Just catching up from the holidays and following up on Ramesh’s post on criticisms of his piece. I really don’t get how Trump critics think it is scoring a point against Trump to say that any Republican would have done the same things Trump has in the first year. If you are an orthodox conservative, this should be something to be celebrated and redound to Trump’s credit. If you are a populist supporter of Trump’s, you have more cause to be disappointed, especially given how Trump — besides the foolish pull-out from TPP — hasn’t yet done anything substantial to follow up on his campaign rhetoric on trade. (That will likely change in the year ahead.) For my part, Trump’s record so far is more orthodox than I expected, and I think it’s not something to be churlish about, but to gladly acknowledge and praise.