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Drug of Choice: Executive Orders [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-03
Through the end of January 2025, Trump has already signed 45 Executive Orders (EO). (See
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-trump/2025) In his first month, Biden signed 25, most of which undid Trump’s excesses. Trump dispatched with many of Biden’s in one Executive Order of recission.
Every time Trump signs another Executive Order, he experiences an incredible power high. While he has abstained from alcohol, his drug of choice is EOs, and he is high on his own supply. If you are going to be a dictator, EOs are ideal because they bypass Congress entirely, allowing unchecked authority.
It is worthwhile recalling this statement by Trump that he posted on Facebook on July 5, 2024: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” This was done with a straight face despite the fact that CNN found that at least 140 Trump alumni from his first term were involved in creating Project 2025. Time magazine analyzed Trump’s executive actions and determined that two-thirds mirrored or partially mirrored Project 2025.
If you scroll through the EOs using the link above, you may find it a nauseating experience, but it is important to do so because we often forget about or missed them initially. His governing strategy is blitzkrieg, a German word that means a “lightning war.” It's a military strategy that involves a surprise attack to overwhelm the enemy's defenses and paralyze their ability to coordinate a response. In this case, America is the enemy.
Trump has a fantasy about restoring America to greatness, but, for the most part, he is restoring America’s ugliness. America has been remarkably ugly at times in its history. We are all trapped in a time machine moving backward. Are we going back to the “Leave it to Beaver” 1950s as civil rights are eliminated? Or with his tariffs, are we going back to 1934 and the Hawley-Smoot tariffs, which worsened the Great Depression? Or are we headed all the way back to 1890 and the McKinley Tariff Act, a policy that stoked economic turmoil and division?
It may take decades to restore America to November 4, 2024. The damage being done is systemic, deep, and intentional. Undoing it will require not just policy reversals but a reassertion of democratic norms, an engaged citizenry, and leaders who believe in governance rather than authoritarianism. The question is: Will America resist the slide backward, or will it allow history to repeat its darkest chapters?
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