The Trump 47 administration’s top achievements underscore a long list of unheralded successes
I’ve cautioned readers repeatedly about using X as a standalone source of news for political and current events. A lot of what you read is flat-out wrong. For instance, I texted Kari Lake yesterday excited that I had read a post on X suggesting she was in the running to take over as the next White House Press Secretary:
“Report: Kari Lake, Scott Jennings and Spencer Pratt are possible contenders who could replace White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Via: The New York Post” — The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1), August 13, 2026
Her response: “Not that I know of.”
So much for that. Anyway, once we graduate to the half-truths of X, content producers usually have some sort of agenda. Then, since attacking President Trump from the left failed for so many years, the new way of doing business is to attack from the right.
He’s betraying all his promises!
In most cases, this is empty fluff. Some points need a little bit longer to make heads or tails of, like the conflict involving Iran, but so far we don’t have a boots on the ground problem (although I guarantee you we have plenty of special operators on the ground). Beneath all the online clamor and drama, many things are getting done that are consistent with the President’s agenda. A great example ran yesterday on Breibart:
“Feds: Human Smuggling Profits Drop Significantly As Trump Drastically Cuts Illegal Immigration”
This, of course, is directly tied to President Trump’s pledge to secure the southern border. From the article:
“Again this month, the results are clear: President Trump’s border security agenda is restoring order and putting the safety of the American people first,” Mullin said. “DHS remains focused on enforcing our immigration laws, securing the border, and ensuring those who enter our country illegally are removed swiftly.”
In July, fewer than 10,000 illegal aliens were apprehended crossing the southern border. Daily apprehensions, DHS officials said, are down 94 percent compared to the Biden administration.
“Thanks to the strong leadership of President Trump, we have the most secure border in history,” Mullin said.
Stuff like this – real, tangible progress – is why I get so pissed off listening to all the whining from people who are either paid to sow discord or simply wish Trump were a legitimate strongman dictator. I remember 24 months ago, as I was busy polishing up my forecasts, how our country just simply couldn’t survive another four years of open borders. Now, the damn border has been sealed shut since just about 12:01 Eastern Standard Time, January 20, 2025.
President Trump can’t force the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act. We can’t get around the courts that keep spiking executive orders (including many on elections, too), but if birthright citizenship would have gotten past Amy Coney Barrett, we’d be building Trump statues in every city for saving us from demographic doom. However, if you mute and block all the right accounts and hunt the gold, anyone with common sense should see the administration is making important progress and fulfilling far more promises than they are being prevented from doing. Here are three of my favorites beyond the progress on the southern border:
I. Blue Collar Boom
In a development of significant electoral consequence given the weight of the Midwest in today’s elections, the Secretary of the Treasury (in 2025) noted the largest blue collar wage growth in almost 60 years, attributable to the aforementioned crackdown on illegal immigration and cheap labor, plus the America First approach to revitalizing manufacturing:
“Thanks to [Trump’s] pro-growth, America First policies, real wages for hourly workers are up nearly 2% in the first five months of [his] second term — the strongest growth in 60 years,” Bessent posted to X. “No president has done that before — except President Trump in his first term. Hardworking Americans and Main Street businesses have never had a stronger ally in the White House.”
In this year’s update, blue collar wages continue to climb, but have lagged a bit relative to inflation. Still, this is a fulfillment of Trump’s longstanding campaign promises to prioritize the “forgotten man and woman” and goes hand in hand with the administration’s successes in directing major investment into the United States. Success in this realm sets up Trump’s successors for political viability in the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
II. Recruitment Points to Reemergence of Respected Power
The Trump agenda on military and foreign policy walks a fine line. Listening to the howling of some of the Trump base every time a raft is blown out of the ocean gets a little exhausting, given that Trump has said thousands of times over the years that he would build (rebuild) the strongest military the world has ever seen. At the same time, more Republicans than ever are weary of prolonged conflicts that simply cannot be won.
Military readiness, no matter the opinion on how aggressively it should be exercised, is an important indicator of a modern-day superpower’s overall health – like a blood pressure reading or reliably good stress levels. When I was leaving the Army in 2013-14, I was getting a whiff of the DEI policies that eventually snared the services under the Biden administration. We were focused on everything but being prepared to fight and win.
A recent report impressively lays out how all five military branches have hit and exceeded their Fiscal Year 2026 recruiting goals – and did so a full two months before the close of the Fiscal Year. Media try to make it about fewer opportunities on the outside, but anyone who has served and undertaken the risk associated with military service understands getting someone on a bus to basic training is no easy task. From The Military Times:
Pentagon officials told Military Times that collectively, the five services had already achieved 103% of their combined active-duty recruiting mission, with the Army and Air Force in particular reaching their targets months ahead of the fiscal year’s close.
This follows a genuinely strong fiscal 2025, when each branch met or exceeded its goal for the first time in years, a result widely described at the time as the strongest recruiting performance in roughly 15 years. Fiscal 2026 is shaping up to extend that streak rather than reverse it.
Young people lining up to serve again suggests a return of pride in country and, perhaps more importantly, the emergence of a MAHA mindset…
III. Quiet MAHA Successes
You’ve heard it over and over again, I’m sure – “Trump and RFK are betraying the MAHA base!”
The truth is, many in the MAHA base don’t have a Republican/conservative bone in their bodies, so any deviation whatsoever from the greenest of health experts’ opinions counts as Benedict Arnold-level betrayal. A decade ago, one of the biggest barriers for military recruitment was the fact that so many young Americans were (and in some places, still are) too damn fat to even be within a range of potentially being considered for future military service. These negative health outcomes are often attributable to the cheap, crappy food on shelves everywhere in the United States, especially in areas with lower income levels and less financial ability to buy healthy foods like meats and fresh produce.
Above, you can see a snippet of the World Health Organization (which Trump withdrew the United States’ membership to in another win) whining about the President’s move to reduce U.S. childhood vaccine schedules down to just 11 shots. A number of states, including a few red ones, are fainting on their couches over the rejection of “the science,” even though the godfather of the science, Anthony Fauci, just got busted for making up social distancing and concealing the fact that the COVID-19 shots have a high correlation to the rate of miscarriages in otherwise healthy women.
In addition to this most recent move, Trump 47 has moved to reform prescription drug pricing, has expanded IVF access, and has given HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose coalition enhanced Trump’s chances of victory, meaningful runway to serve as a vocal champion up against the giants of big food and big pharma. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Americans’ penchant for bad eating and popping pills won’t go away in a day, either.
Conclusion
Yes, we want all of the grandest policy proposals to come true without any resistance. We want the courts to stop legislating from the bench, and I want Mexico to show up with a giant check for the border wall. I also wish that there existed a world in which Mullahs could be trusted to abide by agreements and we would never need to use that most powerful military in the world, but I also remember five decades’ worth of Presidents who kicked the Iranian can down the road and only let it metastasize.
These achievements are just a few of many great things that have happened in less than two years that are being buried underneath mountains of doom and seas of negativity online. It is absolutely essential that readers take a step back, consider obstacles in the way of every goal, and view success through a long-term lens rather than rapid-fire sound bites or keystrokes from influencers who get ahead by misleading audiences.
For an exhaustive list of incredible Trump 47 accomplishments, check out this X post from the outstanding Jeff Childers:
“Fine. I made the list. It’s still growing. Trump 2.0 Accomplishments (as of mid-July 2026): Negative net migration for the first time in 50 years; 2.6 million+ illegal aliens removed (including 650,000 arrests and 400,000 convicted criminals) + 2 million self-deportations…” — Coffee & Covid News (@jchilders98), July 15, 2026
Seth Keshel, MBA is a Senior Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy and a retired Army Captain. He publishes Captain K’s Corner on Substack.
