Trump’s legacy nearly complete

No matter what else transpires during president Trump's remaining term, short of WWIII, his job is almost done. Trump needed only to defeat Hillary Clinton – frustrating the progressive state – and now to nominate and secure U.S. Senate consent for a conservative U.S. Supreme Court justice – filling the vacancy occasioned by the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia – to all but lock down his legacy.

The U.S. Senate confirmation, via simple majority rule, of Trump's pick of Neil Gorsuch is a penultimate triumph setting the stage for Trump's capstone. Nominating conservatives to fill more than 100 open judgeships in federal trial and appellate courts is as compelling as SCOTUS picks. Economic growth, jobs, Obamacare repeal, tax cuts, immigration enforcement, and defeating ISIS, while vital, for sure, are still only icing on the cake. In our nation's crippling litigious climate, where sympathetic jurists now side predominantly with progressive liberal agendas, remaking the federal judiciary is a prerequisite to implementing a sweeping dismantling of the regulatory state and achieving both legislative and executive victories that will stick and endure. There were many noble, pragmatic, and even impetuous reasons to vote for Donald Trump. At the same time, many Donald Trump voters had to overlook their unease with, if not outright disapprobation for, Donald Trump's personal style while pulling the lever. Whatever the Trump voters' motivations and nagging doubts, Donald Trump closed off any anxiety about keeping his end of the most important part of the bargain. And make no mistake: the Republican Senate did its part, despite many of its members' personal feuds with and distaste for the president.