama was a “nice guy” is no comfort to the Americans forced off their private insurance, the Catholic nuns he sought to force to distribute contraceptives, the small business owners who suffocated under red tape and overregulation, and other victims of his administration.
To be sure, Biden is similarly regarded almost universally as a man of grace and decency. “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person… you got a problem,” Senator Lindsey Graham said in 2015. “He is as good a man as God ever created.” But if the Obama and Trump administrations have taught us anything, it should be that a good man can be a very bad president, and that a not-so-good man can be, in many ways, an excellent president. It is worth repeating that this isn’t to argue that Trump is the perfect president — he is not. But Americans do not have the luxury of being purists this election. This is a reality that progressive Democrats who now must stomach voting for Biden are experiencing just as much as Republicans who support Trump’s policies but are uncomfortable with his public rhetoric and personal character.
In a perfect world, Republicans could have a candidate who champions the pro-life cause and doesn’t separate migrant children from their parents; a candidate who defends family values while practicing them himself; a candidate whose persona is as suited to the dignity of the presidency as his ability to handle its powers and responsibilities. Maybe in 2024 the GOP will have such a candidate. But on November 3rd, America will choose between two imperfect options, and no citizen, right or left, will be lucky enough to vote for their ideal candidate. Instead, we must make do with whoever would do the least harm and the most good, and that man is President Trump.