At the moment Trump is in what might be called the executive-action phase of his presidency. Beyond fighting for his Cabinet appointments on Capitol Hill, everything Trump has done has relied solely on his executive power as president. At some point he’ll have to move into a legislative phase, with the introduction of bills dealing with health care, taxes, immigration, and more.But for now, Trump has a number of executive actions to point to: orders to
1) reduce the regulatory burdens of Obamacare;
2) freeze federal hiring;
3) pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership;
4) approve the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines;
5) strengthen enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws;
6) authorize planning for a U.S.-Mexico border wall;
7) tighten White House ethics rules;
8) reduce the number of federal regulations;
9) weaken Dodd-Frank financial regulations; and
10) temporarily suspend immigration from some terrorism-plagued nations.
Despite all the protests and all the media hysterics, these don’t seem radical to me. People can disagree about whether or not these are good ideas, but the idea that they are outside of normal political ideas is silly.
To all those fainting from the outrageousness of these executive actions, I have two words: Grow up!
