OPINION: Biden and Trump have both been president. Here’s what each one has actually accomplished

This article was originally posted on Edwin’s Substack newsletter on March 7.

We are now fully in the general election season. For the first time, one of the presidential candidates will be running while on trial for multiple felonies, including trying to overturn our election. If you look at most of the mainstream press, issues are not up for debate: reality is.

I don’t understand why the press is so tangled up by the lies and fantasies on the right. They might look at the private sector over the last five years (since before the COVID crash) and tell us that enormous value has been created: The Dow is up 47.29%, S&P 500 is us 86.60%, NASDAQ is up 116.87%. Instead, they often tell us that Mr. Trump says Democrats have ruined the country. (If you want to understand the press better, see the writing of Jennifer Schulze on Heartland Signal.)

Let’s remedy the failure to report the facts in context by looking first at the records of both presidents, Biden and Trump:

Biden

• Strongest post-pandemic recovery in the world
• More jobs created than any other president
• More people working than ever
• More people with health insurance than ever
• Passed infrastructure bill
• Expanded benefits for veterans
• Passed first meaningful gun violence reduction bill in 30 years
• Protected LGBTQ rights
• Appointed Supreme Court justice and other federal judges who respect the law
• Rebuilt alliances
• Defended Ukraine against Russian aggression
• Made meaningful progress to fight climate change
• Chaotic exit from Afghanistan
• Supported unions and fought corporate conglomeration

Trump

• Appointed Supreme Court justices who would ban abortion and politicize the court
• Led an insurrection
• Presided over the longest government shutdown in U.S. history
• Cozied up to dictators and disrespected our allies
• Called white supremacists at Charlottesville “very fine people”
• Cut taxes for the ultra-rich and corporations
• Banned people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
• Separated children from their parents at the border
• Pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement
• Botched America’s COVID-19 response
• Was impeached twice
• Negotiated the Abraham Accords
• Pushed for COVID-19 drugs (before telling everyone that Ivermectin was a cure)

Any list represents some choices. I included the two biggest accomplishments of the Trump era: the Abraham Accords and Operation Warp Speed, Trump’s effort to get a COVID vaccine on the market. I included the biggest flop of the Biden administration: our chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But on balance, the comparison of their records shows that Biden is fighting for things Americans want and leading a government with a high degree of competence. On the other hand, Trump fought for things only one faction of Americans wanted and led a government characterized by chaos and incompetence.

As we start this campaign, Americans are entitled to know what the candidates plans for our future are. I suspect we will learn more in the coming months, but as of now, this is a fair list:

Biden

• Tax cuts for working families
• Investments in manufacturing
• Investments in science with a focus on cancer
• Infrastructure improvements
• Anti-trust enforcement
• Increased energy production and increasingly moving to renewables
• Global security through alliances of democratic nations

Trump

• Tax cuts for the rich
• National abortion ban
• Mass deportations
• Concentration camps
• Political prosecutions
• An end to civil service
• Drill, baby, drill
• Global order by deals with dictators

For Biden, the list looks a continuation of his efforts to make the economy work for working people, while also addressing climate change, global stability and democratic values, and the expansion of rights for Americans, from abortion to voting. For Trump, it looks like a narrower version of his first term’s agenda — more cruel, more vengeful, less competent (if that’s possible).

This should make for a landslide. But the Republicans are very good at distracting everyone from the actual records on offer, and from the promises made on the campaign. They want the country to focus on the transgender athletes, even though Newsweek reports that even though there are about 332 million Americans, the number of trans athletes competing in high school women’s sports has to be under 100. Oops. They want us to focus on Hunter Biden and the evidence that his family is corrupt. But we now know the evidence comes from a Russian agent. Oops. They want us to focus on the border, where the number of people seeking to immigrate is overwhelming our ability to respond. But they killed the bipartisan legislation that would address that problem. Oops.

They want us to think that by opening opportunities for all Americans, we are closing them for white Americans. Those economic numbers I led off with betray that lie right away. But they will insist that Democrats want to write white people out of history. Rubbish. They have chosen a political strategy where they can only prevail if we all turn on each other. To pay attention to them is to walk off the plank and into an angry sea.

I suggest we no longer pay attention to the distractions and instead focus on what really matters for the rest of this year. If we do, America will end up stronger, fairer, more prepared for the challenges ahead, better positioned to seize the opportunities change has on offer. And we will put an end to this terrible period where reality itself is continuously challenged by politicians and the media.

Edwin Eisendrath hosts “The Big Picture” on WCPT 820 AM every Saturday at 1 p.m. CST. You can follow him on X @eisendrath.