America First vs. America Last: Trump vs. Biden, two years in

by Summer Lane

Op-ed by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy

If the 2024 election were held today between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the differences between the two men’s policies at the two-year point in their administrations would inarguably be like night and day.

Joe Biden’s America is fraught with fear and chaos. There is unfettered war in Eastern Europe and the Southern Border of the United States is wide open and catastrophically vulnerable.

Just two years ago, things were different. America was stronger and safer, and the world respected the United States as the global supreme superpower, as it had for decades in the wake of World War II.

Biden’s first two years in office have sent America backsliding economically, internationally, and domestically. The United States today is in disarray, and it’s a far cry from the two-year point in President Trump’s first term in office when America was rocketing upward on a trajectory toward energy dominance, military supremacy, and domestic economic success.

Southern border crossings

The first and most obvious point of failure in the Biden administration is the malicious refusal to secure the Southern Border. According to data shared by Interactive Polls from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), illegal border crossings were around 977,106 at the two-year mark in Trump’s presidency, while Joe Biden’s administration has allowed 4,365,117 illegals to cross over onto American soil in the same amount of time.

President Trump told RSBN’s Brian Glenn that he believed that as many as 15 million people had flooded over America’s open borders over the past two years, pointing out that the unrestrained influx was “killing our country.”

This uptick in illegal crossings has seemed to coincide with a devastating upswing in drug trafficking and human trafficking.

Gas

Under Trump, America was on the superhighway to achieving energy dominance. Per Interactive Polls, a gallon of gas cost an average of $2.57 per gallon at the two-year point in President Trump’s first term, while right now, gas is an average of $3.50 per gallon. Last summer, pain at the pump was all too real, as some places in the U.S. hit over $7 per gallon.

RNC Research Rapid Response Director comments on Biden’s push for electric vehicles

February’s average cost for a gallon of gas is a drop from the astronomically high prices in 2022, but it’s still significantly higher than when Trump was in office.

Via RSBN, Trump recently stated in a policy video, “Biden reversed every action I took that achieved energy independence and soon we were going to be energy dominant.”

Under Biden, America is no longer energy independent.

The economy

President Trump was a successful businessman before he set foot in the Oval Office, and he brought his savvy negotiating skills to the White House in 2017. In fact, the inflation rate under President Trump at the two-year mark of his presidency was just 2.3 percent, while Biden’s annual inflation rate is 6.4 percent in 2023.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, pointed out recently that the price for an average gallon of gas was around $2.39. “Joe Biden has RAISED prices by 44%!” he wrote on Twitter.

An example of last fall’s holiday inflation patterns

Two years in, Biden hasn’t helped Americans achieve a better future. He’s only stopped Americans from being able to reach for their dreams, thanks to crushing inflationary pressures and supply chain problems.

Per the White House, President Trump also created five million new jobs by his second year in office, as well as boasting a post-recession high for median incomes in 2017.

Violent crime

Joe Biden’s America is one that is pockmarked by out-of-control Antifa riots, unpunished shoplifters, and criminal offenders who are empowered by the “Defund the Police” movement that has taken away the authority from integral law enforcement agencies.

As crime is on the rise, Biden bizarrely blamed the uptick in violence in American cities on the Covid pandemic during his State of the Union address in early February: “Covid left its scars, like the spike in violent crime in 2020 — the first year of the pandemic,” he said, via The Washington Post.

Trump promises to address violent crime if he reclaims the White House in 2024

Unlike Biden, Trump worked hard to crack down on crime when he was president.

By his second year, the White House revealed that Trump took action to combat the rash of MS-13 gang members in the U.S. and arrested around 4,000 of them just in 2017. He also updated the Project Safe Neighborhoods program and supported almost $100 million in grant funding at the behest of the DOJ to hire hundreds of law enforcement officers nationwide.

America today

In 2019, Trump was a president who put America first. In 2023, Biden is a leader who puts America last. Whether he is greenlighting billions of dollars in aid to foreign countries or ignoring the overwhelming invasion at the border, the Biden administration has humiliated the country on the global stage and robbed the U.S. of her respect.

Trump’s administration, at the very least, prioritized the domestic needs of American citizens first and was putting the country on a fast track to long-term success.

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