Author: Thomas Walters

Yes, he’s back.  The man who delights in upsetting the applecart has returned to the White House.  The first two weeks in office have been like watching a squirrel in the middle of the road.  Working on nerve endings and knee-jerk reactions.  Blinding lashing out at “opponents”, the previous administration, diversity.  Rather than consoling the friends and families of after that terrible, tragic plane/helicopter crash over the Potomac, he pointed his long, ugly finger at Joe Biden for allowing “diversity” into the ranks of air traffic controllers.  Replace sadness and compassion with anger.  Vintage Trump.

Rule by Executive Order.  After all, Americans gave him a “mandate”.  He swept the popular vote by a truly mind-blowing 1.5% margin. For comparison, Richard Nixon beat George McGovern by just over 23% in 1972.  Ronald Reagan won his second term by almost 59% of the popular vote over former Vice President Walter Mondale, and Mondale only captured 13 votes in the Electoral College.  So, with this new “mandate”, President Trump really doesn’t need Congress. The Constitution either.  “Birthright Citizenship” is clearly spelled out in the 14^th Amendment, which states that citizenship is acquired in one of two ways – a person is born in the US and its territories, or at least one parent is an American citizen.  This was passed just after the Civil War, and its intent was clear – former slaves would automatically become citizens.  It was meant to negate the flurry of state legislation prohibiting citizenship rights to African Americans.  No matter, contend Republicans supportive of the latest action, that’s not what post-Civil War legislators really meant.  

There has been a barrage of back-and-forth, squirrel-like scurrying as decisions are made, rescinded, and blocked by the courts.  Federal employees scrambling, their jobs uncertain from day to day, hour to hour. Because most of his intention to cut spending is outside his purview – that is Congress’ job.  In fact, he’s not absolutely clear on the roles of each division of government.  Congress sets policy through legislation, and determines allocations of money.  The Executive branch carries out those policies, and oversees the funding that Congress has approved.  And the Judicial determines that which is legal and that which isn’t. Clearly defined.  Nowhere in the Constitution is the President authorized to appoint his friends and family to an outside “department” review the operations of government. The Constitution, nor acts of Congress, allow those outside individuals to demand official government records and documents, or to interfere with normal government operations. 

Interestingly, the piles of executive orders tell us more about what Mr. Trump doesn’t like, rather than what he does.

He doesn’t like diversity.  Few non-white nominees for key positions.  Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and Kash Patel, designate for FBI director are about it.  Vivek Ramaswamy has stepped away from the “department” to which he was ‘appointed” as he considers a possible run for office elsewhere.  Mr. Trump has issued decrees banning any policies in government departments that mention diversity and/or equity, and has revoked funding for transgender medical care.  He even finds the name, “Gulf of Mexico”, offensive.

He also doesn’t particularly care for non-rich people.  His advisors and appointees include more than a dozen billionaires.  We should expect that, like his tax overhaul of 2017, new policies and regulation-cutting will favor those with money – lots of it.  We remember Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education in his first term, pushing for-profit schools (and denying debt-forgiveness when those schools went belly-up), private schools and vouchers. This time, he’s appointed a billionaire donor from the world of professional wrestling, who’s mission, apparently, is to abolish the department altogether.

He doesn’t put much “stock” in alternative energy sources, or the development thereof.  His pick of Chris Wright, a man right out of the fossil fuel industry and an advocate of “fracking”, to be Energy Secretary, isn’t likely to advance new initiatives.  Mr. Trump has taken the US out, once again, of the Paris Climate Agreement, and issued an executive order that cancelled funding for wind turbines, solar energy, and other energy development projects.  Pleasant news for the Chinese, virtually “passing the ball” on to them to develop the globe’s new sources of energy when oil and gas run out, which they will.

He doesn’t place much value on medical research, having put a freeze on funding grants by the National Institute of Health for the development of new medications, vaccines, and treatment programs. Included were cancer treatments and possible immunizations for new global infectious diseases should they come along, which they will, and withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization, which shares vital information among its member countries. 

He also doesn’t care much for foreign aid, having listened to his billionaire advisors, who probably aren’t seeing much return from it on their business investments.  Even though it funds clean energy, medical care, preventing pollution, and education in poor and developing countries, the world’s good will isn’t that important.  It’s more important that we’re number one and keep it that way.  “We Are the World” has been replaced by “America First.”

It is one thing to take a systematic review of government investments and the services they provide its citizens.  But it would seem to this observer that it is a time-consuming process, looking at all aspects of those services and, in particular, the unintended consequences of their reduction or elimination.  For example, reducing the number of tax examiners at the IRS would seem, on the surface, to be a popular, vote-getting idea.  Until you factor in the lost revenue from illegal tax avoidance.  Reductions in the numbers of federal employees typically means that agencies are slower and less able to respond to changes in policy, like the recent Social Security Fairness Act, or to things like natural disasters – floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.  One of the more concerning issues from the last election is affordability, and skyrocketing prices of housing.  Will the deportation of thousands, perhaps millions of immigrant construction workers, desperately needed to rebuild southern California and across the country, hinder solutions to construction and reconstruction?  (Side note – the building industry estimates it will need, going forward, almost half a million workers that it currently doesn’t have.) Or, how will putting tariffs on the supplies of building materials from Canada affect home prices? Probably not well. But as our new president has sounded loudly the alarm against the undocumented, the vast majority of whom are in fact “documented” – holding drivers licenses, residency documents, and paying taxes with valid tax returns, he feels committed to both avenues of narrative. Will cybersecurity take a hit as hackers both at home and abroad gain a foothold? It’s possible the government could lose track of possible terrorist cells and other bad actors, because the FBI tracks them.  These are all essential services that we take for granted, even if we don’t see them in action every day.  

It won’t be tomorrow, or even in a month or two.  But the craziness will catch up with us.  The disruptions in which Mr. Trump delights will manifest themselves negatively, and it will get ugly. It did before, and it’s starting again. Americans that voted for him, confident that he would bring down prices, that he’d “improve” the economy, and deport undesirables will find themselves sadly disillusioned in the not-too-distant future, possibly even by the next mid-term election.  The political pendulum will, as it always does, swing back.