OPINION:
Sometimes, the only person willing to give President Trump credit is Mr. Trump himself. Never shy of selling himself, the 45th and 47th president has a penchant for boasting that can, at times, obscure his genuine ability to achieve what others thought impossible.
If he succeeds in his vow to end the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, his dealmaking prowess will be hard to dispute. The president, however, lacked his usual optimism when discussing prospects for his summit Friday with Vladimir Putin.
“This is a really a feel-out meeting,” Mr. Trump said Monday. “President Putin invited me to get involved, and I believe he wants to get it over with. Now, I’ve said that a few times, and I’ve been disappointed because I’d have a great call with him, and then missiles would be lobbed into Kyiv.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Mr. Trump has mediated long-simmering rivalries that have claimed lives by the hundreds of thousands. Just last week, the heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan shook hands at the White House, agreeing to replace bloodshed with commerce.
“We had to fight two very bad wars with a lot of casualties. If not for President Trump and his team and our great friend [Steve] Witkoff … probably today Armenia and Azerbaijan would have been in this endless process of negotiations,” said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
This is the fourth major conflict in which Mr. Trump delivered positive results as an arbitrator. He crafted ceasefires between India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, and Congo and Rwanda. President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 without defusing any international crises, unless one counts going on a European and Middle Eastern tour to apologize for America.
The administration has also accomplished the unthinkable when it comes to immigration. For years, Democrats and liberal Republicans insisted there was no way to safeguard the border without simultaneously gifting a path to citizenship to anyone who barged into our country without an invitation. At some later point, these lawmakers sign off on additional funding for security.
This was the premise behind the 2013 “Gang of Eight” bill, which promised “comprehensive immigration reform.” The topic was said to be so complex that it required a 1,200-page bill. The bloated measure passed the Democratic-controlled Senate but, fortunately, was blocked from further consideration by House Republicans.
It turns out the only thing needed to fix the border was sending the right man to the Oval Office. In the last full month of President Biden’s term, the Border Patrol reported a record 301,981 people sneaking over the Rio Grande. The figure dropped to 9,306 in June — a staggering 97% reduction.
As commander in chief, Mr. Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. military to do what was necessary to defend America’s southern border. He also pulled the plug on the U.S. Agency for International Development, terminating the distribution of federal taxpayer cash to nongovernmental organizations that had encouraged foreigners to undertake the perilous journey.
The Justice Department recently named the sanctuary cities and states that risk losing federal support if they continue to obstruct federal law enforcement. A lot is happening fast, so it’s difficult to keep up.
Although the job of ensuring world peace and protecting the border is far from done, Mr. Trump has made more progress in a few months than anyone else who has held the top office. That deserves recognition.
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