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The first week of Trump-47: Chaos, confusion, and consternation [1]

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Date: 2025-01-25

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump basically promised to totally upend not only the government he was elected to lead, but to throw the entire society into turmoil, and to roil the rest of the world as well. His enablers and excusers tried to paint his campaign rhetoric as just that, rhetoric that really shouldn’t be taken seriously. It was, they said, just Donald being Donald.

We’re near the end of his first full week in office and I have one word for the people who tried to sell the fiction that he wouldn’t really be as bad as he promised to be—bullcrap!

Beginning on day one, Trump has issued a blizzard of executive orders on a wide range of topics, some of which have garnered a lot of headlines and hand wringing, and some that have flown under the radar, but all that should keep each and every one of us—including those who voted for him—awake at night.

There’s hardly an aspect of life, present and future, that he hasn’t threatened to throw into turmoil as he’s sat behind the Resolute Desk, scrawling his overly ornate signature on executive order after executive order, with no apparent regard to who will be negatively impacted, including s lot of his supporters and loyal followers. Added to this are the decisions he’s made that could quite literally put people’s lives at risk.

Shredding the Constitution

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution begins with the words, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. It ends with ‘”The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the President shall have the power to alter or amend the provisions of this Amendment, yet, among the first batch of executive orders was one denying automatic citizenship to any child whose parents are in the country illegally beginning in February. That order has been immediately challenged in the courts by 22 state attorneys general and a number of immigrants groups, and on January 23, a federal judge temporarily blocked the order, calling it ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’ Should this policy be implemented, not only would it overturn the constitutional amendment, but it would create a large population of stateless children, who now constitute approximately seven percent of U.S. children, and further exacerbate an already chaotic and muddled immigration system.

Trump’s draconian immigration measures, such as his vow to conduct mass deportations has also struck at constitutionally guaranteed due process and resulted in incidents like the rounding up of US citizens and even a US military veteran in a raid on a business establishment in Newark, New Jersey, during warrantless search by ICE agents. ICE raids have taken place in New York, Colorado, and Minnesota, and Trump has authorized them to be done in schools, churches, and hospitals, places that have traditionally been off limits to such actions. Trump’s Department of Justice has threatened to prosecute any local officials who refuse to cooperate with the administration’s immigration enforcement operations.

Shades of Jim Crow and Stasi

Many in the DOP have long opposed DEI programs which are an extension of Equal Opportunity efforts to overturn decades of Jim Crow impediments to African Americans obtaining equal access to education and jobs. Trump has operationalized that effort by banning all federal DEI programs by executive order, announced that all personnel in DEI are on paid leave pending dismissal, ordered the AG to make recommendations within `120 days to end DEI in the private sector (for those corporations and schools that have not already capitulated and ended their programs) and ordered federal employees to name colleagues who work in DEI roles or risk ‘adverse consequences.’

In addition to overturning the progress, as fitful as it has been, in making the workplace more equitable and accessible to all Americans, these actions will create an environment of mistrust and anxiety that threatens to undermine efficiency and affect services to the public. This is so reminiscent of the tactics used by organizations like East Germany’s Stasi or the KGB, among others, it should cause every American to pause and ask what the heck is on their minds.

Making Enemies and Forcing Friends into the arms of rivals

Trump has been poking friends and neighbors in the eye regularly, such as promoting Canada as the 51st state and renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. He’s pissed Denmark off and caused anxiety in the EU by demanding it sell Greenland to the U.S., and threatened to take the Panama Canal back from Panama. Many in his administration are obsessed with China as a foe, and worried about increasing Chinese influence around the world. Chinese inroads in Africa have long been of concern, yet, among Trump’s first day executive orders were orders for a 90-day suspension of all foreign development assistance and ending the President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement established in 2022 during the US-Africa Leaders Summit, under an omnibus set of decrees, called Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions. For those in the new administration who would like to reduce Chinese influence in Africa, news flash, this is not the way to do it.

After claiming credit for the Gaza ceasefire that the Biden Administration graciously let his representative participate in negotiating, while signing executive orders the day he was inaugurated, Trump said that he was not confident the cease fire would be upheld. In this he might be right, due to his actions. Among the executive orders he signed was one lifting Biden era sanctions on Israeli settlers who committed violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and another that rescinded a policy that had blocked sanctions (including seizure of assets) against the International Criminal Court’s war crimes investigators. His view seems to be that the war in Gaza is ‘their war,’ and none of his business. If the fighting resumes and more Middle East actors become involved, affecting the flow of oil, it’ll be interesting to see what he does and who he blames.

Replacing domestic tranquility with domestic discord

In the huge stack of orders Trump signed were several that directly impact the lives of a large number of American citizens, including those who are under the misguided belief that things he does to ‘others’ don’t affect them. One of his actions was to grant sweeping pardons and commutation of sentences to January 6 defendants, including those who violently attacked police, calling them patriots and hostages who were unfairly treated. These ‘peaceful patriots’ have, since his bestowal of such largesse, have been, in many cases, anything but. The Qanon Shaman, for example, who stormed the US Capitol wearing a horned headdress, announced in a Twitter (now X) post, “NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Steward Rhodes, said they hope President Trump will seek retribution on their behalf.

Pure pettiness

Along with a slew of executive orders that materially and substantively undermine rule of law and constitutional order, and risk making the US a laughing stock internationally, some of Trump’s first-week actions reek of sheer petty revenge.

One of his orders was to pull security details off people from his first administration with whom he clashed and who have since criticized him, despite them being under credible threats. Among those losing federal security are Mike Pompeo, former head of the CIA and then secretary of state, John Bolton, his national security advisor, and Dr Anthony Fauci, who was the government’s point man during the Covid pandemic. That Trump is not unaware of the potential consequences of this action, during a visit to North Carolina he told reporters that he would not feel a sense of responsibility if any of the people he pulled security from came to harm. President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that said, “The Buck Stops Here.” The buck is never in the same room with this president.

Fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for a bumpy ride

For those who viewed Donald Trump as an existential threat to democracy, I doubt you’ll take any pleasure in being proven right. For those who are okay with what he’s doing, or who are in denial about it, my advice is to wake up and smell the stinkweed. He might not come for you directly, but the tide of turmoil that will wash over the nation will also find you in its path. You do nothing because he’s not coming for you, but when he does come for you, there’ll be no one for you to turn to.

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