STEVE MOORE: 9 top Trump economy wins after his first 100 days

This week we mark 100 days since President Donald Trump took the oath of office. I readily admit that Trump’s tariff battles have caused market turmoil, business disruption and a temporary loss of consumer confidence in the economy. I am also nervous about the trade wars, but if Trump can get our major trading partners to lower their tariffs, we could end up with freer trade than when he entered office.  

What has been largely overshadowed (perhaps intentionally) by the media and the usual economic pundits is the almost universally positive steps that Trump has taken to promote prosperity and the near-unprecedented speed at which he has accomplished these results.  
    
Here is a handy list of highlights on Trump’s 100-day economic accomplishments:

Trump has put an end to the Joe Biden anti-regulatory assault. Biden’s regulations cost the economy about $20,000 of new costs per family over four years. Trump’s deregulation rule of "one-in-for-ten-out" has already saved $2,000 per family.  The estimated savings are about $180 billion so far, or about $2,000 per family over four years.  

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS: COMPANIES THAT WILL INVEST $1B OR MORE IN THE US

Trump’s 2017 tax cut was an enormous driver of economic success and raised revenue for the government, contrary to predictions of "tax cuts for millionaires."  The average small business saw a 20% reduction in their tax rates, and the corporate rate fell from the highest in the world at 35% to below average at now 21%.  Middle-class families saved more than $2,000. Trump’s bill to make these tax cuts permanent has ALREADY passed the House and Senate and will be on his desk for signature by sometime this summer.

If you pay people not to work and tax them for working, you will reduce output and increase unemployment. The labor force participation rate in March 2024 was just 62.7%. That’s down from 66% just 20 years earlier. Trump has already started to put in place rules to require able-bodied adults to get a job or be put in a training program if they are to receive most government welfare benefits, including food stamps and free health care.  

THESE COMPANIES HAVE ANNOUNCED THEIR INTENTION TO INCREASE US MANUFACTURING AMID TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS

America has more than $50 trillion in natural resources that are accessible with existing drilling and mining technologies. Trump has already issued executive orders to allow drilling and mining of this treasure chest of resources. This could raise nearly $10 trillion for the federal government in higher royalites and other tax payments.  

Test scores are falling and America no longer ranks in the top ten in many academic achievement ratings. That’s an economic calamity in the making.  Trump is well on the way to becoming the "school choice president."  In his first month in office, Trump issued an EO to channel most of the $100 billion that is wasted in Washington by the federal government and is sending that money to the states and parents so that they can have access to the best schools, including private, parochial and charter schools.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Under President Joe Biden and his $6 trillion spending spree, government spending reached 40% of our GDP.  We are moving inexorably toward becoming a socialist country.  

DOGE, led by Elon Musk, and the Trump budget team have already identified hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraudulent payments (as in the COVID programs), unspent funds that could be returned to the Treasury, and a $350 billion green energy slush fund that will be returned to taxpayers.  

Trump has, nearly miraculously, cut illegal border entries by 94%. Now he wants to implement a "merit-based immigration system." This visa system would select immigrants based on their skills, talents, investment capital, English-language ability, and education level. Almost 40% of businesses in America are started by immigrants and their children. He also wants to auction "gold card" visas to raise as much as $100 billion from those who agree to create businesses and jobs in America.  

Trump has again ended U.S. participation in globalist treaties that hurt America most. This includes the Paris Climate Accord – a treaty that most other nations have failed to comply with and yet places huge burdens on American companies and workers. Trump has also pledged to end global taxation – such as former Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s global minimum tax.

Fewer than 10% of our country's 2.5 million federal workers worked full-time in the office under Biden. This is despite the fact that COVID lockdowns ended four years ago. These are employees that often get paid $150,000 or more a year for not showing up at the office. Trump has ordered the 2.4 million federal workers to…show up for work or be fired.  He has already downsized the federal bureaucracy by more than 100,000 employees with buyouts and tough performance standards.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

This is just a partial list of President Trump's accomplishments and I’m sure readers can identify others.  

Critics will say that despite all of these policy successes, stocks are down and businesses are in a holding pattern. But a quick reminder: In Trump’s first term, the NASDAQ doubled, and the Dow Jones and S&P 500 climbed by well more than 50%.  

If Trump can pull off trade deals that lower tariffs imposed on American products and end unfair non-tariff trade practices by the Chinese and others, we could be in for the biggest stock market and economic rally in modern times.  

Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the co-founder of Unleash Prosperity.  He is co-author of "The Trump Economic Miracle and the Plan to Unleash Prosperity Again."