Today marks exactly one week since
Donald Trump took the oath of office and officially became the 45th
President of the United States. And what a week it’s been.
He issued executive orders freezing federal hiring, temporarily halting the creation of new regulations, and allowing executive-branch agencies to waive various parts of Obamacare, including the individual mandate.
He reinstated the Mexico City Policy, barring federal funding of groups that perform
abortions overseas, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
He signed executive orders meant to expedite approval of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, bar federal funding for sanctuary cities, limit the flow of refugees from countries deemed to have a large number of
terrorist sympathizers, and formally withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And, of course, he signed an order declaring his intent to construct a “contiguous, physical wall”
along the southern border.
He also met with business leaders and
the heads of labor unions, talked with foreign leaders, announced plans to meet
with British Prime Minister Theresa May later today, and got into a Twitter spat with the Mexican President that led to the latter
cancelling his planned trip to America next month.
Obviously, that was a bad way to end the
week, and will probably come back to bite Trump—and all of us—later on. But
overall, the first week went much better than I or many other critics of Trump
during the campaign expected. He gave social, economic, and national security
conservatives alike some real victories, of the sort we haven’t seen in years.
They won’t be secure, lasting victories until Congress backs up the sentiment
with the force of law, but change is already beginning. I was certain Trump,
once in office, would not bring real change and would govern substantively no
different from Hillary Clinton, based on his past record. If this first week is
any indication, I was wrong.
May Week One be only the beginning.
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