President Donald Trump has 45th President of the United States for all of one week and he’s already pissed off the world, both within and outside the United States. Honestly, at this point, he may even be toying with United Nations sanctions. Yes, that bad.
Undemocratic, and authoritarian are some of the words being used to describe the American President as he has taken advantage of the power of executive orders to impose some of his controversial and downright unacceptable policies on his people.
Seven days into his first term, Mr. Trump has issued more than a dozen executive actions, which include a government-wide freeze on new and pending regulations, media gag, the reinstatement of a policy that gags health providers abroad and in America against discussing abortion as an option and a call for the construction of a physical wall along the U.S.-Mexico border which probably led to the worst blow for him this past week as the Mexican President, Nieto refused to give in to Trump bullying him into paying for a wall he didn’t ask for.
The four executive orders he has issued so far have legal backing and must be published in the Federal Register. Despite how outrageous all of these orders are, the worst so far was the one he signed on Friday that sought to temporarily ban immigration to the United States from seven Muslim countries that were not even involved in any of the worst terror attacks on the United States i.e the 9/11 bombing. He also indefinitely suspended the Syrian refugee program because according to him, their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
The action was challenged and the immigrants were allowed into the country. Meanwhile, their neighbouring country, Canada’s Prime Minister has continued to leverage on the bad will that Trump continues to garner himself. He has just promised that all those trying to flee from any sort of persecution are welcome in Canada. At a time when Trump is trying to close borders to everyone outside of America, Trudeau continues to push his #DiversityIsOurStrength campaign.
This is in addition to his pictures on Twitter welcoming Syrian refugee families personally at the airport. Trudeau was also the first Presidentto immediately assure his citizens trying to access the United States in the heat of the ban that all was fine:
Good call Trudeau!
Besides that, are some of the major actions that Mr Trump has taken so far:
Trump’s border wall
Mr. Trump signed an executive order at the Department of Homeland security on Wednesday that calls on the department’s secretary to “take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border.”
Mr Trump has been so sure and said as much, that Mexico would pay for the construction of the wall but the Mexican President, Enrique Pena Nieto was adamant about not dropping a dime for a wall he didn’t ask for. Even when Trump tried to strongarm him by giving an ultimatum based on their planned meeting, Nieto quickly pulled out of the meeting saying Mexico was not going to pay for the wall.
Even in the United States elite and academic circle, Trump’s wall is either never going to happen or will cost the country some $40 billion, which is many more billions more than Trump’s lightweight and untrue estimate which he still insists Mexico will refund. Philip Schrag, a law professor has said that “the challenges of building a physical wall in that terrain are going to mean that this is an extremely expensive project, requiring billions of dollars of appropriations over a period of years.”
Defunding “sanctuary cities”
Trump also exhibited his lack of understanding about many United States’ procedures this week. When he signed an executive order to allow the attorney general and homeland security secretary to make a determination whether certain cities, known as “sanctuary cities,” are not eligible for federal grants. That the order, according to the Wall Street Journal already is dead on arrival because there are so many U.S High Court precedents that will set it aside or at least limit its reach and states like New York have already vowed to challenge the order.
Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines
On Tuesday, The Donald signed memoranda that attempt to renew the process for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which was halted by Obama and the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline which poses health and water-related risks to so many people.
For the Keystone pipeline, the action invites TransCanada to “re-submit” an application for a presidential permit for the construction and operation of the pipeline that would carry petroleum from Canada into the U.S.
Reinstating the global gag rule on abortion
On Monday, Trump issued a memorandum that reinstates the Gag rule which retracts U.S funding from health organisations that support or even talk about abortion as an alternative to women whether in America or outside. You can read more about this here.
He directed his Secretary of State to ensure that “U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organisations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation.” Democrats have called the policy a “global gag rule” and have blasted the president for taking this action.
Withdrawing from Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
Mr. Trump directed the withdrawal of “the United States as a signatory to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He also permanently withdrew the United States from TPP negotiations, and to begin pursuing, wherever possible, bilateral trade negotiations to promote American industry, protect American workers, and raise American wages in furtherance of his America-first promise.
Government-wide freeze on regulations and media relations
White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus said in a memo last Friday that he was communicating a request from the president to the heads of all government agencies that no new regulations could be submitted to the Federal Register until the head of a department or agency, selected by Mr. Trump, can review and approve the regulation.
For this to properly work, he also instructed that the agencies must seize all communication with the press or via websites and blogs.
Misspelling the British Prime Minister’s name.
White House officials did a major goof when Theresa May visited the Oval last week. They misspelt her name as “Teresa May” instead of “Theresa”.
Expanding the military
Mr. Trump also signed another executive order on Friday that he said would result in “a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States. As we prepare our budget request for Congress,” he said, “… our military strength will be questioned by no one,” but neither will the nation’s commitment to peace.
“We will always have your back,” he vowed to an audience at the Pentagon. However, no one in the United States seems to care what Trump has to say because there have only been nation-wide protests against him on every single thing in and outside the United States.
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