Many more affected and more knowledgeable than myself have commented (boy have they commented) on where he will take the United States during the next four years, but there’s no doubt whatsoever that the 2016 American election will be recognized down the road, not only as historic but as absolutely unique. While his election has scared the hell out of many Americans, it has also prompted much discussion as to exactly why the pretty much “unthinkable” has happened and how such a buffoon could capture the imagination of so many, given his bluster, his lying, his misogyny, his disrespect for so many people and policies, his outright racism and ruthlessness.
But he was elected and is now the 45th President of The United States, and his actions since taking office should strike fear even in the hearts of those who welcomed him as a messiah (and what a noisy and raucous welcome it was) from day one of the campaign. Having rolled out his to-do list at rallies all across the country to loud applause and cheers, he is now in a “just watch me” position, signing executive orders. With cameras rolling, Trump produces a new pen for each order, signs his name, then holds it up for everyone to see, proclaiming each one is “the greatest” and will do “wonderful things for the country.”
However pleased Trump and his cohorts are with his executive orders, they were neither pleased with nor prepared for the uproar his anti-immigration order caused almost as soon as it was enforced at airports across America this past weekend. On a cold morning in New York, protesters made their way to JFK airport to voice their abhorrence of what their new president had unleashed on their country. Families and individuals arriving “home” were detained, some for hours, while one family was immediately sent back to Syria, and the chorus of anger grew larger and louder and spread throughout the country.
A New York judge soon issued an order staying the ban on the grounds that sending some immigrants home could cause them “irreparable injury” (although the jury is still out, so to speak, on the many other lawsuits that have been launched). On Tuesday, the Governor of Virginia launched his own lawsuit and tore into Trump saying that America had fought a war to get rid of a monarchy and there was no way Trump was going to take on the role of monarch and bypass Congress.
Adam Cox, a law professor at New York University wrote that “ever since legal discrimination was banned, the Supreme Court has never upheld an immigration policy that openly discriminated on the basis of race or religion.” So put that in your pipe Trump. Some claim Trump’s decision-making team is too small, consisting only of hard-core Trumpeters, who may not have any relevant experience. Rudy Giuliani admitted that Trump had asked him to write the anti-immigration law and to make sure it was legal. (If you need a lawyer, don’t call Rudy!)Trump became notorious for lying during the campaign and his staff have taken up where he left off, lying about the size of crowds at his inauguration for a starter. One writer noted that when you are asked by your superior to do something stupid or dishonest, as was Sean Spicer when he harangued the press about crowd numbers, you display your true loyalty, something Trump would definitely demand. So it’s not surprising that a string of Trumpeters has been sent out to defend the immigration ban. His chief of staff, Reince Priebus, appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, actually stated that Trump was “not willing to be wrong” on the subject. (It will take at least until the next election to figure that one out.)
Another defender, retired General John Kelly, Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security, went so far as to say he knew two years ago that Trump planned to issue such an order, and everyone who knew him realized he would “never back down.” Well, he did back down once, deferring to his new defense secretary, retired General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, on the effectiveness of waterboarding as an interrogation technique. (Perhaps Trump is afraid of “Mad Dog” who once said it was “fun to shoot some people.”)
Amid all the chaos and concern, as people with visas, green cards and passports are told they can’t fly to the States, comes the question: why? Why is Trump causing all this uproar? Well, think back a year ago. What did Trump promise to do on Day One in the White House? He said he’d issue executive orders making good on a whole list of promises and that’s exactly what he’s doing and the devil take the hindmost.But Trump’s executive orders are having consequences he may not have intended. As Britain’s Labor leader, Ed Miliband, said “the travel ban has made the world a more dangerous place by handing a propaganda coup to Islamic State extremists.”
God bless America.
Dolores Campbell, a lifelong resident of Sydney, is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Cape Breton Highlander, the Nova Scotian, Cape Breton Magazine, Catholic New Times and The Cape Breton Post.
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