PD Editorial: The losers in a year of governing recklessly

As we reflect on Donald Trump's first year in office, it would be disingenuous to call his performance disappointing. In fact, his presidency has turned out precisely as many had feared. His governance has been one of denigration, retaliation and Twitter-fueled self-absorption. Polls show his approval level languishes at 39 percent, making him one of the least popular presidents in the modern era.

But it could have been worse. Despite pledges to repeal and replace Obamacare, build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it, to prosecute Hillary Clinton for using a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of state and to ban, if temporarily, most foreign Muslims from entering the United States, his major campaign promises have not materialized.

He also promised that America was “going to win so much” that we were going to beg him to lose. But it was a year that indeed included many loses and many losers. Here are five of the biggest:

The environment - Between the president's pledge to pull America out of the Paris climate agreement to the decimation of the Environmental Protection Agency, now run by a long-time EPA antagonist, to the administration's many handouts to oil companies, it's been a year loaded with environmental setbacks. It ended with more giveaways to energy companies with the decisions to dramatically downsize two national monuments in Utah, open up coastlines to offshore oil drilling - except in Florida - and scuttle the Clean Power Plan.

Children - Corporations and the nation's wealthy had the most to gain from Trump's year-end tax cut plan, while middle class Americans, particularly those in areas of high housing costs such as California and New York, had the most to lose. But the biggest losers are really the nation's children as the tax cuts are projected to add $1.4 trillion to the nation's deficits by 2027. That's a pretty nasty inheritance. In addition, funding for a federal program that ensures some 9 million low-income children have health coverage ran out in September, and Congress so far has refused to renew it.

The intelligence community - Beginning with the president's firing of FBI director James Comey as he was investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, the intelligence community has been under constant siege by the president himself. Trump has directly and indirectly accused the FBI and CIA of being behind White House leaks while casting doubt on intelligence community conclusions that Russia was behind the tampering of the 2016 presidential election. It reached a low point in May with allegations that Trump shared “highly classified” information with the Russians during a meeting in the Oval Office. He defended his action by saying he had “the absolute right to do” so.

The truth - In a year in which the public was introduced to the idea of “alternative facts,” Trump has waged war on the news media, often characterizing negative press as “fake news” while making statements that challenge any definition of accuracy. These include his contention that the audience for his inauguration one year ago today “was the biggest ever” and that Barack Obama bugged Trump Towner. According to the Washington Post, Trump told his 2,0001st lie on Jan. 9 during a televised gathering of bipartisan lawmakers. What was the fib? That the wall he wants along the southern border could be built in a year.

America's credibility - In the final analysis, America was the biggest loser with its reputation shrinking significantly in the eyes of the world. A Gallup poll published last week showed that the world's approval of U.S. leadership in 2017 had dropped 18 percentage points from 2016 and was 4 points lower than where it was in 2008, the final year of George W. Bush's presidency. In short, under this president, America has hit a new low. Trump, in his first year, has shown he's not making America great again. He's making it all the more divided, dispirited and universally disliked.