Daily Times

The first hundred days of a US president in office arecustomarily used as the period most indicative of his success. Trump’s very first day in office has been eventful already. He signed some executive orders, the most prominent of which is his first action to undermine Obamacare by ordering government agencies to interpret the regulations of the law as loosely as they were legally ablewith a view to eliminating the financial burden Obamacare places on Americans. Meanwhile, massive protests broke out around the world against him, including a million women march in Washington DC. This start to Trump’s presidency is representative of what his first 100 days in office maybe like.

Trump’s first few days in office see change continue as Trump wields his power to issue executive orders. The President needs to consult with the legislature to make laws, but he can order agencies of his executive branch to carry out actions and programs. The first executive order he signed on January 23, his first full working day, was to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). President Obama spent much of his administration’s time working towards it. While the agreement was signed on 4 February 2016, it was never ratified. Trump’s order to withdraw serves as a symbol of theoverturning of Obama’s legacy.

Donald Trump, on the same day, also reinstated the Mexico City Policy. It is a federal government policy that bans federal funding to foreign NGOs that perform or promote abortions in other countries. It is a policy to discourage abortion around the world. Trump, bringing it back is not unexpected or unusual in any way. Republican President Ronald Reagan instituted the policy in 1984, rescinded by Democratic President Bill Clinton within two days of his taking office, reinstated by Republican President George W. Bush within two days of his taking office, and rescinded again by Democratic President Barack Obama within three days of his taking office. But Donald Trump taking his turn is likely to exacerbate the animosity of liberals towards him, many of whom view it as a global assault on women’s health and their rights.

On January 24, Trump brought back the construction of two oil pipelines in the United States, Keystone XL and Dakota Access. The Keystone Pipeline System runs from Alberta in Canada to Illinois, Texas, and Oklahoma in the US, transporting oil from the massive deposits in the Western Canadian Sedimentary System to America. It generated considerable controversy because of the danger of oil spills from the pipeline, which was routed through important ecological areas, and because of the high carbon emissions from theextraction of oil sands. On November 6, 2015, the Obama Administration finally ended the project. The Dakota Access Pipeline is an underground pipeline that is supposed to run for more than a thousand miles from oil fields in North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, ending at an oil tank farm in Illinois. The controversy around it has been particularly intense because at stake is not just the eco-system of the wilderness but living people and their concerns. The pipeline’s construction resulted in long-running protests that led to the project being halted on December 4, 2016, as authorities declared they would look for alternative routes for the pipeline, away from disputed areas.

Donald Trump revived the Dakota Access Pipeline Project before alternative routes could be found and he rejected the environmental review processes that were supposed to make sure the pipeline runs through areas that were as safe as possible, saying that they were too cumbersome.

Now that Trump has brought the pipeline back exactly as it was before, the unrest is likely to come back. Plus, the situation could even be worse than before, as Trump’s presidency has been beset by massive demonstrations, which have also seen violence. The Women’s March on Washington on 21 January is the largest one-day protest in US history. This general anti-Trump unrest, which has extended all around the country, could link up with the anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota, exacerbating both situations. Trump’s revival of the North Dakota AccessPipeline project is bad timing. He could have waited for tensions to die down first.

Finally, on January 25, Trump turned his attention to the most ambitious part of his agenda, immigration. In order to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico, his directives increased the number of border patrol agents by 5,000 and tripled the number of immigration officers. He took action against sanctuary cities by cutting off federal funding to them. They include many of the largest US cities. The executive action Trump has taken in this regard pits him against many of America’s mayors and is creating a strong backlash.

As for his famous wall, Trump issued an order to the Department of Homeland Security to begin planning the construction of the huge barrier he wanted along the US-Mexican border. Estimates of the cost of the wall vary, with a study by the Washington Post putting it at close to 25 billion dollars while Trump says it will be no more than 12 billion dollars, which is still a lot of money, and Trump said on his campaign trail that he would get Mexico to pay for the project. For the sake of speed, Trump is set to get the wall built with federal money. He says he will get Mexico to reimburse the costs later.

The other big immigration issue for Trump is the risk of terror attacks committed by Muslims who come from outside. The focus particularly is in the large numbers of Syrian refugees who travel to various parts of the world, including tens of thousands to the United States, because of the long-running Syrian Civil War. He has not taken any action yet but is planning to do so soon. According to the New York Times, an executive order has been drafted that would keep out all refugees from anywhere in the world for at least 120 days and people from certain Muslim countries for a month. Meanwhile, Syrian refugees would be kept out indefinitely. We cannot yet be sure if such an order will be passed but if it is, it would be a radical move and likely, a controversial one.

It is very rare for the presidency to be this eventful in the first few days. Both the actions of and the reactions to Donald Trump forecast what Trump’s term in office will be like.It seems that America will finally see “change.” However, the countryis also set for turbulent and uncertain times ahead.

The author is a writer, environmental activist, poet, and documentary maker. He blogs at www.jshahzebkhan.wordpress.com.