美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Accomplished A Lot In 2017, But At What Cost?（在线收听）

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For much of 2017, it looked like President Trump and the Republican-controlled controlled Congress were at risk of having no major legislative accomplishments to show for the year. Now, that all changed last week. Trump signed a $1.5 trillion tax cut bill that also contained a provision knocking out the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. NPR's White House correspondent Tamara Keith has a look at what Trump got done in 2017.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: In his own trademark way, President Trump has in recent weeks offered a presidential performance review.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will tell you this in a non braggadocious way.

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TRUMP: There has never been a 10-month president that has accomplished what we have accomplished.

KEITH: That was in late November before it was even clear whether the tax legislation would pass. Here he was last week celebrating its passage.

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TRUMP: We have done a job like no administration has done.

KEITH: Presidential history offers many a counterpoint. Still, Press Secretary Sara Sanders started off a recent briefing with what turned out to be a very long list.

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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: As December winds down, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to look back at what has been by any measure a historic year. Nearly 1.7 million new jobs have been created, and...

KEITH: Her recitation of the list of Trump's accomplishments lasted a full two and a half minutes.

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HUCKABEE SANDERS: We've rolled back 22 regulations for every one new regulation.

KEITH: Trump pulled out of or started to renegotiate trade deals. There was a new emphasis on energy production over environmental protection.

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HUCKABEE SANDERS: We approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, directed the EPA to end the job-killing war on coal.

KEITH: The Trump administration amped up immigration enforcement, and the travel ban executive order is now at least partially in effect after months of legal challenges, a focus on veterans issues and military might.

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HUCKABEE SANDERS: Under the president's leadership, ISIS has lost nearly all of its territory and its most important strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

KEITH: Through executive action, he's eroded pieces of Obamacare. And then there were the courts.

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HUCKABEE SANDERS: We've reshaped the American judiciary for generations. Justice Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court, and 22 judges have been confirmed including a record-setting 12 circuit judges.

KEITH: There's plenty of room to disagree over whether what the president and Republicans in Congress have accomplished this year has been good for the country. But for conservatives, who initially weren't sure what they would get with a President Trump, there's plenty to celebrate. Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor at National Review.

RAMESH PONNURU: The policy changes that Trump has helped to bring about are roughly what you would expect from a Republican president with a narrowly Republican Senate and a Republican House.

KEITH: Ponnuru says for an unconventional candidate Trump has turned out to be a surprisingly reliable conservative as president, conventional even, aside from the tweeting and the occasional feuding with fellow Republicans.

PONNURU: There are some issues where he disagrees with the conventional conservative view, but he has either been unwilling or unable to put them into practice.

KEITH: On the other side of the aisle, the analysis of Trump's first year in office isn't all that different.

NEERA TANDEN: It depends on how you define success, but he has definitely accomplished some key goals of the conservative movement.

KEITH: Neera Tanden is president of the Center for American Progress, a group which has been fighting Trump's agenda at every turn.

TANDEN: I expected Donald Trump to pursue a far-right agenda, and he is meeting those expectations and he's succeeding. I mean, if we think a Republican was going to come in to be president and have a Republican Congress and not succeed, that would be odd.

KEITH: But as Tanden sees it, Trump's success is coming at a cost. The left is energized, and his approval rating is south of 40 percent.

TANDEN: He will reshape American, you know, life in fundamental ways around - you know, particularly in the regulatory code and what he's done on taxes. But I think where he has failed is to bring the American people with him.

KEITH: Naturally, Trump sees it differently, tweeting, quote, "the fake news refuses to talk about how big and how strong our base is," adding, "we are doing well. Nobody is going to beat us. Make America Great Again!" The American people will get to issue their judgment of President Trump's accomplishments and the way his party has governed next fall in the mid-term congressional elections.

Tamara Keith, NPR News.