U.S. President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order related to the review of the Dodd-Frank Act in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Feb. 3, 2017. Trump will order a sweeping review of the Dodd-Frank Act rules enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis, a White House official said, signing an executive action Friday designed to significantly scale back the regulatory system put in place in 2010. (Photographer: Aude Guerrucci/Pool via Bloomberg)
With President Trump’s first few weeks in office, he has been stirring controversy with his many executive orders since his inauguration on January 20.
President Trump has remained true to his campaign promises with his time in office so far through his executive orders on matters such as the immigration wall, immigration restriction, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and abortion limitations.
A prominent campaigning point for President Trump was his promise to build a wall along the Mexican border in hopes that it would prevent drug transportation and illegal immigrants from entering the country. If successful, the wall is estimated to cost $25 billion (by a Washington Post study) and will initially be funded by taxpayer money. However, the president continues to support his previous claim that Mexico will “pay” for the construction, whether it is through increased tariffs, border-crossing fees, or a border adjustment tax.
Among other executive orders, President Trump recently signed an executive order banning immigration from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for a minimum of 90 days. All refugees will be banned for a minimum of 120 days, and all Syrian refugees are banned indefinitely. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security has issued a suspension of all actions on President Trump’s immigration ban with the plan to resume standard inspection of travelers.
President Trump has already made it a goal to repeal Obamacare, which he claims is a “disaster.” He has also signed an order to ban funding for international abortions as a stepping stone into his pro-life agenda which is one of the issues raised during the protests and marches that have occurred since Trump’s presidency began.
President Trump has also approved construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines after both had been halted under former President Obama as a result of environmental and public interest groups’ concerns.
Among the President’s lesser known executive orders was his order to start rolling back business regulations, stating that unless prohibited by law, whenever an executive agency or department proposes a new regulation, “it shall identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed.” This will assist large and small businesses alike by loosening restrictions, but many critics claim that this could result in the loosening of environmental regulations as well.
President Trump has held true to many of his statements made during his campaign, and despite the protests occurring each time, it appears that the President will only continue to stay true to his campaign promises.