Trump's AmericaDonald Trump is a business mogul and one of the most entertaining people in modern media. In 2020, he's also one of the most polarizing—and potentially dangerous—figures in world history.
As strange as it was for Donald Trump to actually be elected president of the United States, there were even more unbelievable events in the first days of Trump's presidency. Not only were there the crazy things that happened around Trump's inauguration, but there was also his meeting with the CIA where he decided to declare a nebulous war on the media, the dropping of the terrifying new “alternative facts,” and a Nazi got punched in the face. If Trump’s first few days in office is any indication of the next four years, life is about to get a lot weirder.
From the outside it seems like Donald Trump is trying his hardest to turn America into his newest business venture where the citizens are his employees and what he says goes. But he doesn’t seem to realize that countries aren’t run like that. And even though America isn’t perfect, you definitely can’t bluff your way through leading a nation that’s never been more at odds with itself. Trump’s committal to blindly rushing into conflict, and half-assing everything he does has made the first week of his presidency seem like something out of a Terry Gilliam film, but unfortunately it’s real life.
This is just a rundown of things that happened in Donald Trump’s presidency in the first days he’s been president. It's gonna be a long four years.
He Reverse Protections For Transgender Students Using School Restrooms
On February 22, the Trump administration formally reversed a policy put in place by President Barack Obama that protected transgender students who wanted to use restrooms that align with their chosen gender identity.
This opens the doors for schools to choose whether they will force transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their birth sex not their chosen gender identity. LGBTQ advocates say trans students should be able to use the restroom of their chosen gender, while anti-trans supporters say this will harm cisgendered children.
The change comes just as the Supreme Court was set to hear oral arguments stemming from a lawsuit out of Virginia against a school board who wouldn't allow a transgendered boy to use a boy's bathroom. Because of the change, the Supreme Court will no longer have to take up the issue.
His Administration Is Making It Easier For Puppy Mills To Hide Abuse
In what seems like a move only someone without a heart would do, apparently the Trump Administration is making it easier for puppy mills to hide animal abuse. According to news reports, Trump's people quietly removed a part of the USDA's website that provided information about animal abuse. This included sections that recorded groups who were cited for animal abuse - including zoos, circuses, and puppy mills. If you didn't know, puppy mills are places where breeders intensively breed dogs that are often in terrible condition. Cities around the country have banned puppy mills because of their inhumane practices.
He Asked People At The National Prayer Breakfast To Pray For Ratings
At February's National Prayer Breakfast - an annual event held in Washington D.C. and attended by religious leaders and politicians - President Donald Trump asked attendees to pray The Apprentice gets good ratings this year.
"We had tremendous success on The Apprentice," he said. "But when I ran for president, I had to leave the show. That's when I knew for sure I was doing it. And they hired a big, big movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger to take my place. And we know how that turned out. The ratings went down the tubes. It's been a total disaster. And Mark [Burnett] will never bet against Trump again. And I want to just pray for Arnold if we can, for those ratings, okay?"
He also used the opportunity to promise that he would get rid of an amendment banning religious organizations who are tax exempt from financing political candidates, to brag about the time he fired his agent, and also told attendees the US was being "taken advantage of" by every other country in the world. This was a far departure from the normal tone of the breakfast, which is usually seen as a somber and apolitical event.
Hours after acting US Attorney General Sally Yates said she would not defend President Trump's immigration order, he fired her and said she "betrayed the Department of Justice." She was replaced by a US attorney from Virginia who said he would enforce the president's order until Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) is confirmed as the new US Attorney General.
The US Attorney General's Office works independently from the executive branch. Many saw the firing as a parallel to the Nixon administration, when former President Richard Nixon fired both the US Attorney General and his deputy after they defied him in their investigation of the Watergate scandal. Nixon famously resigned for his involvement in Watergate. By firing both the attorney general and the deputy, Nixon was trying to control the investigation into Watergate - specifically the release of recordings where Nixon was speaking frankly about his involvement in the case.
Trump Banned Muslims From Seven Countries From Entering The US
In an extremely controversial move, Trump signed an executive order that immediately stopped anyone coming from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Sudan into the US - including people with legal visas or green cards. This not only stopped Syrian refugees from fleeing a war-torn country, but also shut out hundreds of legal US residents who were traveling abroad from getting back into the country. People were detained at airports until the ACLU successfully argued in court for a temporary stay on the executive order.
The ban would affect anyone from the countries for 90 days until they could be "properly vetted," according to the Trump administration. Anyone coming from Syria was put on an indefinite hold. Thousands protested at airports across the US demanding those detained were released. A federal government official later said they would reverse the ban for anyone with a green card.
He Pissed Off A Bunch Of Former CIA Agents By Giving A Tacky Speech
Trump spoke to members of the CIA a day after his inauguration and gave a speech about how smart he was, how terrible the media is, and give out false figures of how many people attended his inauguration. Coincidentally (or maybe not) he was standing in front of a wall memorializing all the CIA agents who died in the line of duty.
A lot of people thought this was tacky and an affront to the CIA's work protecting the country. Former CIA Director John Brennan said he was deeply saddened and angered by the speech before calling it a "despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of [the] CIA's Memorial Wall of Agency heroes."
