Trump Sprints
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/opinion/trump-immigration-jan6-pardons.html
These are just two of the many op-ed pieces I could have attached in which President Trump’s first week goes under both severe criticism and grudging admiration. Put me in the latter camp.
His dazzling and dizzying raft of executive actions are precisely what the people who voted for him wanted. I admire a man who does what he said he would do.
Personally, I am totally fine with his deportation policies. He himself has said “if you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country.” He’s right. You also have to love his use of military transports to carry deportees back to their native countries. You also have to love the president of Colombia trying to stand up to Trump by refusing two transports at which point trump slapped him with a 25% tariff. The Colombian leader backed down. Coffee and roses will still be coming on Valentine’s Day. Trump should not mistake Colombia for China, however.
That being said, Mr. Trump’s executive order to hold up funds allocated, authorized, and appropriated by Congress is foolish and unnecessary. He should have dealt with that legally by passing the proper legislation through “his” Congress. Federal judges are jumping in rescinding his orders. We are undoubtedly heading to the Supreme Court. Is this within the law? Ditto his suspension of the inspectors general without giving Congress the required 30-day notice. Does Trump care?
His pardoning of all of the January 6 felons is ridiculous. It sends the message that people found guilty of attacking law enforcement officers can get off. What’s the message to the law enforcement officers? Surely there were some in jail who should have been let go. They may well have trespassed, but little else. But the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are bad dudes who came to Washington to overthrow the government. They won’t stop trying. This is akin to letting out Palestinian terrorists. These are our homegrown terrorists. They’ll be back for more.
Anyway, you have got to hand it to Mr. Trump. He has hit the ground running doing exactly what he was elected to do. The problem is that this may not serve the best interests of the country and some of it may be illegal. Surely trying to reverse birth right citizenship is going to require a Constitutional amendment.
My questions are simple really.
Will the Supreme Court let him get away with it? Will his constituents (the people that voted for him for he doesn’t consider the rest of us on his team) be happy in four years with the country? As Tom Friedman points out in the second article, we are likely to be behind China in AI, electric vehicles, and energy technology based on Trump’s energy policy.
I really cannot see Pete Hegseth pointing the Pentagon in the right direction militarily if the first thing his boss does in that realm is getting rid of transgender soldiers who have honorably served. And on that subject, there may well be only two sexes for the most part, XX and XY, but there are many genders. For goodness sake, look around.
So, like I said, Mr. Trump is off to a blazing start. I’m not exactly sure I like where he’s taking us, but I am along for the ride, like it or not.
He is that rare leader who actually is doing what he said he would do. He’s abolishing DEI (I’m good with that one). My guess is that the Education Department is next. He’s firing government lawyers left and right. He’s dismissing many federal workers as is his right to do. My advice would be to do what you know to be legal and within the bounds of your authority and don’t tread on the 14th Amendment.
Of course, he hasn’t asked me. If the Supreme Court rolls over for him, I fear divided government is over and the oligarchy has set in. Welcome to Russia. Trump is indeed Putin’s rival. The Chinese are laughing.
