It’s Only Been Three Days and Donald Trump is Getting Away With too Much
It’s only been three days since he officially took office, but Donald Trump is signing executive orders like a hamster runs on a wheel. In addition, he used “alternative facts” and media blackouts to censor what was released to the public, violating the First Amendment of the country’s Constitution. He began his presidency by people protesting against all that he has said, and as of today, there have been protests in Washington, D.C. every single day, including the big Women’s March on Saturday. However, the choice of the people has not been what the new president has done, for he has repeatedly ignored the people’s will when signing twelve executive orders over three days.
His first day, Monday the 23rd of January, saw him signing quite a few executive orders that reversed all the hard work that former President Obama had done to give more Americans affordable healthcare. First, he signed a document that allowed the agencies who had the authority to take away elements of the Affordable Act, his first step in repealing the historic step towards making American healthcare accessible to the masses. Next, he ordered a regulation freeze, meaning all new regulations that President Obama put forth in his final day in office cannot go forward until they are reviewed by the new administration. After that, surrounded by men, he declared that no federal dollars can go towards funding abortion for women in developing countries. He also withdrew from Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and ordered a federal hiring freeze, meaning that no new federal employees can be hired.
On his second day, Donald Trump continued signing executive orders aimed at fulfilling his agenda, rather than what the public would like. The first thing he did, angering many human rights advocates as well as activists and Native American rights groups was to speed approval of permits to continue the Dakota Access Pipeline. This was disheartening because it took months of protests that turned violent at times in order to get President Obama to deny an easement to continue the pipeline. In addition, he allowed TransCanada, the company in charge of the Keystone XL Pipeline, to resubmit its permit application for continuing that pipeline. Next, he speeded up the deadlines and environmental approval for infrastructure projects. He also ordered that pipelines being worked on in the country be repaired or built with domestic materials as much as possible. In addition, he ordered a sixty-day review period to find ways to make manufacturing projects easier to proceed with.
On the same day, the president ordered a media blackout of the Environmental Protection Agency, which meant that the EPA had no contact with the public through blogs, social media sites, and other means. This also ensured that the president could only release to the public what he wanted to be released in terms of the environment, which is dangerous considering what an imperative issue the environment is.
Today, Donald Trump approved two executive orders- both relating to immigration. First, he signed a deportation and sanctuary cities executive order. This had four parts, the first of which was to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants. Furthermore, it would hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers and allow any law enforcement officer to act as an immigration officer. In addition, it would stop federal funding of so-called “sanctuary cities,” which are cities that do not enforce federal immigration laws. On top of that, Trump signed a second order which ordered a construction of a border wall with Mexico immediately.
In conclusion, it has only been three days, yet Donald Trump has done much to further his agenda. In turn, he has endangered many groups of people, and it has been reported that he is drafting yet another executive order to ban refugees from entering the country, which he plans on signing tomorrow. It has been hard for many minorities to accept that this is their new reality, and that are in danger in a country where they thought they would always be safe. The next four years are going to be long, hard, and eventful, but if Americans stick together, perhaps it won’t be so bad.
Works Cited:
Associated Press. "Trump Administration Orders Media Blackout at EPA." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 24 Jan. 2017. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
Desjardins, Lisa. "The 10 Executive Actions Trump Has Signed (so Far)." PBS. PBS, 24 Jan. 2017. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
Liptak, Kevin. "Trump Eyes Temporary Ban on Refugees." CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
(I also used the WhiteHouse.Gov pages on the executive orders that were released.)
