Trump’s Quiet Progress on Veterans Affairs – Bloomberg – Bloomberg

Moving in the right direction.

For all the tweeting he does about repealing Obamacare, defeating Islamic State and building a wall along the Mexican border, President Donald Trump has precious little progress to show. By contrast, he has probably achieved the most in an area he mentions rarely: reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This special edition of the Trump Twitter Filter (whats that? see here) steps back to take a look at the presidents activity since he took office in January -- to which campaign promises he has paid the most attention, and how much ofthat attention reflects movement toward the goals he set out (for further explanation, see footnote ).

Despite the distractions of a developing investigation into his administrations contacts with Russia, Trump hasnt lost sight of the platform on which he was elected. Since Monday, Jan. 23 (his first full weekday in office), about 40 percent of all his tweets have mentioned one or more of the items on his campaign agenda. Heres a chart showing the weekly percentage:

Source: Trump Twitter Archive, author's calculations

In terms of the sheer number of mentions, three topics stand out: defense, immigration and health care -- a reflection of the presidents preoccupation with terrorism, his efforts to impose a travel ban from certain Muslim-majority countries and the protracted wrangling in Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare. He tweeted about defense-related topics 98 times, immigration 92 times and health care 88 times. Heres a chart:

Source: Trump Twitter Archive, author's calculations

Most of that tweeting, though, has had little to do with actual movement toward Trumps stated goals. Its hard to say whether his actions, on net, have helped or hindered the fight against Islamic State. The travel ban is incomplete and the wall remains a promise. Republicans havent been able to agree on a viable replacement for Obamacare.

That said, in one area, Veterans Affairs, there actually has been progress. Since the Senate approved his appointment unanimously in February, Secretary David Shulkin has sought to improve accountability at hospitals by publicly posting wait times and care-quality data, and has extended much-needed mental health services to veterans with less-than-honorable discharges. Even Congress has made a contribution, passing a bill to streamline the agencys hiring and firing processes -- legislation that Trump signed and tweeted about three times.

As a result, most of the presidents 10 tweets on Veterans Affairs reflected movement toward his goal of reforming the agency. Specifically, they garnered a total of 7.5 movement points, for an effectiveness ratio of 75 percent. Heres how that compares with other agenda items:

Source: Trump Twitter Archive, author's calculations

Although taking better care of veterans is far from the biggest item on Trumps agenda, its certainly a goal that mostAmericans would support. Its also a rare area in which the presidents penchant for taking credit appears to be more or lessin line with his achievements.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Mark Whitehouse at mwhitehouse1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net

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Trump's Quiet Progress on Veterans Affairs - Bloomberg - Bloomberg