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Conservapedia:Donald Trump achievements
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On January 3, 2017, cp:Donald Trump achievements[1] started out as an interesting article. It was like encyclopedia coverage of extra-terrestrial life: nobody has ever seen it, but pundits love to write about it. Trump had promised to achieve a lot on "his first day" and during his first 100 days in office, and the idea of an objective article that tracks whether Trump met his promises could be interesting to readers. The article quickly became politicized by User:1990'sguy, who originally created the article and who joined CP after editing Wikipedia. Anything mentioned on breitbart.com became an achievement, and any "failure" added by other users was reverted as premature. According to 1990'sguy, the fact that corporate earnings increased in the first half of 2017 is a Trump achievement and not the result of Obama's economic policy.
Rather than try to collaborate with other editors, 1990'sguy repeatedly ran to Andy's talk page. His standard for achieving agreement is:
If you still disagree with me, please go and convince the site's owner to agree with you.[1]
It has been a long time since an editor has argued "We are here to do what Andy would want" instead of "We are here to follow the Conservapedia commandments." The harder 1990'sguy labors to show that Donald Trump has had countless achievements, the more he makes a case that very little has been achieved.
Criteria for inclusion[edit]
Editors asked 1990'sguy to explain what criteria are to govern whether an item should be included in the article. The lack of tangible criteria led the article to reach absurd lengths. Every executive order, speech or memo was considered an "accomplishment" even though they might mark the start of an effort rather than its culmination. As President Trump squandered his honeymoon period and whatever political capital he gained from winning the 2016 election, the list of achievements took on a pathetic divergence from reality. Among the criteria advanced by 1990'sguy over time were:
I don't think we need any formal "criteria" for what to include here. We need to judge each action on a case-by-case basis. This article is not intended to include only achievements directly signed off by Trump, but rather any achievement made possible through him, his administration, and Congress. For example, while John Kelly or Scott Pruitt signing off on something is not Trump signing off on something, they are only able to do what they do because Trump nominated and the Senate confirmed them in the first place. "Interesting" federal actions can be used to illustrate the positive changes in the Trump Administration, at least as opposed to earlier administrations, in advancing conservative, common-sense ideals/policies. --1990'sguy (talk) 02:26, 19 June 2017 (EDT)
In other words, "I know an achievement when I see it, and it does not have to be directly Trump's achievement." His next formulation was:
[A]chievements are achievements regardless of what they cost, and even if a court blocks it. We can note that an achievement was blocked by a court (only /if the block was final -- court proceedings take a long time and are oftentimes in numerous courts)
When challenged by a second editor, he responded:
Achievements by the administration and of Congress are only possible because of the election of Donald Trump, and as you mentioned Trump's cabinet members, they hold their offices because of the U.S. Senate confirming them. Additionally, when Trump makes a decision, he is surrounded by many advisors who help him make a decision and draft executive orders, etc. Conservative legislation cannot be signed by Trump unless the House and Senate (most of the time, 60% of the latter) support it. The federal government is too intermingled for us to safely only include achievements personally made by Trump himself. His 2016 election is the only reason any of this is happening. Also, achievements are achievements regardless of whether it was Trump personally or another member of his administration that he appointed.
1990'sguy continue to press for sweeping breath, limited only by whether an action, in his opinion, advanced a conservative goal (as opposed to a national goal or benefit.):
I think we can all agree here that an achievement helps the nation and promotes conservative values (that's why I listed those proclamations -- unlike the others, those I listed explicitly promote conservative values. Also, I oppose listing the total amount of executive orders, etc., as opposed to listing some notable executive actions. Barack Obama made many executive actions -- did they do any good?). --1990'sguy (talk) 03:00, 25 June 2017 (EDT)
Opposition to Donald Trump[edit]
User:Conservative then sought to create cp:Opposition to Donald Trump to document who was opposing Trump Administration achievement and how they were doing it. Because the Opposition to Donald Trump article was a duplication of same-named section of the Donald Trump achievement article, User:JDano sought to summarize the section in the main article with a message, "For more detailed treatment see Opposition to Donald Trump." 1990'sguy would not stand for any trimming of his article, and an edit war ensued.
Legal expertise: notable court cases[edit]
Many of Donald Trump achievements can only be understood in a legal context, and User 1990'sguy's ability to understand and write accurately about legal issues has been repeatedly called into question. 1990'sguy created a section called "Notable court cases." According to 1990'sguy, having the Supreme Court deny a cert is an achievement, even though the Supreme Court denies most such petitions. In particular, the Third Circuit upheld a very narrow interpretation of the scope in which the Second Amendment nullified a law that prohibited people who are convicted of a crime punishable by more than 2 years from owning a gun (when the person was sentenced to less than 2 years). The Supreme Court denied cert and 1990'sguy declared this to be a major Trump Administration achievement. If the judicial system under Article III is supposed to operated independently of the President, how could any court decision be a "Trump achievement?"
Failures[edit]
User 1990'sguy originally proposed that the article would track failures and well as achievements. However, as significant achievements have failed to materialize (e.g., to adopt health care reform within the first 100 days), and as nominees have been dropped in light of opposition, one would expect a list of failures to appear. However, 1990'sguy avoids listing failures or deleting those posted by others on the grounds that it is premature and we need to wait until the issue is finally resolved.
Impact[edit]
By August 2017, the main Donald Trump achievements page had been accessed 143,611 times, and by 12 February 2018, the page had been viewed 344,317 times. Compared to most other pages, the article has been very popular. Several high-profile conservatives have taken notice of the article, including Bill Mitchell[2] and Roger Stone.[3] At the beginning of 24 July 2018, the page was viewed 460,996 times, and on 4 April 2019 it reached 627,280 views.