Wow! You don’t often see a serious news story begin with that kind of exclamation. But after the new President’s first days on the job, ‘wow’ is perhaps the safest word beyond a simple expletive to describe the first week on the job for the country’s new Chief Executive.
But keeping true to his word, Donald Trump made his return to the Oval Office known in anything but a subtle way. He took direct aim at the Constitution, the nation’s health care, immigration policy and official designations for gender. He also ordered everything from JFK’s assassination to secret information on UFOs declassified. And that’s only a sliver of his signings.
While it may take only a short time for the ripples of his executive orders to take hold, two stood out. One was his order to scrub the Constitution of the 14th Amendment which grants citizenship to children born here—including Native American children. They are now targets. The other, an immediate mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
“My first reaction,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, “it’s really sad…and wrong!” Weiser, along with 20 fellow state attorneys general immediately vowed to both fight the order and protect the Constitution.
“I don’t know what is motivating him,” Weiser wondered. His actions are “at odds with the Constitution.” “The way the system works, people are treated fairly under the law.”
In justifying his assault on the 14th Amendment, Trump repeated his assertion that the U.S. is the only nation that grants immediate citizenship to children born in the country. The truth is that as many as 30 nations, including Canada and Mexico, grant birthright citizenship.
Trump’s edict on deportations—which grants extraordinary new powers to immigration officials—was almost immediately acted on by border czar, Tom Homan. The ex cop ordered immediate roundups in Boston and Newark with more to come.
Detained immigrants, which mistakenly included an American citizen, were flown out of the country on U.S. military aircraft. Ironically, Mexico denied the use of its airspace to either flight forcing the giant C-17 cargo planes to reroute.
Colombia joined Mexico in banning the flight and (at press time) a trade war remains a possibility.
At the Inaugural Prayer Service, a traditional stop for a new president, Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, using Jesus’ own words, pleaded with Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Budde’s sermon emphasized biblical admonitions to treat immigrants, LGBQT and marginalized groups with kindness and respect. Trump, who sat glumly in the front row as the cleric made her plea, later demanded an apology for a “boring and uninspiring” service and for injecting politics into the service. He also demanded an apology from the “so called Bishop.”
While Trump stopped short of keeping his once half-joking promise of being a dictator “but only on day one,” his litany of executive orders certainly pleased his supporters.
His promises followed the glide path of Project 2025, the far-right manifesto of his campaign. Other signed promises to his base included deploying U.S. military to the southern border; continuation of wall construction; taking legal action against sanctuary cities and cutting off federal dollars; pursuing the death penalty for undocumented immigrants convicted of capital crimes; expanding guidelines for immigration officials to enter schools and churches.
The last item—expanding guidelines for entering schools and churches—received almost immediate backlash from various Denver metro area school districts. One north metro school principal counselled staff to ‘lock your doors and not open them’ if immigration officials demanded entry.
But as shocking as any of his first-week edicts were, his blanket pardons and commutations of as many as 1,600 January 6th Capitol rioters, including scores who assaulted Capitol police stood out.
Despite many pleading guilty to their crimes, Trump ignored the evidence of their actions and freed every single one within hours of taking his oath of office.
Trump also took aim at a regular campaign whipping boy, DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. His first week’s assault on what he has regularly called the ‘deep state’ also included laying off all staff working in the Office of DEI. He also voided a 60-year-old Civil Rights-era anti-discrimination rule.
Trump’s ‘to do’ list, said Metropolitan State University-Denver political scientist Rob Preuhs, is a clarion call to his voters. “He wants to maintain enthusiasm with his base” and buttress support for his agenda in Congress, Preuhs suggested.
While Trump’s assault on the Constitution may end up going nowhere—a federal judge has already blocked it—Preuhs said Trump is not stopping. He compared Trump’s effort to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. The act was a federal law that prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens. The law remained in effect until 1943.
Trump also signed executive orders to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). And like so many of his actions, withdrawing from NATO.
Another action, this time a blow to research, was Trump’s ordered curtailing of the National Institutes of Health travel, grant reviews and research budget, including cancer research. “This kind of disruption,” opioid addiction researcher Jane Liebschultz told the medical journal Science, “could have long ripple effects.” The freeze will also impact cancer research.
Trump’s march through the bureaucracy is only a few days old. He has yet to seat his entire cabinet, including the heads of the FBI and National Intelligence, which could mean more weeks of even more shocking and unprecedented glass breaking.
