President Trump’s dizzying pace of executive actions during his first week back in office quickly extinguished many of the Biden administration’s initiatives, including closing the wide-open borders and reducing the number of federally recognized genders to two.
Critics were appalled and fighting back, but Mr. Trump’s move to declassify documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy left supporters euphoric.
“What the world has witnessed in the past 72 hours is nothing less than a revolution of common sense,” Mr. Trump said in an address to the World Economic Forum on Thursday. “My administration is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the disasters we’ve inherited from a totally inept group of people and to solve every single crisis facing our country.”
Americans learned quickly that Mr. Trump wasn’t kidding on the campaign trail when he promised to immediately start reshaping the federal government with a blizzard of executive actions.
He signed dozens of executive orders, memoranda and proclamations hours after taking office to secure the southern border, deport criminal illegal aliens, open the nation to more oil and gas production, and take other actions.
“Amazing change for the first day,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. “It’s going to be a remarkable four years.”
SEE ALSO: Trump orders release of JFK, RFK, MLK assassination files
Mr. Trump’s actions have spurred lawsuits and other resistance. On Capitol Hill, Democrats are purposely slowing down the confirmations of his Cabinet nominees.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance were lectured by an activist clergywoman at the traditional postinaugural prayer service about the plight of immigrants and the LGBTQ community.
Liberal activist Al Sharpton called on people to boycott companies that adhere to Mr. Trump’s new directive to drop diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, summed it up this way: “President Trump’s executive orders make it obvious that no Golden Age is coming to America — unless you’re one of the wealthiest few, you’re well-connected, or you own a Big Oil or Big Pharma company.”
Mr. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship was quickly challenged in court in a lawsuit filed by 22 states. A federal judge in Seattle blocked the action Thursday with a temporary restraining order.
Mr. Trump isn’t slowing down.
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He carried out a promise to quickly pardon most of the people convicted or charged under the Biden administration for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that Democrats accuse him of instigating.
As soon as he entered the Oval Office, Mr. Trump pardoned more than 1,500 Jan. 6 “hostages,” as he labeled them, and commuted the prison sentences of 14 others. Democrats denounced the move, but Mr. Trump shrugged it off. Next, he pardoned 23 pro-life activists convicted of protesting at and, in some cases, blocking access to abortion clinics.
He established a government efficiency agency headed by Elon Musk to reduce waste and cut spending and declared a restoration of “biological truth” to the federal government by establishing only male and female sexes, not the multitude of genders recognized under President Biden.
Mr. Trump quickly revoked the Biden administration’s work-from-home policies and ordered all federal employees to return to the office. On Wednesday, he eliminated every DEI policy and sent all the federal employees in those offices home on paid leave. A final decision on whether they get fired or get new government jobs is still to come.
The president announced more government changes in a series of lengthy press conferences. He threatened 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada as early as Feb. 1 in response to their lax efforts to stop illegal immigration and drugs from flowing into the U.S.
Mr. Trump also announced a $500 billion investment from three billionaires to develop U.S. data centers to power AI technology.
“I’m not tired of winning!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, gleefully posted on social media late in the week.
By Friday, Mr. Trump was jetting on Air Force One to tour the long-delayed recovery from hurricane flooding in North Carolina and the ongoing fire disaster around Los Angeles.
Along the way, he floated a plan to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Mr. Trump found time in his first week back to fulfill one of the more oddball promises made on the campaign trail: to release the documents relating to the assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“That’s a big one,” Mr. Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. “A lot of people are waiting for this one. For years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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