The newly installed Trump administration has begun the work of issuing executive orders following the theme of the President's campaign promises throughout this first week. Thanks to the increased discretionary power of the President's executive orders which grew tremendously under the Clinton, Bush II, and Obama Presidencies.1 Here is an incomplete sampling of the infant Trumpreich's executive actions:
- Withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty drafting effort
- Froze Federal civilian hiring
- Expedited Environmental reviews
- Withholding Federal Funds from "Sanctuary" Cities
- Ordered the Homeland Security Department to proceed with the construction of what the Wall Street Journal referred to as a "large physical barrier" on the border with Mexico
- Closed admission to the United States to "refugees" from a number of middle eastern countries
The issue of the US/Mexican border has been the source of considerable lulz after Trump hinted at a willingness to open NAFTA to renegotiation. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto reacted with over bullishness at this prospect early in the week enthusiastically supposing a minimum wage be paid on labor outsourced to Mexico.2 Nieto's move has since soured with the two presidents cancelling a planned meeting and the Mexican peso falling in the cancellation's wake. This vein is likely to continue to yield quality lulz with rumors and innuendo circulating that Nieto may be Nortiega'd if he remains uncooperative.
While these developments were happening the White House press office has been running an impressive Denial of Credibility attack against the mainstream press. Press Secretary Sean Spicer has been instrumental in luring self described reporters and their affiliated media concerns into masturbatory discussions about themselves in lieu of covering the administration they purport to be covering.
Perhaps most notably in the power of the President to start a shooting war without Congress's assent as demanded by the Constitution. ↩
A measure that surely would have been injurious to Stanley Black & Decker among other firms whose higher end product lines tend to be "Hecho en Mexico" as they lack the institutional capacity to handle Chinesium with the necessary finesse outsource all of their product manufacturing to Asia. ↩