OPINION:
President Biden hates former President Donald Trump more than he loves America.
What else can explain Mr. Biden’s vindictive actions in reversing Trump-era policies that led to a prosperous nation?
In January 2020, before China unleashed a pandemic, inflation sat at 0.4%, gas was $2.54 a gallon, and there was record low unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics and a 50-year-low for women. Household median income was at a record-high, and poverty was at an all-time low. The border was secure, and there was peace abroad. No new wars. We were energy-independent.
On his first day in office, Mr. Biden began to unravel all of that with a few swipes of his pen.
On day one, Mr. Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, reversed Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, suspended new oil and natural gas leases on public lands, reversed a Trump policy that cracked down on communities that shielded illegal immigrants from deportation — pauses for breath — halted all construction on the border wall, reaffirmed support for DACA, scratched a Trump-era measure requiring agencies to get rid of two regulations for every one proposed, and protected the bureaucracy by reversing a Trump-era policy that made it easier to hire and fire civil servants in policy-making positions.
(Catches breath again.)
All that just on day one.
To truly ensure our energy sector was decimated (all in an effort to hasten the whimsical but unrealistic immediate transition to green energy), Mr. Biden would go on to suspend Trump-era drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and gut a 2018 plan to hold dozens of offshore oil and gas lease sales.
Mr. Biden has no one but himself to blame for record-high prices at the pump, and, as a result, has to travel this week to Saudi Arabia, hat in hand, to beg OPEC to pump more oil.
Inflation, spurred by high gas and diesel prices, has risen to 8.6% — outpacing wage gains, and the Michigan consumer sentiment index has plunged to an all-time low.
Although the Biden administration refuses to admit a recession is imminent, the U.S. economy contracted last quarter, and the Atlanta Federal Reserve anticipates negative growth this quarter, which if true, means we’re already living in one.
At the southern border, Mr. Biden eliminated Mr. Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” pact where migrants waited until their asylum claims were processed by U.S. officials before they could enter the country. He also made it all but impossible for ICE agents to deport anyone.
The Biden administration is currently evaluating whether to eliminate Title 42, a Trump-era policy that turned away illegal aliens for health concerns and is the only stop-gap left at our southern border.
What has Mr. Biden done to secure the border? Nothing. He felt the compulsion to scrap Mr. Trump’s plans without having any security plans of his own.
As a result, 239,416 illegal immigrants were apprehended attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in May, the highest one-month total in history and a 300% increase from the average number of May apprehensions during the Trump administration.
Things are no better abroad.
While Mr. Trump provided lethal military aid to Ukraine during his tenure, Mr. Biden slow-walked it before Russia’s invasion of the country, worrying the move would provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin. The same line of reasoning was used when Mr. Biden waived Trump-era sanctions on Nord Stream 2. Now Russia is at war with Ukraine.
Every single one of Mr. Biden’s crises is of his own making. On Sunday, Mr. Biden had the gall to go on Twitter and blame Republicans for “obstructing our efforts to crack down on gas-price gouging, lower food prices, lower health care costs, and hopefully, soon, lower your prescription drug costs.”
This is as Mr. Biden looks to reverse Mr. Trump’s tax cuts and proposes yet more government spending.
No, Mr. Biden, you’ve got it wrong, again. Republicans are trying to help. You only have to look back to 2017 to see the policies that worked and implement them.
Instead, you and your party’s ideological stubbornness, combined with Trump Derangement Syndrome, have blinded you to the plight of hardworking Americans.
It’s no surprise that 9 out of 10 Americans feel this country is on the wrong track, and Mr. Trump is reading his comeback.
It’s time to make America great again: Build the wall, deregulate, cut taxes, drain the swamp, unleash American oil and gas, and achieve peace through strength.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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