President Trump’s Productive First Week In The Oval Office
In October 2016 Trump unveiled his “Contract with the American Voter,” which details his plan of action for his first 100 days in office. Now that he has been sworn in on Inauguration Day- January 20, 2017, America will wait and see if President Trump will follow through on his promises. Anyone who has been following Trump’s moves closely will know that our new president has had a productive first week in the Oval Office.
On his very first day, just hours following the Inauguration, Trump issued an executive order aimed at “rolling back Obamacare,” which was meant to “interpret regulations as loosely as possible to minimize the financial burden on individuals, insurers, health care providers and others,” according to CNN. President Trump also put a freeze on all pending regulations, which means that any recently signed regulations by former President Barack Obama are on hold until reviewed by Trump’s administration.
On Saturday, much of the nation banded together for the Women’s March, which was based on a platform of “fundamental human rights.” But the following morning Trump at first criticized the protests tweeting, “Why didn’t these people vote?” and two hours later followed up with a tweet of a different tone: “Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don’t always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views.”
As Monday rolled around, President Trump launched into action announcing on Twitter a “busy week planned with heavy focus on jobs and national security.” He subsequently signed three presidential memoranda: The first was a reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, which essentially states that federal funds cannot go towards organizations that provide abortion services; the second order withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement; and the third order instituted a freeze on all new federal hiring, with the exception of the U.S. military.
On Tuesday, much to the dismay of activists, Trump signed some presidential memorandum that ordered permitted expedited approval to continue construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone Oil Pipeline. He then ordered a plan to ensure that all U.S. pipelines that are being built or repaired need to be done so with American-made steel or other materials. President Trump also ordered faster deadlines and reviews for all priority infrastructure and ordered a “60-day review of regulations for American manufacturers, with the aim of finding ways to speed up permitting and all federal processes for them,” according to PBS.
As promised, Trump’s agenda for Wednesday focused on national security and immigration. The new president signed an executive order that withholds federal funding to sanctuary cities. This, in addition to the hiring of 10,000 additional immigration officers, will likely increase deportation efforts, which will primarily affect those undocumented immigrants who are convicted of crimes, abusing welfare programs, or misrepresenting themselves to the government. But perhaps one of the biggest promises President Trump has already begun to follow through on was the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, for which he signed an executive order on Wednesday. The order calls for planning and funding to begin immediate construction and will also hire 5,000 border patrol agents. He has since declared Mexico at fault for a major trade deficit and a “weak border,” and expressed his demand that Mexico pay for the proposed border wall.
We’ve seen a number of executive orders and presidential memoranda have crossed President Trump’s desk throughout his first week, but that doesn’t mean Trump was too busy to continue to use his favorite social media platform. On Wednesday, Trump announced via Twitter his plan to elect a new Supreme Court Justice by the following week. He also asked for an investigation into voter fraud, due to his suspicions that the voting system is flawed after losing the popular vote on Election Day.
In the midst of all this, President Trump issued a gag order that prohibited government agencies to use social media, after the National Parks Service retweeted the infamous photos that compare Trump’s inauguration crowd to Obama’s in 2009. The National Parks Service claims that its account had been compromised, but the order inspired other National Parks to tweet messages about global climate change and other issues, which was interpreted as a stand against President Trump. Based on the rather productive week that President Trump has had, we can see that he wasn’t kidding about a lot of his proposed plans as president and his supporters and detractors are anxiously waiting to see if he can pull off his new gig.
