Trump six months in: How’s it been?

There have been glimmers and gleams of positives for the Trump presidency.

By Bart Chilton

Tribune News Service

Now that we’re six months into the presidency of Donald Trump, it’s time to make some evaluations.

On the economy, we’ve seen some important strides made. Markets have hit record highs — several times in recent days. Unemployment stands at 4.4 percent, down from 4.9 percent a year ago. Oil prices have remained stable, resulting in an average gasoline price of $2.25 per gallon nationwide. That’s only 5 cents more than a year ago.

Some economic indicators have been mixed, such as retail sales and housing. Other indicators, like the expanding trade deficit (likely to be more than $500 billion this year) and economic growth (which slowed in the first quarter to 1.4 percent gross domestic product), are less positive.

On the president’s policy proposals, not much progress has been made. There’s only been a scant one-pager issued on tax reform. And with the president’s trillion-dollar infrastructure idea, a mere six-pager is all that’s been released. Both of these initiatives, if carried out correctly, would go a long way toward positively propelling the economy.

As for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, a bill has passed the House of Representatives, but the Senate’s efforts have come up short.

On the president’s proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, there’s been no visible progress.

The single congressional feather in the president’s cap is the confirmation by the Senate of his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Trump not doing better is noteworthy given the Republicans (the president’s party) have majorities of both houses of Congress. The circumstances won’t get any easier in the short-term.

New tough tasks that lie ahead include the fiscal year-end budget battle and the need to increase the debt ceiling (both to be voted upon around the end of September).

Investigations into Russian election tampering and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians continue to dog the president. And while Trump and his spokespeople continue to insist nothing untoward took place, facts continue to be discovered that clearly cast doubt on such assertions. At this time, it’s uncertain what, if anything, will result from the investigations underway by Congress and the Department of Justice’s special counsel.

To complicate matters more, the president hasn’t had the honeymoon period normally enjoyed by new presidents. Even some Republicans have been critical. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recently said an idea of the president’s was one of the “dumbest” ever. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed only a 36 percent job approval rating (down from 42 percent in April), which is a 70-year low for presidents at this point in their tenure.

On geopolitics, the president has made some important progress. He started off strong with world leaders, hosting several in the U.S. and meeting many more on his foreign forays to the Middle East and Europe. On the negative side, North Korea has pursued belligerent behavior both in terms of its warmongering rhetoric aimed at the U.S. and the testing and proliferation of nuclear weapons. There appears to be no plan to address this menacing threat.

In sum, while there have been glimmers and gleams of positives for the Trump presidency — and there’s potential for many more — it’s nonetheless been a fairly bad beginning. For the sake of our country, let’s hope the president gains good ground on meaningful matters and that things improve as we go forward.

Former U.S. Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton is a policy and political commentator and author of “Ponzimonium: How Scam Artists Are Ripping Off America.” He can be reached at bartchilton@bartchilton.com.