Trump Ski Run at Deer Valley

Above: Mwah (sic) skiing my favorite ski run at Deer Valley. 29 January 2025.

Skiing Trump ski run at Deer Valley is a welcome quotidian reminder of my ongoing satisfaction with Donald Trump's presidency.

Deer Valley's Trump ski run is an inconsequential green run, probably a quarter mile long deviating off of and back on to the more skied Ontario run, a long, green route from the top of Flagstaff Mountain to the base where Quincy, Red Cloud, Judge, and Viking lifts are located. There are some steep drop offs from Trump back to Ontario for the experts. I never take them. Full disclosure. Trump run is not named after President Donald Trump. Rather, it's the name of an old Park City mining claim. Click this link for more details on that: Names of Ski Trails in Park City, Utah. The fact that Trump run is named after a mining claim doesn't prevent me from using the name as a prop for my own predilections, though!

Above: Schematic, Trump; Ski Run (highlighted in green), Deer Valley, UT.

While there will surely be bumps down the road, to date, the good news emanating from DJT's presidency in the last three weeks is almost too much to process.

DOGE: A trillion dollars in cuts by 2026 is the goal, and they’re actually making progress. I never thought I would ever see progress like this. I would always say, "it will be for a new generation to pick up the pieces of a collapsed United States. Now, directionally, there is a wee light at the end of the tunnel on pairing government spending.

IMMIGRATION: Great progress in deporting 7500 baddies to date and gaining cooperation of countries from whence they came to facilitate their return. People rightly wonder how it will be possible to deport illegal immigrants who have succeeded integrating themselves into American life, by taking jobs, enrolling in schools etc. Here in Utah, pro-business interests whine that home building will decline by 20% if illegals are taken off construction projects and force repatriated. Why not institute formal guest worker program, three-year renewable, employer certified, biometric ID etc.? If Dubai and Abu Dhabi can do it, so can we. Resident illegals, subject to employer certification, need not be repatriated They can stay as authorized guest workers. No path to citizenship, though. Many illegals who can't find jobs under the guest worker program will self-repatriate. Stiff penalties should be put in place for employers who buck the system. Other immigration reforms should include elimination anchor baby path, open floodgates on H 1-B tech visas, elimination lottery, and auto green cards for US university tech PhD graduates.

TARIFFS: Look. If Hoover's Kevin Hassett, now DJT's Chairman of Economic Advisors, has no problem with tariffs, why should I? As I write this both Mexico and Canada have agreed to thirty-day negotiation periods in return for US suspension of the onerous reg of 25% tariffs which was to take effect tomorrow. By the way, Hassett hedges putative support for tariffs by green lighting tariffs as a negotiating tool. As tariff negotiations proceed, watch for nuanced progress in rebalancing trade agreements to be fairer and for our major economic partners to be more cooperative with US border concerns and need to restrict the free flow of illegal drugs. I doubt the result of DJT's tariff effort will result in the high tariffs now threatened.

FOREIGN POLICY: During DJT's first term, Rocket Man launched no rockets. Iran was quiet after terror mastermind Soleimani was taken out by a drone. Putin was quiet. People were talking about peace in the Middle East with the advent of the Abraham Accords. During four years of Trump: No new wars. Then Biden came in. Biden's foreign policy team were roundly, and embarrassingly, roughed up by Chinese diplomats in Alaska. A disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan signaled more incompetence from the top. As Americans watched a Chinese balloon sail over their territory with no explanation world players began to see the US as more a flaccid country in decline than a robust guarantor of world peace. Global stability during the Trump presidency was replaced by global chaos (Ukraine war, Israel/Hamas/Hezbullah conflicts, etc.) during the Biden era. Machiavelli gave advice to world leaders in his book, "The Prince." Machiavelli said it is better to be feared than loved. Trump's foreign policy success during his first term had a lot to do with his being feared by would be world bad actors. DJT's first forays into foreign policy since his second term election (Panama, Columbia, Venezuela) augur promise for resolving the bigger challenges (Ukraine, China, Iran) that he will soon have to face. NOTE: I suspect Trump is just trolling Trudeau when he suggests Canada should become US 51st state. Canada's weak, lazy, flaccid, woke and unproductive electorate, who put majority leftist California voters to shame, would vote MAGA out of office in a heartbeat. Keep the pressure on Canada. But keep Canada at arm's length. Too much risk of Canada polluting rebounding American culture.

I'm looking forward to my ongoing reminder of DJT's successes in my daily skiing down Trump ski run at Deer Valley. While bad stuff can always happen, skiing is much more fun when there is a strong, successful leader, who keeps his campaign promises, at the country's helm. Trump is outpacing me. I'll have to ski faster on Trump to keep up.

Note: All three of my unequivocal DJT presidential endorsements (2016, 2020, and 2024) are here: SDT Presidential Endorsement of DJT | Stephen DeWitt Taylor