It hasn’t yet been a full calendar week since Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time, and already the nation – indeed, the world – is beginning to change. Traditionally, news outlets run a 100-day roundup for each president, cataloguing and critiquing whatever they’ve managed to accomplish thus far. Fear not, we aren’t replacing that classic milestone. But Donald J. Trump returned to the White House a man on a mission, and waiting until late April is neither necessary nor practical. He wasted no time getting started on his agenda, and those changes are already beginning to take effect.
Order and Chaos
Prior to retaking office, Donald Trump promised to sign a flurry of executive orders on day one, undoing the damage of his predecessor and righting the ship, so to speak. He certainly didn’t disappoint. As Liberty Nation News Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner recently reported, “78 executive orders issued by Joe Biden – primarily related to immigration and the environment and described by the new president as ‘disruptive, radical executive actions’ – went away in one fell swoop.” And those 78 recisions were covered in a single order, just one of many Trump signed on day one of his second term.
A White House report under the Presidential Actions page explains that President Trump has already taken, in his first 100 hours in office, “hundreds of executive actions to secure the border, deport criminal illegal immigrants, unleash American prosperity, lower costs, increase government transparency, and reinstitute merit-based hiring in the federal government.” He signed more on the first day alone than any other president in history, according to the report.
Among those were the declaration of an emergency at the southern border and the deployment of the US military to help secure it. And, as LNN’s Kelli Ballard reported, if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act of 1807, those soldiers may end up taking a more active role in policing the US-Mexico line. ICE has been busy this week, as well, having arrested hundreds of criminal migrants across the country for deportation.
President Trump also signed an executive order declaring there are only two genders and that the US government will recognize only those two: male and female. He attempted to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegals, though it was quickly blocked in federal court. He may yet succeed, however, as an appeal has been filed, and it seems likely the US Supreme Court will decide the issue.
Trump ordered the US to withdraw from both the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. He issued proclamations renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and undoing Barack Obama’s renaming of Mount McKinley in Alaska to Denali. He also ended the various DEI programs in the federal government and pardoned about 1,500 people charged in the January 6, 2021, incident at the Capitol. And all this is just the highlight reel. One wonders how the president’s EO-signing hand will recover over the weekend!
The Trump Effect Felt ‘Round the World
World leaders' reactions to Trump’s inauguration and his order to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization were mixed. Most congratulated the new president and claimed they eagerly looked forward to diplomatic relations. The withdrawal from the two globalist outfits, which will take a year to achieve, was accepted but lamented, and the door was left open for America to rejoin both.
No surprise there – The US leaving the two agreements means both miss out on massive amounts of American money. While the international community has grumbled in recent years about how the US has made the smallest contribution to the climate agreement based on gross national income, that doesn’t change the fact that, of 195 countries, only Japan and Germany actually contribute a higher dollar amount.
Similarly, there are 194 member states in the World Health Organization, but none come close to the amount of money kicked in by the American taxpayer. The US contributed $109.3 million to the WHO in 2022. The second biggest contributor, China, barely gave half that. For 2024, the US contribution was closer to $220 million.
How will the Paris Accord and the WHO fare without all those greenbacks?
Remember how Trump bombastically said the war between Russia and Ukraine would end on day one of his presidency? Well, predictably, it did not. The fact checkers who roasted him for making such a claim must feel quite vindicated – but what if an end is, in fact, close at hand? Russian President Vladimir Putin began massing troops on the Ukraine border under US President Joe Biden’s watch, presumably testing the waters to see how his American counterpart would react. Biden famously didn’t act, and there has been war in Ukraine ever since. Now, however, Trump is back in office. And while Trump and Putin are both prone to grand statements and not backing down from a challenge, the Russian president is now ready to talk “calmly” about issues like energy prices and the war.
“It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly on all those areas that are of interested to both the United States and Russia,” Putin told the Russian press. “We are ready. But, I repeat, this primarily, of course, depends on the decisions and choices of the current American administration.”
Investing in MAGA
Saudi Arabia, the White House reports, wants to invest $600 billion in the US over the next four years. Automaker Stellantis announced the reopening of an assembly plant in Illinois and the return of the Dodge Durango product line in Detroit.
The Steel Manufacturers Association praised the president for “directing his agencies to investigate unfair trade and its impact on domestic manufacturing.”
“President Trump promised to end gas car bans and vehicle mandates on Day 1 of his new administration, and we are pleased to see that work already underway,” announced Chet Thompson, president and CEO of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. Thompson isn’t alone. His counterparts in banking, energy, transportation, and the tech world are excited as well, as are investors across the nation and the world. Wall Street saw gains in the first week of Trump’s presidency, and even European markets repeatedly hit new highs despite the president's threats to impose tariffs. Trump said during his inauguration that America's new golden age begins now. If we aren't quite there yet, it certainly isn't for lack of his trying.
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