President Donald Trump’s first week in office was both shocking yet simultaneously expected.
It’s clear that there isn’t really a difference between candidate Trump and 45th President of the United States Trump. He came through on several of his campaign promises in symbolic, but not practical, ways. But that didn’t dissuade his largely white nationalist and/or xenophobic base from feeling elated at his flurry of executive orders. Let’s take a step-by-step look at what our great President has accomplished in his first seven days in office.
Day One:
We begin with Donald’s inaugural address. The address had poor inauguration turnout. Prior to the event, Trump told CIA employees, “You’re going to get so much backing, you’re going to say, ‘Please don’t give us so much backing. Mr. President, please don’t give us so much backing.’”
However, based on of the aerial shots taken by NPR, compared to Obama’s crowd, Trump’s didn’t stand a chance.
Moreover, the White House website removed all pages concerning climate change, health care, civil rights and LGBT sections.
Aren’t we off to a great start?
Day Two:
A petty war on media is launched. In response to portrayal of the inauguration turnout—which Trump stated to be “like a million, million and a half people”—and questions of his relation with Russia, Trump responded, “I have a running war with the media. They are the most dishonest human beings on Earth.” As Mark Mazzetti, an editor at the New York Times, put it best: “The president just tried to rally CIA workforce around the idea that media is the enemy. Let that sink in.”
Day Three:
Trump’s administration lies about an issue. Was it an affair? Or a secret money trail? Nope, it was lying about how many people attended the inauguration (don’t worry, I’m thinking the same thing–are you serious America?). Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, said, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period. Both in person and around the globe.” Within hours, the media fired back, using aerial photos to estimate attendance to be a mere 250,000 compared to the 2 million of Obama’s 2009 inauguration.
Day Four:
The administration states that 3 million illegals voted in the election. This is dead wrong.. The only evidence presented to back this claim is a 2012 Pew study, which said “about 24 million voter registrations are no longer valid or significantly inaccurate.” However, not only is the study long out of date, but the primary author tweeted: “We found millions of out of date registration records due to people moving or dying, but found no evidence that voter fraud resulted.”
Day Five:
Now we have begun to talk about the poorly-invested wall. Financially speaking, the expected expense of the wall is said to be around $14 billion. Given a situation where it is plausible to build a wall (which, given the terrain of the southern border, there is blatantly not), there is no coherent plan for where this money would come from. From a March ninth article in Forbes: “Existing duties on Mexican goods would have to be quadrupled to pay for the whole of the wall, even if its cost were spread over 10 years. U.S. companies would also almost certainly source products from elsewhere, reducing the revenue. The Mexican government could respond by removing tax benefits for U.S. foreign investment. The investment totalled $101 billion in 2013.”
Second, no one is stealing your job, especially if you come from a middle class or beyond household. To cite from “The Economics and Policy of Illegal Immigration in the United States,” a book by Gordon Hanson’s, “the underlying economic reality that despite its faults, illegal immigration has been hugely beneficial […]unauthorized immigrants provide a ready source of manpower […] at a time when the share of low-skilled native-born[…] has fallen dramatically.”
Day Six:
Eh, same ole crap today. Voter fraud, and the President of Mexico announced he would no longer come to Washington to Meet Trump. RIP.
Day Seven:
After the election, several high-level officials resigned from the State Department. This is customary, and the incoming president is supposed to decide whether to accept the resignation or keep the officials on board. Trump didn’t keep them. This becomes especially dangerous given their areas of work within diplomatic security and consular affairs—matters that involved life and death. David Wade, the State Department Chief, said, “These retirements are a big loss. They leave a void. These are very difficult people to replace.”
