What We Have Till Now: Trump’s First Days In Office

When Donald Trump said he was anxious to get to work in his new job, few people took him seriously. Even amongst those who voted for him, there was doubt how quickly he’d actually get to work on the items in his first 100 days agenda.

After all, we’re talking Washington, DC; nothing happens quickly there. The town is filled with a huge spring, called bureaucracy, which reverberates to its own inefficient frequency.

But Washington apparently doesn’t know how to deal with a businessman, only bureaucrats and politicians. So they weren’t ready on the afternoon of January 20th, when Trump returned from the inauguration and hit the ground running.

Before the day was out, he had signed four executive orders, which had been prepared by his transition team.

Things have continued hard and fast since then, with Trump making a start on his “Contract with America.” A few of the more noteworthy moves have been:

  • Pulling the United States out of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If you remember, that’s the trade deal that Obama’s administration negotiated in secret and expected Congress to vote on, without giving the members copies to read. If they wanted to read it, they had to do so in a secure room and return the copy they were reading when they got done.
  • Putting a stop to U.S. taxpayer funding of foreign abortions. This one has gone back and forth every time there’s a change of president. Democrats order funding of those abortions, and Republicans stop it every time they are in office. Well, Trump signed that one in quickly.
  • Signing an executive order on Obamacare. While President Trump didn’t repeal Obamacare, he did sign an executive order, directing the various departments of the executive branch to use as lenient an interpretation of the law as possible, when dealing with the American public. Specifically, this deals with the financial burden of Obamacare, or the individual mandate. Quite literally, it tells bureaucrats to decide in favor of the citizens, rather than in favor of the government.
  • Called for a renegotiation of North-american Free Trade Agrement (NAFTA). Like the TPP, NAFTA has cost American jobs. Since jobs are a major issue for the American people, Trump is responding. Unfortunately, for Mexico, that left their president looking bad and caused a dip in the value of the already struggling peso.
  • Ordered the building of the wall. This was a big campaign promise of Trump’s, and he’s lost no time in ordering it started. Relying on a law passed by Democrats in 2006, Trump has ordered that the wall be started post-haste. He’s also ordered the hiring of 5,000 more Border Patrol Agents.
  • Established a freeze on federal workforce hiring. This is part of Trump’s plan to reduce the federal workforce by 20% and discretionary spending by 10%.
  • Authorized the building of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota pipeline. Obama wavered on these all through his presidency, ultimately succumbing to the pressure of environmentalists. Trump, ever the businessman, authorized the continuation of these projects.
  • Rescinded Obama’s “catch and release” instructions to the Border Patrol, where illegal aliens, even illegal alien criminals, were released into society, with nothing more than a court date (that most didn’t bother to attend) and a work permit.
  • He’s also given the EPA a gag order, stopping posting of information and issuance of new regulations, until they can be reviewed. During Obama’s presidency, the EPA was used as a bludgeon against business, reaching the point where regulatory compliance with the EPA’s mandates, equals half of all regulatory compliance costs that businesses must bear.
  • Signing an executive order temporarily suspending all travel from seven Muslim controlled countries, which are the most known for supporting and exporting terrorists.

Video first seen on: Fox News.

As anyone can see, looking at this list, Trump is holding to a hard conservative line in his early actions. He’s actually doing what he said he’d do.

According to information from the transition team, there are about 200 executive orders and actions ready for Trump to sign. While we don’t know how quickly those will be rolled out, it’s clear that the transition team put an effort in getting things ready for the new president.

Liberals have already been screaming about Trump’s actions, as they don’t follow the liberal ideology. But they’re also screaming for another reason; trying to throw the high number of executive orders in Republican’s faces, citing how those of us on the right complained about Obama’s executive orders.

A Difference We Should Be Aware Of

But most of these actions don’t really qualify as executive orders. In the first week, only four of them did. The rest are what are known as “Executive Memorandum.” The difference between those and executive orders may seem small, but it is significant. Calling them executive orders is misleading, even though Trump himself is making that mistake.

An executive order does something new, carrying with it the weight of law. As such, they are numbered and entered into the federal registry, just like any other law. But executive memorandum aren’t treated in the same way. While they may ultimately carry as much weight as a law does, they aren’t a law.

What they are is guidance to the various departments of the federal government, directing them in how to apply specific laws that are on the books.

In fact, President Obama actually issued fewer executive orders than many of his predecessors, preferring to use executive memorandum instead. But in his case, it was so that Congress would have a hard time finding his orders.

Since executive memorandum aren’t numbered, they are easily “lost” in the halls of power, so that when members of Congress ask for a copy, it’s hard to provide it to them.

While just about everything that Trump is doing has the liberals up in arms, the supposed “Muslim Ban” seems to top the list. According to the liberal narrative, Trump is discriminating against Muslims based upon their religion. But to take that stand, they have to purposely misunderstand the order that Trump signed.

Trump’s order isn’t based on the individual’s religion, but in fact bans travel to the United States by all people who are citizens of those seven countries. While the countries in question are Muslim controlled, with a majority Muslim population, they are not the only such countries around.

There are many other countries that he did not ban travel from, which are also Muslim controlled, with a majority Muslim population. But those countries are not known for exporting terrorism. The seven countries on the list were actually picked by Obama’s Administration, as they were the ones who created the list of the seven countries which exported the most terrorism. So, in a sense, all Trump was doing was something that Obama wouldn’t.

Nor is this the first time that such a ban has been put in place. Obama himself did a six month ban on travel from Syria during his first term in office. However, nobody was demonstrating against it or even talking about it, because Obama was the liberal media’s poster boy. They wouldn’t dream of saying anything so negative about him.

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Changes in the White House

Trump hasn’t just been changing things in the law, through executive orders and executive memorandum, he’s also made some serious changes in the organization and operation of the White House.

Even before taking the oath of office, he changed the name of the Office of the First Lady to the “Office of the First Family,” demonstrating that his family, especially his daughter Ivanka, will have a part to play in his administration.

That’s not too surprising, considering that they have all worked as his executives in Trump Tower. But it’s disconcerting to those on the left nevertheless. They’re responding strongly to that, citing laws about nepotism and conflict of interest. But those laws don’t actually apply, as none of his family members are filling cabinet posts.

Then there’s the décor of the White House. Yes, Trump has had something to say about that as well, telling the staff to remove all Muslim signs and symbols, even from the chapel. This country was founded as a Christian country.

But the biggest change in the White House has been in the Press Briefing Room. We’ve all watched Trump’s ongoing war with the press with some humor. The mainstream media acted as shills for Hillary Clinton during the campaign, and Trump’s not likely to forget.

Worse than that, the mainstream media is still acting as Clinton’s shills, even though it’s clear that she lost and Trump is now the president. Like the rest of the liberals in the country, they can’t seem to accept the idea that their candidate could possibly have lost. So they’re doing everything in their power to make Trump look bad.

That’s not all that surprising, as the liberal press does that with every Republican president, while working to hide the mistakes of the Democrats. Nowhere was this clearer than during Obama’s presidency and Hillary’s candidacy. In both cases, they held back information that the American people had every right to know.

The war between Trump and the media is far from over. The day after the inauguration, he was taking shots at them for their misrepresentation of the crowd at his inauguration ceremony. While that might seem petty, it demonstrates how low the liberal press is willing to go. Trump won’t put up with it.

So, Trump’s staff started out with the idea of moving the press to the Old Executive Office Building, so that they could give them a bigger room. But that idea didn’t go over too well with the press. They saw it as Trump pushing them away, something that would be understandable, if not necessarily wise.

So the press are in the same little briefing room they’ve been in for years. The difference is, there’s a whole lot more of them who are receiving credentials from the White House. Now it isn’t just the mainstream media, but many conservative news sites who are receiving their credentials.

That’s making that little briefing room seem tiny; and it’s going to get worse. It’s also giving Trump’s Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, a chance to rub the mainstream media’s nose in the dirt. Rather than following longstanding tradition and allowing the AP wire service and the major networks to ask the questions, Spicer is calling on conservative news outlets.

The leftist media has managed to control the narrative in Washington, simply by the questions that they ask. Even if the briefing was about one subject, they’d turn the question period to what they wanted. But now, the people who are asking the questions aren’t asking what the liberals want to know, but what conservatives care about. That means that the narrative is being controlled by conservatives, rather than liberals.

Where Will Trump Go From Here?

There’s really no way of knowing for sure exactly what Donald Trump is going to do as president; but I think we can draw a few early conclusions. First of all, we have to take into account the fact that he put forth the most conservative platform that the Republican Party has floated in 20 years.

That’s a bit surprising, coming from a man who was a Democrat most of his adult life. But it’s not, if you consider how he ran his campaign. He wasn’t following any real political ideology, right or left, per se; but rather, asking what the American people, all those millions of people in flyover country, cared about. Those are the issues that he campaigned on and those are the issues that he has covered in his Contract with America.

It looks like Trump wants to be the president for the working man and woman. Those are the people who voted him into office, and those are the people he’s committed to serve. He’s willing to be the president for all Americans, but those who voted for him come first.

Some of those who voted for him are a bit surprising. Trump is the first Republican President in I don’t know how long who earned the support of labor unions. That’s a biggie, because the labor unions have traditionally backed and funded Democrats.

But when it all comes down to it, Trump is trying to create jobs, while the Democrats are trying to create a socialist utopia. For the unions, jobs are more important.

While it’s too soon to tell for sure, based on some of the things he’s said in the last week, it appears that Trump understands where the limits of his authority are and wants to work together with Congress on the rest.

That will be a nice change. Obama’s idea of working with Congress was to give them orders and expect them to carry them out. There were countless times when he said that Congress wasn’t doing their job, adding that if they didn’t, he would do it by executive order. But in each of those cases, it was clear that he thought that Congress doing anything but his will, wasn’t doing their jobs.

And Finally, the Democrats

The Democrat Party now finds itself with the shoe on the other foot. Their populist president has finished out his term, trying to rule by the force of his own personality and will, lying to the American people constantly and using a bludgeon on the collective heads of Congress.

Obama started out with control of both Houses of Congress and now Trump has that. But in the eight years of Obama’s presidency, the Democrats lost more and more power, until they lost control of both houses. They still acted like they had control, but they didn’t have the numbers. They had to rely on the president’s pen to thwart the Republicans’ will.

The question to be seen is how they Trump uses that same advantage and whether he’ll be able to keep it. A lot is hanging in the balance.

Sixty-eight Congressmen and Congresswomen boycotted Trump’s inauguration, with many stating that they didn’t consider his presidency legitimate. Of course, they wouldn’t think any Republican presidency legitimate, but in the process, they’ve shown their true colors, picking partisanship over patriotism.

That “boycott” sent a loud and clear message to Trump, the Republicans in Congress and the American people. It went something like this: “If we can’t have our way, then we’ll take out bat and ball and go home.” Sigh; it’s sad to see supposed adults acting so childish.

But this is the stance that the Democrats have decided to take for the next four to eight years. If they can’t have their way, they’ll just have a collective temper-tantrum. We can expect more of the same, expressed in a myriad of ways, as liberals and other Democrats continue to “demonstrate” against the duly elected president.

Apparently, those on the left feel that Trump is a threat to their freedom. Yet he hasn’t said one single word about taking away women’s rights, taking away LGBT rights or any of their other hot buttons.

The closest you can say that he came to that, was to say he was going to keep potential terrorists and criminals out of the country. I guess they think that’s stealing their rights.

Actually, the reason for the collective outrage of the left is quite simple; they’re listening to the lies of the mainstream media. The “fake news” machine is out in force, and it’s aimed its cannon on a target called Trump. They’re going to blast him with every malicious epitaph they can, and their blind sheeple and going to believe it.

We can expect more of the same, eight more years of the same. So stock up on pampers and pacifiers, we’ve got a lot of crybabies to take care of.

Written by

Bill White is the author of Conquering the Coming Collapse, and a former Army officer, manufacturing engineer and business manager. More recently, he left the business world to work as a cross-cultural missionary on the Mexico border. Bill has been a survivalist since the 1970s, when the nation was in the latter days of the Cold War. He had determined to head into the Colorado Rockies, should Washington ever decide to push the button. While those days have passed, the knowledge Bill gained during that time hasn’t. He now works to educate others on the risks that exist in our society and how to prepare to meet them. You can send Bill a message at editor [at] survivopedia.com.

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