Dramatic steps

Since 1933 US presidents and other world leaders have launched their administrations by proclaiming policies for their first 100 days in office. This reversed the initial use of the phrase during the Great Depression by US President Franklin Roosevelt to sum up in a radio broadcast his administration’s achievements during its first weeks in power. These achievements were dramatic. He declared a bank holiday to halt the run on the banks and passed legislation to protect farmers and homeowners and succour the unemployed.

While no successor has equalled Roosevelt’s feat, newly inaugurated Donald Trump has sown confusion and consternation on both foreign and domestic fronts with his executive orders and pronouncements rather than projecting coherence and competence. Writing in “The Washington Post” on Jan.24, columnist Dana Milbank argued, “The crush of vindictive, cruel, unconstitutional and just plain bonkers orders and actions coming from the restored Trump administration in its first week makes even the worst-case predictions look conservative.” Milbank also said Trump appeared to be “bewildered.”

This was all too clear in his policy actions and proclamations. President of the International Rescue Committee and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “He promised that he would disrupt the existing way of doing things, both within the United States and internationally. He has been consistent in that all the way through the campaign, during the transition period and now in the first three days” he was in office.

He withdrew The US from the Paris climate change accord, thereby putting back the fight against global warming by another four years. By pulling out of the World Health Organisation, Trump is set to deprive the global body of $706 million, about nine per cent of its budget. This could negatively impact existential programmes and development of vaccines which counter and prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

Trump paused foreign aid spending, except to Egypt and Israel and halted emergency food deliveries. He issued “stop work” on current assistance programmes and argued aid must be in line with his “foreign policy agenda.”

He barred entry to and resettlement in the US of vetted and approved refugees and asylum seekers, including 1.660 Afghans who, risking their lives, worked with the US during its 2001-2021 occupation of Afghanistan. Miliband said this measure had taken the US backward. He stated, “The refugee resettlement program is a proven, orderly, cost-effective way of offering life-saving protection to some of the most vulnerable people in the world.”

Trump demanded NATO members spend five per cent of GDP on defence to strengthen the alliance although the US spends 3.4 per cent. Trump falsely complained that European Union member Spain was a member of BRICS (the bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and singled out that country as a defaulter on defence funding.

In a video address, Trump warned business leaders attending the Davos Economic Forum that unless they manufacture in the US, import tariffs would be high. By continuing to speak of controlling the Panama Canal and Denmark’s vast Greenland territory and making Canada the 51st US state, Trump boosted alienation of these governments and citizens.

On this region, Trump’s call for 1.5 million Palestinians from Gaza to be resettled in Egypt and Jordan has been rejected by Cairo and Amman as a violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Trump has reversed his predecessor’s sanctions on violent Israeli West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinian villages, burnt homes, and uprooted olive trees.

On the domestic front, Trump signed an executive decree to revoke the 14th amendment to the US Constitution guaranteeing citizenship to people born in the US (known as birthright citizenship) whatever the status of their parents. This US is among 40 countries adopting this practice, most in the Americas, including Canada and Mexico. Trump’s decree has been blocked temporarily by a federal judge due lawsuits in Washington state, Oregon, Illinois, and Arizona. While 22 of the 50 states and many rights organisations oppose this measure, Congressional Republicans have backed Trump’s edict by proposing a bill limiting birthright citizenship.

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,500 supporters who took part in the riot at the US Capitol on Jan.6, 2021, to protest his loss of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the rioters “patriots” and condemned their incarceration as “national injustice,” ignoring millions of citizens who uphold the law and call the violence an “insurrection.” While most of those released praised Trump, a few rejected the pardon, saying they deserved to serve sentences for their actions.

Trump has moved to overhaul parts of the US immigration system with the aim of halting the flow of migrants into the country and deporting those living there illegally. He has ordered the deployment of 1,500 active-duty troops along the southern border with Mexico, an increase by 60 per cent of armed soldiers in the zone. Trump has suspended entry of undocumented migrants to the US and cancelled asylum hearings. Before his order, migrants were able to arrive at the US border and had the legal right to apply for asylum. Once border crossings resume, he is expected to reinstate his first term policy of “remain in Mexico” until asylum claims are heard and acted upon. He has also expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s powers to arrest and detain unlawful migrants residing in the US.

Farmers, building contractors, restauranteurs, and householders have complained that restricting immigration from the south will deprive them of labour for tending and harvesting crops and construction as well as cooks, waiters, housekeepers, and child minders. Rights organisations have argued his clamp down is racist.

US consumer organisations said Trump’s tariffs will raise prices for the public and cause inflation as well as prompt trading partners to retaliate in kind.

Unlike Roosevelt’s successful tackling of Great Depression era woes, Trump’s first 100 days are likely to be declared a disaster on both foreign and domestic fronts.

Photo: TNS