Trump's Year in Review: Here Are His Biggest Accomplishments in 2017

January 02, 2018

WRITER

How did President Donald Trump fare in the first year of his presidency? Doc recently guest-hosted for Glenn and covered some of Trump’s major accomplishments in 2017. What do you think of his list of Trump’s wins?

Is an End to 2017’s Journalistic Drought in Sight?

“It was a pretty good year,” Doc said. “I’ve got to give the guy credit.”

Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court

Republicans passed a major tax reform bill

Jerusalem recognized as the official capital of Israel

U.S. withdrew from the Paris climate accord

Obama administration’s deal with Cuba rescinded

EPA regulations rolled back

Listen to the audio clip or read the transcript below for more.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

DOC: Let's talk about the truth now. Because I mentioned, yes, Glenn Beck did not support vote for or support President Trump. I didn't as well. But we've been pretty honest, calling the balls and strikes as we see them.

Is that good, or is that bad? And early on, the first big thing President Trump did was appoint Neil Gorsuch. And by some people's desire or reason they voted for him, that was enough.

Fill that seat that was vacated by Antonin Scalia, with a true conservative. Maybe that was enough. And I gave him high marks for that.

Then the following couple months, not a lot got done. There were some things that I didn't like. A little bombastic. Still gave him high marks. Okay. And that's kind of been the malaise I think during the summers. Little stories here and there. And the media just obsesses over his tweet and fake news claims and this stuff. And I didn't I say do the math and add up what the president had accomplished. Because, by the way, did they repeal Obamacare? Nope. Didn't get it done.

A lot of stuff we were hoping that they didn't get done, but that's they, the party, including the Republicans in Congress.

If you look at President Trump's track record, it was a pretty good year. Shockingly good year.

When I went down the list to prepare for today, I got to give the guy credit. So Neil Gorsuch, he did sign the tax reform bill.

Now, Congress did a lot of that work. So give them their due. The president did use the bully pulpit and suggest, you know, dropping the corporate tax rate down to 20 percent. It ended up being 21. Still good. But he did sign it and support it and got behind it.

He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Said they were going to remove the embassy. Okay. That's pretty big for people who supported him, supported Israel, said that's what should happen there. That's a huge step that everybody else has kicked the can down the road. Right? Clinton did it. Bush did it. Obama did it. All when they're campaigning. Absolutely.

Got to be in Jerusalem. That's American policy since the '90s or whatever.

You going to do it? Well -- so you support it? Oh, absolutely.

But you're going to move it? Well...

That's what they're doing, right? Because they're playing both sides. They're playing politics. He said we're going to do it. Okay.

He signed an executive order that demanded that two regulations be killed for every new one that it creates. When that happened, I said, fantastic, if they do it. So far, he has.

He's eliminated more than he's created. It's a -- by a huge margin. Can't remember the percent. It's like 8-1 or something. They've actually done it. He cut 16 rules and regulations for every one. But that's an old statistic from months ago. So I don't know what the actual updated number is. But it's at least that. And this is a little loose. It saves 8.1 billion. That metric is a little off. But the number of rules and regulations cut versus created is true. He signed 15 congressional regulatory cuts by themselves.

He withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement. Okay. That's pretty significant.

KAL: People flipped out on that one.

DOC: They did. And when it was out -- I even talked about it. But looking back, now even more significant than I realized at the time, because there's a lot going on. You know what I mean?

Signed an exact order. Cutting the time for infrastructure permit approvals.

Okay. That's a little less, but still solid. He withdrew from the TPP. Huge.

And I remember why I didn't give him enough credit for that one. Because it was not -- we're pull out of the TPP. It was, well, we're going to do this. Think we're going to do that? Yeah, we pulled out.

It was, he almost didn't do himself a service as people. Because some of this stuff he campaigns on, then when it comes down to it, there's a moment of hesitation. Maybe they're just playing the media, whatever it is.

But then they do it. But during that hesitation, I'm like, ah, he's not doing it, or whatever. Then, okay. Great. He did it.

So it doesn't get -- it's not like he rode into town and said, here's all the stuff I'm going to do. We're pulling out of this stuff. Boom, boom, boom. And you go, hurray. But that's the reason I want to bring up the facts and go down the list.

He started renegotiating NAFTA. Now, that was not as big an issue for some people. But it's worth looking at. He ended Obama's deal with Cuba. Awesome.

Why all of a sudden did we suddenly say, yeah, Cuba is not a problem.

He opened up 77 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling. Solid thing. Expanded some of the different infrastructure projects when it comes to energy, like the Keystone Pipeline. Awesome.

He ordered the EPA to kill Obama's clean power plan. Awesome. And as part of that, he rolled back Obama's attempt to regulate all US waterways. Remember, he was using the Clean Water Act, that even literally the mud puddle behind your house could have been covered. The federal government would have jurisdiction over. Which is ridiculous. It was never designed for that. He rolled that back.

Laid out and challenged now new plans to challenge and stop migration. Ended Obama's catch and release program of illegals.

Has arrested more illegals inside the US now. Started the end of DACA. That's another one that he kind of waffled on when it came down to it, or it seemed like he was going to waffle, but ended up doing the right thing.

Attempted to and in some ways have cracked down on US sanctuary cities. Of course, that was challenged at the Supreme Court. And they said they can't do it. But he did the right thing. Did everything within his power as far as that goes. Has added 100 additional immigration judges to start processing those cases. Awesome. Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City policy, which is misleading. It has nothing really to do with Mexico City or immigration or anything like that.

That's the money -- the foreign aid that is used for abortions, where people get money in foreign aid form, and they can use it for abortion. And he rolled that back

He withdrew from the UN global compact on migration, which is wonderful. They have just said that they are going to -- this is the last couple of days. Nikki Haley announced that they are cutting UN funding. He signed the VA Whistle-blower Act, to crack down. And as part of that, the Veterans Appeal Improvement and Modernization Act and signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act.

Now, those are all good steps. More has to be done. Much, much more with the VA. But that's far more than Obama did with that. Just the Whistle Protection Act and their ability to now hold people accountable, where they can be fired.

Now, as soon as he took office, he fired a bunch of people at the VA, at the top. Some of them got their jobs back. That's no fault of his.

That ended up being unions and courts and everything else. But the president did what was right.

Net neutrality wasn't him directly. But on his watch, with his support, one of his guys --

KAL: Didn't he appoint the guy?

DOC: One of them, yeah. Yeah, he didn't get to appoint all of them. Because you still got Mignon Clyburn. Filet Mignon Cly- -- did you know that's Jim Clyburn's daughter? James Clyburn, the forever congressman from South Carolina.

KAL: No, I didn't know that.

DOC: She has no history of telecommunications or anything like that, but she works for the FCC. Hmm. Yeah, she got her job fair and square, I'm sure.

So these are just some of the things that President Trump has done. From a conservative/Libertarian standpoint, that's pretty solid.

Any of the other failures of things like Obamacare, could he have led more on it? Could he have said we need specifically just a repeal, use the bully pulpit more? Maybe. But if you had asked me a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, my opinion on all of these, how do you want a president to rule on this, this, and this? And vote and rescind on executive order and whatever. I would have supported these.

KAL: At least with the Obamacare, didn't he get the fine removed? Like you don't get fined anymore --

DOC: Right. Exactly. The teeth are out of it. You still have to have it by law. But you're not going to have it anymore. So a little bit. I mean, I'm wanting a grander statement of change. But as far as President Trump has gone. When I look back over all the stuff over the last year, he has used his office with most of these actions the right way. And this is in many cases rolling back many of the problems, many of the things that Obama did, some of it unconstitutionally during his eight years. It's going to take a while.

That's the truth.

Trump exposes Left’s habeas corpus hijack in border crisis

Chicago Tribune / Contributor | Getty Images

Democrats accused the president of declaring war on civil rights. In reality, he’s defending habeas corpus while they drown it in delays and legal loopholes.

Tuesday’s congressional testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem turned heads for all the wrong reasons. Pressed to define “habeas corpus,” she stumbled. And while I respect Noem, this moment revealed just how dangerously misunderstood one of our most vital legal protections has become — especially as it’s weaponized in the immigration debate.

Habeas corpus is not a loophole. It’s a shield. It’s the constitutional protection that prevents a government from detaining a person — any person — without first justifying the detention before a neutral judge. It doesn’t guarantee freedom. It demands due process. Prove it or release them.

Bureaucratic inertia, activist judges, and political cowardice have turned due process into a slow-motion invasion. And the left knows it.

And yet, this doctrine — so essential to our liberty — is now being twisted by the political left into something it was never meant to be: a free pass for illegal immigration.

The left wants to frame this as a matter of compassion and rights. Leftists ask: “What about habeas corpus for migrants?” The implication is clear: They see any attempt to enforce immigration law as an attack on civil liberties.

But that’s a lie. Habeas corpus is not an excuse for indefinite presence. It doesn’t guarantee that every person who crosses the border gets to stay. It simply requires that we follow a process — a just process.

And that’s exactly what President Donald Trump has proposed.

Habeas corpus, rightly understood

Habeas corpus is the front door to the courtroom. It simply requires the government to justify why someone is being held or detained. It’s not about citizenship. It’s about human dignity.

America’s founders knew this — and that’s why they extended the right to persons, not just citizens. Habeas corpus isn’t a pass to stay in America forever — it’s a demand for legal clarity: “Why are you holding me?” That’s it.

If the government has a lawful reason — such as illegal entry — then deportation is a legitimate outcome. And yet, the left treats any enforcement of immigration law as a betrayal of American ideals.

The danger today isn’t that habeas corpus is being ignored; it’s that it’s being hijacked. The system is being overwhelmed with bad-faith cases, endless appeals, and delays that stretch for years. Right now, the immigration courts are buried under 3.3 million pending cases. The average wait time to have your case heard is four years. In some places, people are being scheduled for court dates as far out in 2032. Where is the justice in that?

This is not compassion. This is national sabotage.

Weaponizing due process

The left uses this legal bottleneck as a weapon, not a shield. Democrats invoke due process as if it requires the government to play a never-ending shell game with public safety. But that’s not what due process means. Due process means the state must play by the rules. It means a judge hears a case. It means the law is applied justly and equally. It does not mean an open border by procedural default.

So no, Trump is not proposing the end of habeas corpus. He’s calling out a broken system and saying, out loud, what millions of Americans already know: If we don’t fix this, we don’t have a country.

This crisis wasn’t an accident — it was engineered. It’s a Cloward-Piven playbook, designed to overwhelm the system. Bureaucratic inertia, activist judges, and political cowardice have turned due process into a slow-motion invasion. And the left knows it.

Abandon the Constitution?

Remember, the Constitution is not a suicide pact. But how do we balance the Constitution and our national survival without descending into authoritarianism? Abandon the Constitution? No. Burn the house down to get rid of the rats? Absolutely not. The Constitution itself gives us the tools to take on this crisis head on.

The federal government has clear authority over immigration. Illegal presence in the United States is not a protected right. Congress has the power to deny entry, enforce expedited removals, and reject bogus asylum claims. Much of this is already authorized by law — it’s simply not being used.

President Trump’s idea is simple: Use the tools we already have. Declare the southern border a national security emergency. Establish temporary military tribunals for triage. Process asylum claims swiftly outside the clogged court system. Restore “Remain in Mexico” so that the border is no longer a remote court room. Appoint more immigration judges, assign them to high-volume areas, and hold streamlined hearings that still respect due process.

That’s not authoritarian. That’s leadership.

The path forward

Trump is not trying to destroy habeas corpus. He’s trying to save it from being twisted into a self-destructive parody of itself. Leftists have turned due process into delay, justice into gridlock, and they’re dragging the entire country into their chaos.

It’s time to draw the line. Protect habeas corpus. Use it lawfully. Use it wisely. And yes — use it to restore order at the border. Because if we lose that firewall, we lose the republic.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Betrayal of trust: Medicare insurers face lawsuit over kickback scheme

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Editor's note: This article is sponsored by Chapter.

The U.S. government has filed a major lawsuit under the False Claims Act, targeting some of the biggest names in health insurance—Aetna, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), and Humana—along with top insurance brokers eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote. The allegation? From 2016 to at least 2021, these companies funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to brokers to steer seniors into their Medicare Advantage plans.

If the allegations are true, it means many Americans may have been steered into Medicare Advantage plans that weren’t necessarily the best fit for their needs—not because the plans were better, but because brokers were incentivized by illegal kickbacks.

The Kickback Conspiracy

Navigating Medicare Advantage’s maze of plan options is daunting, so beneficiaries rely on brokers like eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote, who claim to be unbiased guides. But from 2016 to 2021, insurers Aetna, Humana, and Elevance Health allegedly paid brokers millions in kickbacks to favor their plans, regardless of quality. Disguised as “co-op” or “marketing” deals, these payments were tied to enrollment targets. Internal emails revealed executives knew this violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, with one eHealth leader joking that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would miss a $15 million Humana deal for minimal enrollments. Brokers used call routing to prioritize high-paying insurers, betraying beneficiaries’ trust.

Discrimination Against the Vulnerable

The scheme wasn’t just about profits—it targeted vulnerable beneficiaries. Medicare Advantage must accept all eligible enrollees, including disabled people under 65. Yet Aetna and Humana allegedly pressured brokers to limit their enrollment, as these beneficiaries were deemed to be less profitable. Brokers complied, rejecting referrals and filtering calls to favor healthier enrollees, incentivized by bonuses. This violated federal anti-discrimination laws and CMS contracts, undermining the founding principles of Medicare by discriminating against the very people it was created to aid.

False Claims and the Pursuit of Justice

The schemes led to false claims to CMS, with insurers certifying enrollments as “valid” despite kickbacks and discrimination. The government paid billions, unaware of the fraud. Examples include Humana’s $12,477 for a 2016 enrollment and Aetna’s $79,047 for a 2020 case. On May 1, 2025, the U.S. filed suit, seeking treble damages and penalties under the False Claims Act. Aetna and others deny the allegations, per May 2025 reports, promising a fierce defense. The case, demanding a jury trial, seeks justice for beneficiaries and taxpayers.

POLL: Are foreign hackers behind 2025 bridge crash?

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A Mexican Navy ship crashing into the Brooklyn Bridge has left the nation stunned, and Glenn is demanding answers.

Are recent devastating ship collisions—first Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024, now Brooklyn in 2025—really just accidents, or is something far more sinister at play? Glenn recently warned that these incidents, both involving foreign vessels losing power near critical U.S. infrastructure, could be “shark bumps” by foreign adversaries testing our defenses through cyber sabotage. With the government and media quick to dismiss concerns, Glenn is calling for urgent investigations into possible hacking, independent audits of our ports and bridges, and a serious look at whether our enemies are exploiting vulnerabilities in our digitized systems.

Glenn wants to know what you think: Are these crashes coincidental, or are we under attack? Let us know in the poll below:

Could the recent ship crashes into American bridges be the result of cyber attacks by foreign adversaries?

Should the US government investigate these incidents for possible foreign interference?

Is our critical infrastructure adequately protected from cyber threats?

Are you concerned that foreign adversaries might be targeting US infrastructure through cyber means?

Do you think the media and government are properly addressing the security concerns raised by these incidents?

Glenn: Tapper reveals Dems’ Biden health fraud

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Top Democrats knew Biden’s health was deteriorating but covered it up to keep power. Jake Tapper’s book finally lifts the lid on their deception.

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new book confirms what we suspected all along: Joe Biden’s health was rapidly declining, and the Democratic Party establishment knew it. Rather than be honest with the American people, they chose to cover it up, to prop up Biden just long enough to survive the election cycle. And the media helped them do it.

For years, any mention of Biden’s cognitive decline was framed as a “right-wing smear,” a baseless conspiracy theory. But now, Tapper and Thompson reveal that Biden’s top aides privately discussed the need for a wheelchair after the election — because the man can hardly walk.

We had no functioning president for much of the past administration.

And while Biden’s closest aides were planning that, they and their allies in the press were publicly spinning the fantasy that Joe Biden’s halting gait was due to a heroic foot fracture from a dog-related incident four years ago. They said his frailty was due to his “vigor.” That’s not a joke. That’s a quote.

And while they said this, they were having special shoes made for him with custom-made soles to help him stand. They weren’t planning for a second term. They were planning how to prop him up — literally — just long enough to survive the election. That is a cover-up.

It doesn’t bother me that Biden might need a wheelchair. What bothers me — what should bother every American — is that his aides talked about hiding it until after the election.

Biden wasn’t leading

Needing a wheelchair in your 80s is not a moral failing. It’s human. I own President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair — it sits in my museum. That chair represents the strength and resilience of a man who, despite paralysis, led this nation through World War II against a dictator who was gassing the disabled and infirm. He hid his disability out of fear the public wouldn’t accept a leader who couldn’t walk. But he led.

Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

But Joe Biden wasn’t leading. He was a puppet played by faceless swamp creatures whose only concern was maintaining their iron grip on power.

Whatever you think of Tapper, the book reveals the chilling reality that we had no functioning president for much of Biden’s administration. Our commander-in-chief wasn’t just aging — he was declining. And the people around him — government employees, funded by your tax dollars — weren’t honest with you. They lied to you repeatedly and willfully because the truth would have guaranteed a second Trump term. That’s what this was all about.

Who signed the pardons?

Consider the implications of this revelation. We had a president signing documents he didn’t read — or even know about. We had an autopen affixing his name to executive actions. Who operated that autopen? Who decided what got signed or who got pardoned? Who was in charge while the president didn’t even know what he was doing?

Those are not minor questions. That is the stuff of a constitutional crisis.

The problem isn’t Biden’s age. The problem is that the people you elected didn’t run the country. You were governed by unelected aides covering up your elected president’s rapid cognitive decline. You were fed a lie — over and over again. And if anyone tried to blow the whistle, they got buried.

Don’t get distracted by the wheelchair. The chair itself is not the scandal. The scandal is that people inside your government didn’t want you to know about it.

They made a bet: Lie until November, and deal with the fallout later. That is an insult to the American people — and a threat to the republic itself. Because if your government can lie about who’s running the country, what else are they lying about?

We need further investigation and to hold these crooks accountable. If we don’t, it will happen over and over again.