President Trump readies for complete overhaul
by Sebastian Wainwright
President Donald Trump is preparing to do away with many of President Barack Obama’s executive orders on day one of his presidency, although it is unclear on what day he will actually begin his new job as the most powerful man on earth.
President Trump, who was elected on November 8th as the 45th President of The United States, arrived in Washington yesterday ahead of the ‘Make America Great Again!’ welcome celebration.
In anticipation of President Trump’s inauguration, a team of advisors have been toiling away to vet nearly 200 potential orders for him to consider including many of he key policies that got him elected. These include immigration, healthcare, energy and several others for Trump to ponder over.
However, Trump previously stated earlier this week that he would take the weekend off before starting his new job on Monday. Speaking to Michael Gove in an interview for The Times, Mr Trump said he did not want administration duties to get “mixed up” with the celebration of his inauguration.
“Day one – which I will consider to be Monday as opposed to Friday or Saturday. Right?” Mr Trump told Michael Gove in his interview with The Times.
“I mean my day one is gonna be Monday because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration.”
It is a tactic that Obama used several times himself in order to bypass a Republican-led Congress, which made it hard for him to pass any legislation through without significant opposition.
For Trump, it will be a chance to demonstrate a commanding show of strength to the American people right from the offset of his controversial presidency. Many of his key policies whilst on the campaign trail can actually be enforced through executive action on his first day in office. It is a tactic Trump will want to follow before getting bogged down in the sluggish pace of congressional law making.
Using the President’s most powerful weapon, the presidential pen, Trump will begin to act upon some of his campaign promises, including the construction of a southern border wall. Another immigration policy likely to be enacted includes cancelling Obama’s order that allowed more than 700,000 people brought into the United States illegally as children to stay in the country, known as Daca.
Top aides to Trump have insisted that he will start to roll back many of Obama’s orders at the first opportunity. The busy day even has a name – dubbed the “first day project”. “He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an agenda of real change, and I think that you’re going to see that in the days and weeks to come,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday, telling reporters to expect activity on Friday, during the weekend and early next week.
Spicer claimed that “four or five” actions will take place on Friday, contrary to Trump himself stating he would take the weekend off.
“I think the president-elect is still working through which actions he wants to deal with tomorrow versus Monday or Tuesday,” Spicer said.
“We’ve talked about that for a few months now—Obamacare, the fight against ISIS, he talked about immigration, key issues that have been important to him throughout the campaign that will continue to be important to him throughout this administration”.
One issue that has certainly settled well with the electorate is an order banning former White House staffers becoming lobbyists for other foreign nations.
How many executive actions happen on the night of the inauguration remains to be seen – there may not be any at all. However, one thing is evidently clear. Come this time next week, the United States may have changed its political complexion for ever with President Donald Trump at the helm.
