With thanks to Little Feat, one of my all-time favorite bands, I think it's time to reconsider the legacy of President Donald Trump as we move into the beginning of the midterm elections in the United States.
With all of the pompous and, at times, ignorant rants across his social media platforms, Trump has continued to build a very large wedge between people in America. On one side of the spectrum, there are those who hate him, and on the other, there are those who revere him. Being the polarizing figure that he is, it leaves little to no room for a middle ground.
I'm here to say that a middle ground does exist, and I land squarely in it.
However, just to be clear, I didn't vote for Trump. I also did not vote for Kamala Harris. I realize that to some, that may seem like a cop-out, but my reason was more about my own protests against both candidates.
VP Harris was what I consider to be a "no-show." She had no impact whatsoever as Vice President, and when she was actually required to do something assigned to her, she made little to no attempt to really perform her role. On a similar note, I believe that she was a weak contender to run against the grandiosity of Donald Trump.
Yet at the same time, I refused to vote for him because I found him deeply disingenuous and couldn't look past his unsettling moral character. This is perhaps a naive perspective, considering "good men" rarely make great presidents, with figures like Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush serving as prime examples.
In any case, I'm pleased that Donald Trump was reelected, especially as he has honored several of his campaign pledges. He addressed the issues head-on that were left behind by the previous administration's poor policy choices. The decisions he has made in the past 18 months will have a lasting impact on the country and the Republican Party.
President Trump, with our Israeli allies, made the hard decision to confront the terror regime proliferating in Iran. The idea was simple: force a regime change, shut down the Iranian nuclear capabilities, and hopefully, stop the devastating treatment of their own people.
No one can argue that trying to help the Iranian people evade the tormenting rules they were under wasn't a noble idea. Destroying Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons was indeed far more strategic and probably just as important.
It all went according to the plan, until it didn't. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due. The IRGC has maintained its control over 80 million people efficiently, and as a bonus, the Iranians have been able to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, thereby crippling global energy trade in the short term.
I believe the administration failed on two very large fronts. The most important failure to me seems to be the fact that the administration lacked an actual endgame. Where did they think that all the bombing would go? How would this actually end? Yes, they stated that they were looking for a country to pick a democratically elected leader and build something akin to a constitutional republic. But they never really said how that was going to be achieved.
The second front is almost as glaring. The administration drastically underestimated the regime's capacity to mount a coordinated counteroffensive. Drones began hitting across the Middle East, and suddenly, we realized that the Iranians had stockpiled an incredible amount of ordnance. That was an intelligence failure of staggering proportions. Misjudging an enemy combatant can be a very expensive mistake, just ask Vladimir Putin.
But I don't think all is lost.
Presently, the results of this war are far from clear. Still, as we look back, I do believe that change is in the air in Iran. This isn't going to be Libya. Iranians are some of the most educated people on the planet, and eventually, there will be a regime shift. That is why I think that at some point in the future, historians may look back on Donald Trump as the instigator of that change and have a different opinion of him from the one that prevails today.
Criticize his personality all you want, but one cannot deny his results. Success is never pretty; history proves that it is never pretty. But in the long run, the world forgets the chaos and remembers the victories. That, I believe, is the legacy that President Donald Trump might just leave behind.
About the Author:
Peter Costa is a former New York Stock Exchange governor, the retired president of Empire Executions, and head of the Costa Family Office. He has previously worked with CNBC as a market analyst who regularly offers commentary on market volatility for CNBC, CNN, and BNN. With more than 30 years in finance, he started as an NYSE clerk and later held senior trading roles at Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and other firms. He also supports philanthropy and speaks at industry events, while sharing his insights on his Subtack platform.
