1600 Daily The White House • March 21, 2019 Video of the day: ISIS, then and now

The White House • March 21, 2019 Video of the day: ISIS, then and now Just over two years ago, ISIS was considered one of the gravest threats to the future of the Middle East—and to the peace and security of the larger free world. Its captured territory stretched across 20,000 square miles from Iraq to Syria. When President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office on January 20, 2017, it marked the beginning of the end for the self-declared caliphate. Now, ISIS has been obliterated off the map–literally. “This is ISIS on Election Day,” the President said as he held up a side-by-side comparison yesterday. “And this is ISIS now.” See for yourself: the ISIS caliphate two years ago vs. today President Trump stands up for free speech on campus “The past two weeks have been surreal,” Hayden Williams wrote earlier this month. “On Feb. 19, while recruiting conservative students on campus at the University of California-Berkeley, I was assaulted by a violent leftist. A little more than a week later, I got to shake hands with the president of the United States.” President Trump invited Williams onstage during the President’s speech at CPAC 2019 on March 3. “There’s so many conservative students across the country who are facing discrimination, harassment, and worse, if they dare to speak up on campus,” Williams said. This afternoon, President Trump signed an Executive Order to protect free speech at our colleges and universities. The order directs Federal agencies to ensure that public education institutions fulfill their obligations under the First Amendment—and that private schools comply with their stated institutional policies regarding free speech. The Department of Education will also improve transparency in American higher education by expanding the data available on its College Scorecard. These metrics will better organize data on program-level earnings, debt, and student loan repayment rates, helping families make better decisions about postsecondary education. Watch: American students and values have been “under siege" Wall Street Journal: “Trump to Issue Order Tying Federal Grants to Free Speech on Campus” By the numbers: The American dream is back When the White House unveiled the 2019 Economic Report of the President this week, there was no shortage of good news to share: The economy outperformed expectations for the second year in a row in 2018.   American GDP grew 3.1% from the 4th quarter of 2017 to the 4th quarter of 2018, the fastest such growth in 13 years.   The unemployment rate remained at or below 4 percent for the past 12 months, the longest such streak in nearly five decades.   More than 2.6 million jobs were created in 2018—and the number of job openings passed the number of unemployed workers for the first time on record. “In everything we do and every action we take, we’re putting America first, and we are putting American workers first, for the first time in a long time,” the President told factory workers yesterday in Lima, Ohio. See the full list – The Trump Economy’s banner year Watch: President Trump saves the last tank plant in America  Photo of the Day Official White House Photos by Tia Dufour President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence meet with guests in recognition of World Down Syndrome Day | March 21, 2019