Here’s How Conservative Policy Wonks Grade Trump’s First Year

The Federalist discusses Trump’s first year in office with Myron Ebell.

Daniel Drezner recently argued in The Washington Post that praise from the Right for President Trump’s first year is getting overhyped because it’s coming primarily from culture warriors who don’t understand the intricacies of policy, not policy experts who know better.

Conservative policy wonks simply aren’t praising the president, he argues, referring to this supposed divide as the “one trick” that “explains” the trend of conservative praise for Trump. This is news to those of us familiar with some of those conservative wonks, many of whom report they are actually quite pleased with the Trump administration’s first year. We can’t help but think Drezner might have arrived at a different conclusion had he done a bit of research for his column.

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Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute: A 

Ebell, who headed Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, said Trump has done a “fantastic job” of fulfilling the numerous campaign promises he made on energy and the environment, though he expressed disappointment with the White House for leaving important political positions in the administration unfilled.

“It’s really quite stunning what he’s done,” Ebell said, pointing to United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, scrapping of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and the withdraw from the Waters of the U.S. rule. Ebell also pointed to measures to open up offshore oil and other natural resource production, which he said will make the United States a net oil and natural gas exporter.

Read the full article at The Federalist.