NY grand jury indicts former President Trump
At the heart of the job description of a president is the protection of the people in the nation he governs. And the saving of lives, both in America and abroad, is a clear hallmark, a pivotal motivation, and a shining success of the first term of President Donald J. Trump.
Since his inauguration in 2017, his policies on everything from infants born alive after abortion to foreign conflicts to a new initiative to end HIV/AIDS are preserving and protecting people inside and outside the United States.
These are not headlines you’ll read in Fake News media, but they are facts every American should have at their fingertips.
Consider these lifesaving actions:
His decisive actions, historic mobilization, and multi-faceted plan to protect Americans from the China virus have saved, in the estimation of the medical experts who advised him, some two million lives.
The president has withdrawn thousands of American troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria and has pledged to put an end to U.S. involvement in endless wars. In fact, he is the first president in 39 years not to start a war or get us involved in an international conflict.
Honoring a commitment to take care of our nation’s military veterans, the president in 2017 unveiled the Veterans Choice program that allows veterans to receive health care in their own communities, rather than having to travel to a Veterans Affairs facility or wait for an appointment at one – a wait that could be dangerously long.
The Trump administration secured an agreement from Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, to pay $8 billion for its role in flooding the U.S. with addictive opioid drugs that have taken the lives of 430,000 Americans since 2000. Criminal lawsuits against the company’s owners continue. Drug-induced deaths decreased for the first time in 30 years in 2018, and overdose deaths dropped by around 5% in 2018, the first decline in decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Thousands of members of violent gangs and hundreds of thousands of criminals in the country illegally have been deported by the Trump administration during the president’s first term, making American streets safer. He also is bringing to an end the practice of “catch and release” that allows violent offenders to be released after arrest processing to await trial, often committing new crimes in the interim.
Some 400 miles of the wall on our southern border have been built, while the U.S. has improved its ability to determine whether those attempting to enter the country pose a security or safety threat. Our nation is safer as a result of this work.
The president signed into law Savanna’s Act, which calls for the establishment of guidelines and training protocols to help the U.S. government and tribal authorities solve and prevent crimes against Native Americans. Murder is the third largest cause of death for Native women.
The president has increased funding for research into childhood cancer and signed a six-year extension of the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to fund healthcare for nine million children.
President Trump also signed the Right to Try Act, which allows people with a terminal diagnosis who have been turned down for clinical trials to obtain experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA.
Through his “Ending the HIV” Epidemic program, the president plans to employ widespread testing and early viral suppression treatment to reduce new HIV/AIDS diagnoses by 2030.
Beyond our borders, the president continues to see success in foreign policy as he continues to broker peace agreements oversees. He has gotten Kosovo and Serbia to agree to stop the lethal violence between them.
The president’s representatives also are working on a solution in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that lies between Armenia and Azerbaijan and where a recent flare-up of hostilities has led to the loss of 5,000 lives.
The historic Abraham Accords continue to bring states in the Middle East into diplomatic relations with Israel. So far the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and South Sudan have normalized relations with the Jewish state, with others lining up to join the agreement.
President Trump is the most pro-life president ever to hold the Oval Office and his policies have saved unborn lives. He has cut off tens of millions of dollars from the largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood.
He has expanded the Mexico City policy that protects our tax dollars from funding the killing of children in the womb.
Through an executive order, he has strengthened the protection of children who are born alive at any stage of development but who would die without emergency care.
Unborn babies, sick children and adults, women, soldiers, veterans, Americans living in border towns, and many others are safer today than they were four years ago. Every one of these policies put in place or actions taken by President Trump has saved lives or safeguarded them from future harm.
Father Frank Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life.