WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) — One week into his presidency, Donald Trump wasted no time in pushing forward on promises made during his campaign, but the dazzling assembly of executive actions and some of his words have done nothing but exacerbate tensions in the country.
In the past week, Trump has signed 17 executive orders and memoranda, covering national security, trade, health, abortion, energy, government management, among others.
Most of the orders were in line with major promises Trump made on the campaign trail, including building a wall on the border with Mexico, a plan even some of his supporters considered to be farfetched.
On top of the executive actions, Trump also made nearly daily public appearances as he spoke at various government agencies and gave TV interviews, attracting worldwide, not just nation-wide attention.
“BIG STUFF”
Trump started his executive actions literally on day one of his tenure.
On the inauguration day, Trump signed his first executive order to curb Obamacare, which allowed the Health and Human Services Department to waive or delay the implementation of the initiative.
On Tuesday he rolled out another executive order, a binding form of executive action, to streamline environmental reviews of high-priority infrastructure projects.
Then on Wednesday Trump signed in one stroke two executive orders to boost border security and immigration control.
The orders dictated that the Department of Homeland Security begin planning, designing and building a “physical barrier” along the U.S.-Mexico border, identify undocumented immigrants, and remove those who have criminal records.
On Friday Trump stepped up his anti-immigration initiative and ordered a four-month ban on all refugees entering the United States and a three-month ban on all citizens from seven majority-muslim countries from entering the U.S.
The new president on Saturday signed a lobbying ban to bar government officials from lobbying for their own agencies within five years from leaving office.
Trump also signed executive memoranda that mostly touched on military policies, including directing the Pentagon to come up with an anti-ISIS plan within 30 days.
“Big stuff,” Trump said after he signed the last of three documents Saturday, “I think it’s going to be very successful.”
RAISING EYEBROWS
Some of the rhetoric from Trump and members of his inner circles is already raising many eyebrows.
In the past week, Trump has visited the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to mend fences with the intelligence community after a fallout as a result of the Russian hacking revelations.
“There’s nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump,” he said.
Trump and his team insisted that his speeches were well received but some members of the intelligence community voiced discomfort at Trump’s highly politicized remarks.
Trump’s assertion that 3 million to 5 million illegal votes have cost him the popular vote also came under heavy fire even among senior Congressional Republicans. So far his team has not produced any evidence to support such a claim, which if proven true, would seriously undermine the integrity of the U.S. electoral system.
Since Trump assumed power, protests against him have run virtually nonstop, from the Women’s Day marches on Jan. 21 that saw more than half a million people bringing Washington and other major cities to a halt, to demonstrations at airports sparked by Trump’s tough immigration policy.
Groups advocating for environmental protection, gender equality, racial equality and immigration are all united under the anti-Trump banner.
