President Donald J. Trump’s First Ten Days in Office
Donald J. Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017. It has been ten days since then, and the new president has certainly been busy.
The following is a list and summary of some of the executive orders and memoranda that the new president has put in place so far.
On the day of Trump’s inauguration, he signed his first executive order as President of the United States. According to the White House website, the first executive order was titled “Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal.” President Trump signed his first executive order with the hopes of repealing the Affordable Care Act, which has been nicknamed “Obamacare.”
On Monday, Jan. 23, President Trump sent a memorandum issuing a hiring freeze in the executive branch of government. Positions that could have been filled will remain empty, and no new positions will be made. Although, the memorandum does include, “the head of any executive department or agency may exempt from the hiring freeze any positions that it deems necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities.” This memorandum did not include a freeze for hiring military personnel.
President Trump also sent two more memoranda on Jan. 23. The first was regarding to withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in hopes of negotiating trade deals with countries one-on-one. The second reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which is “to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization,” according to the memorandum.
On Tuesday, Jan. 24, Trump signed one executive order and sent out four memoranda. Three of the memoranda were regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline, and how the pipelines should be constructed using materials that are made in the U.S. The last memorandum sent that day was to give the ability to streamline the reviews and approvals for new manufacturing facilities.
The executive order signed on Jan. 24 was titled “Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure Projects.” The basics of this executive order are defining what “high priority” infrastructure projects are, how something becomes “high priority,” and how to most efficiently get through environmental procedures before the projects can begin.
On Wednesday, Jan. 25, the president signed two executive orders. The first, titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” was signed to enforce regulations to deport illegal aliens in our country, especially those who have committed crimes. The second is titled “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements,” otherwise known as the executive order to build “The Wall.”
The executive order signed on Friday, Jan. 27, was likely the most controversial of all. Trump signed the executive order titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” This executive order states that Syrian refugees will no longer be taken in and no more than 50,000 refugees will be allowed into the country in total. It also bans entry into the United States for a period of 90 days for seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
On Saturday, Jan. 28, President Trump sent two more memoranda. The first memorandum was in regards to coming up with a plan to defeat the radical Islamic terrorist group, ISIS. The second memorandum was titled, “Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council,” and had to do with committees under the NSC and HSC.
President Trump’s first ten days will certainly make future history books interesting. Hopefully this comprehensive list has given more insight into what the president’s executive orders and memoranda have contained.
