The way that government action is supposed to work is that Congress passes bills and the president, after signing the bill making it law, executes and enforces the law through the various executive agencies. However, in recent years, especially if Congress and the president are of different parties, little gets done. The solution for breaking the gridlock is executive orders (EO's). Some EO's are simply communications of a president's policies, others are treated as replacements for laws. But they do not have the force of law and can be reversed without ceremony by the next president. EO's have multiplied in frequency over the last several administrations - and this is not a good thing, despite the temptation to applaud "something getting done". Trump issued a pile of EO's on his first day back in office, as well as pardons and commutations. Some of them were innocuous, or plain ridiculous, but some were an in-your-face power grab to "own the libs" and still others were unconstitutional or illegal.
The complete list, with links to the actual text of the EO's can be found here.
In the ridiculous column is the EO to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Reverting Denali's name to Mount McKinley seems to me more of an insult to Alaska natives - a typical petty Trump move.
One of the most egregious, albeit unsurprising, is the pardon of virtually all the participants in the January 6th attack on The Capitol. Not only did he escape accountability for his own role in that day, but members of a violent mob, whose goal was to stop the certification of electoral votes in order to overturn an election, has had their records wiped clean. Any pending cases have been dropped by the Justice Department. (* Some of the participants had their sentences commuted without receiving pardons). Even on the day of his inauguration Trump was still lying about the 2020 election being rigged and stolen from him.
The EO to nullify the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment is unprecedented. Trump has griped for years about children of undocumented immigrants becoming citizens from birth. But there is a process for changing the Constitution - and it's not an easy path. What scares me about this one is that it will ultimately end up before the Supreme Court, a court that has, despite its claim to be originalist/textualist, had no problem overturning precedent or reinterpreted the Constitution in new ways. But even if implementation is stymied, the very fact that he is attempting to nullify the Constitution by fiat is dictatorial by definition.
There are several EO's with overlapping requirements. "Clarifying" the military's role on the southern border; designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations; "securing our borders"; declaring a "national emergency at the southern border" and "realigning" the US refugee program. Taken together Trump means, by way of classifying the drug cartels' as foreign invaders, and illegal immigration as a national security threat, to illegally use the military for domestic law enforcement. Immigration is a complex issue. Congress couldn't get it's act together for three years of Biden's term, and when they did come up with a bipartisan plan, Trump demanded that they kill it. Biden put too much faith in Congress' ability to do its job and waiting until illegal crossings were at record levels before taking executive action. The action that he did take resulted in current level being the lowest in years - it's in this climate that Trump wants to militarize border security.
The delay of the TikTok ban may seem inconsequential, but it's another example of dictatorial tendencies. Whether you agree with the ban or not, it was passed according to how laws are supposed to be passed. Congress overwhelmingly voted to ban it if it were not sold to someone outside of China. The president signed it. There was a legal challenge. The end result was that the Supreme Court (whatever you think of them) affirmed that the law did not violate the Constitution. Executive orders can be reversed by the next president with the stroke of a pen - laws can not. This EO sends the message that Trump believes that he is above the law.
Some of the EO's are in the "own the libs", culture war category. Ending DEI hiring and programs in the federal government; withdrawing us from the Paris Climate Agreement and World Health Organization; and a slap at transgender people by defining gender as only male or female and constraining anyone from claiming anything other than their sex at birth. These EO's are not only a direct attack on transgender and non-binary people, but a claim to "Make America White (and male, and Christian) Again".
Sucking up to the oil companies are a feature of several EO's. Declaring a "national energy emergency"; withdrawal of permission for offshore wind farm leases; opening up previously off-limits areas for oil drilling, including in Alaska; ending a non-existent electric vehicle mandate.
Trump's paranoia about a so-called Deep State fuel several EO's regarding government agencies. Withdrawing security clearances from intelligence officials whose conclusions were at odds with Trump; specifically withdrawing John Bolton's security clearance; making it easier to fire senior agency officials; making it easier to fire "policy influence" federal employees; and freezing new regulations.
While he's rescinding security clearances, another EO waives the background check necessary for unnamed officials who have not yet received theirs.
Other EO's include reevaluating foreign aid (about the only marginally sane one in the bunch); promoting "beautiful federal architecture"; rerouting water from one part of California to another; putting "America First" in various aspects of government (as if that doesn't already happen - but Trump has his own unique definitions).
He's pulling us out of a "Global Tax Deal" whereby multinational companies were prevented from hiding their profits in low tax havens to avoid taxes. Something I'm sure his billionaire buddies suggested.
There had been a lot of chatter about the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) and whether it existed or could be created by fiat. What the DOGE EO does is take an existing organization, the United States Digital Service and renaming it The Department of Government Efficiency. Within this renamed service will be the actual DOGE. Within each agency there will be "DOGE Teams" tasked with identifying ways of cutting expenses.
There's an EO supposedly ending government censorship and restoring freedom of speech.
Finally, there's an EO directing all agencies to deliver "emergency price relief", whatever that is. The EO claims that President Biden's policies cost the average household $50,000 and Trump's first term policies saved $11,000. (A year? Over 4 years? What is this based on?)
I read every single one of these executive orders. (I did not however read the Biden EO's that he rescinded, so I do not know what was taken away. I have read that one of them was the Biden EO allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices) I am very skeptical that Trump understands the words in them. Most of them are most charitably described as aspirational, and don't accomplish much on their own. Several of them are dictatorial and unconstitutional. Others are aimed at punching down on underserved and vulnerable members of our society. Still others are gifts to his wealthy donors. Some EO's are just nonsensical. It's plain that unlike in his first term, he had a team thinking things through so he could hit the ground running. I'm still of the opinion that he is ignorant and incompetent, but it's obvious he has hired and appointed competent people this time around.
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