Ramesh Ponnuru, Columnist

Maybe Trump Is Just a Weak President

He hasn't signed major legislation. He waffles. And he hasn't set clear lines of authority.

Slow start.

Photographer: Pool/Getty Images
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By this point in his presidency, George W. Bush had announced the outline of a tax plan that, with modifications, he would sign into law a few months later. Barack Obama had signed the stimulus, a bill to expand the children’s health-care program, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

President Donald Trump is having a slower start. He has not signed major legislation yet. The White House has not put out a legislative plan on three of Trump’s main campaign issues: health care, infrastructure and tax reform. He has been slower in filling government positions than his predecessors, too. And the president’s highest-profile executive orders, on immigration, have been stayed by federal courts.