It has been less than a month and the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, has shot a grenade of executive orders and comments that have erupted protests, lawsuits, and discontent among politicians in America and around the world.
When Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017, expectations varied among critics. CNN, New York Times, Washington Post and other news outlets, predicted many scenarios but truth is no one had a clear idea of what would happen and nobody really saw what would come next.
Aside from the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, the Muslim ban, and the plan to move forward with the wall in the southern border; there were more decisions taken by this new administration that perhaps did not get as much Media attention as the others. Yet, they can potentially affect the American citizens’ interests, and whether you are up-to-date with the news around you, or have just heard short briefs about Trump’s first couple of days in office; here are five decisions made by the president that everybody needs to know:
1. Trump stops funding for international organizations
On Jan 23, President Trump’s first day in office, the funding for international organizations, which counsel patients and discuss the topic of abortion, was frozen. According to NYT, United States law already bans government money for abortion services anywhere but this new policy extends that to a whole new level and even poor countries, which provided abortion counseling only, have been cut from any monetary support. This policy -- weirdly referred to as “Mexico City Policy” because it was announced in that city by Reagan in 1984 -- is usually dropped by a democratic-party administration, but enforced by a republican one.
2. Trump’s administration on climate change.
It is widely assumed that most conservatives deny the existence of climate change and Donald Trump is not the exception, at least he is good at dodging the issue and prioritize that he is more concerned about jobs. He has publicly said that he would put coal miners back to work, that he would had taken all the oil out of Middle East during conflicts on other countries and he appointed Rick Perry, ex-governor of Texas whose expertise are fossil fuels and ironically implied once that the Energy Department had to be abolished. Yet, it was his decision on Jan. 24 that showed the new administration’s interests. As reported by the NYT, Trump revived the Keystone Pipeline and cleared up the path after Barack Obama had blocked it due to environmental activist efforts to shut it down. According to the NYT, Trump’s priority on climate change are emission rules; however, “Mr. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, has drafted a 50-page blueprint for how he could eliminate Mr. Obama’s climate change policies.”
3. Trump’s first counter-terrorism-decision making ends up in tragedy
On Jan. 28, President Trump approved a plan that resulted in the death of a Navy SEAL fighter and other civilians. The raid, which took place in Yemen, was a proposal from the Pentagon to start increasing the on-ground troop's operations against Al Qaeda. President Obama had been proposed with such plan as well but according to NYT, the administration opted to leave the decision to the new president. Fred Kaplan, from Slate, wrote that Donald Trump took the decision on the spot over dinner at the White House along with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his political strategist Steve Bannon, Pictures and videos of death civilians, including children, spread throughout the internet.
Although the White House had denied casualties at first, the number kept increasing as the days went by and rumor has it there could be up to 30 casualties. Reuters’ story said that the operation went “without sufficient intelligence, ground support, or adequate backup preparations.” On the other hand President Trump called the operation “successful.”
4. Trump’ pick for supreme court justice means long years of conservative decisions.
On January 31, President Trump announced his top pick for the vacant seat Justice Antonin Scalia left when he passed away. Federal appeals-court Judge of Colorado Neil Gorsuch, 49, is a conservative judge with a record of strictly interpreting the U.S. Constitution -- much like Scalia did. At such a young age, it is expected to see his conservative position in the Supreme Court for at least 30 more years if congress confirms his nomination. According to The Hill, Donna Brazile, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairwoman, said that Neil Gorsuch "more extreme" than the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
5. Trump threatens border ally.
On Feb. 2, The associated Press broke the story of a phone call transcript, acquired by them, that suggest possible threats from President Trump to Mexican President Enrique Pena-Nieto. During the phone call, Trump told Pena-nieto that he is not doing enough to stop “bad hombres,” which he suggest to have plenty, and that he believes his army forces are scared of them. Thus, Trump implies that if Mexico does not fight such bad "hombres" he will step in with military.
"You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it," Trump said.
Although Mexico denied such threat, the transcript clearly shows the business talk the president applies to diplomacy.
