Love him or hate him, Trump is keeping his campaign promises

Originally published in the Columbus Dispatch, this is a slightly expanded version that goes into more detail. I truly appreciate the Dispatch for their willingness to include contrarian voices and headlines that help to sell newspapers.

For as long as I can remember, the knock on politicians was that they said one thing on the campaign trail and did the opposite once elected. But – love him or hate him – everyone who’s willing to be honest must admit President Trump is doing precisely what he said he’d do before he defied the pundits and won both the electoral college and the popular vote.

Are you mad that he asked billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to lead a government efficiency effort? On September 5, Mr. Trump said he’d do just that.

Infuriated that the president is talking directly to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and also Russian President Vladimir Putin? He told the country he would do so during his debate with Kamala Harris.

Do you wish Mr. Trump would stop wearing out his pen issuing Executive Orders? It’s fine to disagree with the substance of those policies but don’t pretend he didn’t promise them. He did.

To borrow an overused phrase, “this is what democracy looks like.”

About a century ago, American journalist H.L. Mencken wrote that “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it -- good and hard.”

I don’t agree with all the President’s priorities and even less so with some of his methods and style. I’ve had to fire employees but never made light of it. The diplomatic blow-up with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office was embarrassing and inexcusable.

Nonetheless, there can be little doubt Mr. Trump is doing much of what he said he’d do. It’s a level of accountability to election promises unlike anything we’ve seen in decades.   

Those ideologically opposed to this administration will never agree on its policy direction. But finding genuine misuse of taxpayer dollars is something people of every political stripe agree on.

Virtually every presidential candidate in my lifetime has promised to reduce “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government programs. Few have even made a dent. The only time since 1970 that the federal budget ran a surplus was during Bill Clinton’s second term.

Mr. Trump fervently campaigned on the urgency of cutting government spending and reducing our $36 trillion national debt. A recent op-ed referred to an impending “debt death spiral” if spending isn’t brought under control. It could happen.

It’s easy to become desensitized to reporting on spending and debt in the billions and trillions of dollars. Our current debt is like the average U.S. household having an extra $325,000 credit card balance. No one would sleep soundly with that kind of crushing financial burden and neither should our country.

And, no, even over-taxing all the “millionaires and billionaires” in the country wouldn’t bail us out. Confiscating every dollar of the income from the top 1% of taxpayers would still leave the average household with $313,000 on its American Excess credit card.

The only solution is to cut up that card.

Enter Trump’s promised “Department of Government Efficiency,” headed by Mr. Musk. DOGE for short.

Musk’s youthful team of computer sleuths have been deployed at the precise time AI has created financial review tools that far exceed the ability of even a stadium full of accountants and auditors. The capability for AI to review unfathomably huge amounts of data for errors, inconsistencies, and irregularities is stunning to behold. The items flagged can then be reviewed by humans versed in accountability.

This technology can also help Ohio. Governor DeWine’s proposed budget may leave many school districts, including some in Central Ohio – short millions of dollars. A DOGE endeavor in how Ohio funds its schools could find enough misspending to cover this shortfall. And, as someone who spent 8 years as an elected school board member who grappled with budget issues, I say let’s give it a try.

No wonder Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is suggesting a DOGE like project for our state.

Of course, not everyone embraces this trend. Bureaucrats who’ve long thrived on inefficiency are already crying foul. Career politicians, whose reelection strategies depend on endless government expansion, are sputtering and even cursing. Non-governmental organizations threaten to close up shop if they can’t get government funding. How can they claim to be non-governmental if their very existence depends on government — meaning taxpayer — largess?

And the same pols who claim Trump is creating a constitutional crisis for exercising executive authority reject their own accountability for ceding those powers to the executive for decades.

But here’s the reality: AI-driven financial oversight isn’t partisan. Waste is waste. Accountability is accountability. If the technology exists to ferret out fraud, incompetence, and inefficiency, why wouldn’t we welcome it?

For all the noise about the first month of Trump, one thing is clear: he made promises and is keeping them. That might be a new phenomenon in politics, but it shouldn’t be.

Accountability is in, inefficiency is out—and it appears democracy can handle a little spring cleaning.