Due to the holidays and cold-related illness, the Political Great Whine (PGW) has been out, but still keeping abreast to the daily political news! So folks, it is done. Donald Trump has been officially sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Like many of you, the Political Great Whine viewed the event on television and was thoroughly entertained. President Trump began his first FULL business day on Monday, January 23rd and below is a summary of what has happened so far…just in case you are just waking up after fainting on election night!
For Trump – Size Really Does Matter
On Friday, Trump was inaugurated and by Saturday he was already tweeting about the size of the crowd. He said that it was in response to photos by the National Park Service comparing the inaugural crowd for Obama in 2009 to Trump’s 2017 inaugural crowd. He was very adamant that his inauguration had the highest attendance ever…”PERIOD!” Now, why Trump chose to compare his inauguration to that for the first African-American president is unknown to most everyone, but he did. According to photos, numerical data, and videos President Obama’s 2009 had a much larger crowd, but Trump insisted otherwise. He even made his press secretary, Sean Spicer go out and tell that to the journalists. Poor guy.
For Trump, size really does matter. During the republican primaries, he was (and is still) fixated on talking about the size of his hands ever since someone said that they were small. Hopefully, no one will compare a picture of his hands to that of President Obama’s because I fear he might totally lose focus and use those tiny hands to hit the nuclear button out of rage! I wonder if Putin’s hands are bigger than Trump’s? Okay…that’s it, the next post will be all about the hand size of world leaders! I digress, I digress…okay back on topic. It is apparent that as long as the media do not compare the size of anything (hands, crowds, neck ties, etc.) the President may be able to tweet about more important things.
The Women’s March
So on Friday, Trump was sworn in as President and on Saturday, thousands upon thousands of women marched in protest to send Trump a message that human rights are important. Now everyone is wondering what comes after the march. Was it just an event or was it the beginning of a political movement like the Tea Party? Will all of those women in their pink “pussyhats” just return to their regularly scheduled lives or have they made plans to continue to connect with each other and design a platform or political action committee (PAC)? Will we ever see them again?
“I Decree!” – President Trump’s First Full Day
President Trump’s first full day was on Monday, January 23rd and he began by immediately taking executive actions that bypass Congress. Below is a list of the top 5 out of 10 executive actions signed by Trump. To see all 10 of the executive orders and for more details, please visit the PBS website.
- Affordable Care Act (ACA) rollback – All federal agency heads are allowed to waive requirements of the ACA to the “maximum extent permitted by law.” So this sounds good because it seems that he is taking steps to “repeal Obamacare” as promised; however, since no specific requirements are identified it is difficult to understand just what is being waived.
- Regulation Freeze– All regulations signed by former President Obama during his final weeks in office are now on hold until they have reviewed by Trump’s administration. That basically means, “Stop the press! There’s a new sheriff in town!” Regarding environmental protection regulations, it means…”Attention all big companies with hazardous materials, dump them in the nearest body of water while you can! It’s “National Pollution Day/Week/Months/Years!”
- Abortion – Federal dollars cannot go to organizations that provide abortion services. No new federal funds for organizations like Planned Parenthood for now.
- Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Withdrawal – The United States is now withdrawn from the TPP negotiations and from signing the trade deal. The PGW knows very little about TPP, but more information about it can be found here.
- Federal hiring freeze – Current vacant positions must remain unfilled and new vacancies will not be filled. So if you were hoping to work for the federal government and did not get a job offer before January 20th…you are screwed. Sorry!
Now again, those are just the first five but there are plenty more and more to come! When Trump won the election, his supporters said that they finally felt like democracy was working. UMMMmmmm, judging by all of the executive actions that he has been firing off that bypass Congress (who represents the people), I am pretty certain the founders did not have this in mind. To be fair, the signing of an executive order is a privilege the founders provided to the President to prevent Congress from overreaching, but it should not be misused to expand presidential powers. Obama was accused of this and while he averaged 35 executive orders per year during his 8-year tenure, Trump has already signed a third of that in two days! All Hail the King!
Democracy is when the people are in control, which is what Trump promised on his inaugural day. In the United States, we use our control by voting for Congress members and holding them accountable. Trump’s unilateral issuance of so many executive orders in less than a week without any input from the people via congressional voting is a monarchy or dictatorship. It is NOT a democracy. I thought those who voted for Trump wanted less government control and more control by the people? The Political Great Whine is confused!
So how do you feel about all of the executive orders that Trump is signing?
Thanks for “listening” to me whine. Hopefully my whining has made you think. If so, tell your friends/family/colleagues that you heard it through the Political Great Whine!
politicalgreatwhine.com 