Trump’s First Month Sends a Powerful Message, at Home and Abroad

NOTE: This article will report about the Trump administration’s policies. When reporting politics, it is vital to not be biased. My goal through this article is to accurately inform the school about what is happening, and though I and many others have strong opinions, I try to do this in the least biased manner possible. Secondly, this article will deal with heavy topics regarding various policies and people. Politics in general can be overwhelming, and recent events have only amplified that for people. Despite these difficult topics, I think it's important that we the youth as the future of this country stay informed and use this information to change the world for the better. This is why I write these articles. 

On the 20th of January at 12:00, JD Vance raised his right hand and swore an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States. Moments later, at 12:01, Donald Trump did the same, making them the 50th Vice President and 47th President respectively in American history, thus commencing what is going to be a truly intriguing 4 years. On this day the old leader of the free world became the new, and a tone was set whose rippling effects will henceforth create a new world order, whatever that may look like. 

Trump 2.0 will be drastically different from his first go-around. This time he is experienced, has both chambers of Congress plus the Supreme Court, and has had the last 4 years to plan what a return to the White House would look like. He has been in the headlines constantly for the last 4 years. Since his election loss in 2020, he has been indicted 4 times and became the first former president convicted of a crime. However, none of that stopped him on his way back to the presidency.                                                                                           

The Cabinet 

When George Washington was first elected president in 1789, he created a cabinet despite there being no constitutional mandate to do so. He believed he needed a team of advisors he could turn to and trust especially in times of crisis. 

Today, the cabinet is a vital part of the government, and now it was Trump’s turn to select his, with the majority of the Senate’s permission. Though I don’t have enough time to cover every pick, I’ll cover some notable ones.

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State 

Marco Rubio ran as a candidate for the GOP nomination in the 2016 presidential election. He ultimately fell short of Donald Trump. Nine years later, he is now Trump’s Secretary of State, the most important position regarding foreign policy. He spent over a decade in the Senate representing Florida and most recently was a part of the Senate Intelligence Committee along with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is a hawk on China, Cuba, and Iran. Rubio was a very well-respected member of the Senate and was confirmed by a unanimous 99-0 vote. 

Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense 

Hegseth was one of Trump’s most controversial picks. The Secretary of Defense is the head of the US military, which is the biggest and most powerful in history. Hegseth was the host of Fox News’ channel “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor to the network since 2014. He served as a major in the National Guard from 2002 to 2021 and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, earning him 2 bronze stars. Despite this, his lack of senior military or national security experience has caused doubt. Further questions were raised about him as a person, including concerns about sexual assault allegations against him and reports about his drinking habits. He has also made comments that women should not serve in combat. He was confirmed in the Senate in a 51-50 vote. 3 republicans voted no (Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell), but JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote to confirm Hegseth. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of Health and Human Services 

Son and nephew of icons of the Democratic Party, Kennedy originally ran against Joe Biden for the party’s presidential nomination. When he lost, he ran as an independent, and then in August he endorsed Donald Trump. Kennedy is a former environmental lawyer and was known for his controversial views on vaccines. He has started overhauling the department and its agencies, which include the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control. Despite facing major pushback in the Senate and a tough confirmation hearing, he managed to scrape by with a 52-48 vote with Mitch McConnell being the only Republican who voted no. 

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence 

Gabbard is a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and sought the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2020 then left the party in 2022. She served in the Army National Guard for more than 20 years. She has also been accused of echoing Russian propaganda. Gabbard then became a big part of the Trump campaign and helped prepare him for his debates. National Intelligence is the department that controls the CIA, a sector in which Gabbard has very little experience. Despite facing major pushback from the Senate, she scraped by with a 52-48 vote, with Mitch McConnell being the only Republican Senator to vote no.  

TikTok 

Everyone almost collapsed on January 19th when the social media app TikTok went dark, and they found out they had to revert to Instagram Reels. However, less than 24 hours later, their worries were swept away as Trump postponed the ban for 75 days. 10 months ago, Biden signed a law that gave ByteDance 9 months to sell TikTok, something Trump originally backed. But he switched sides after TikTok played a big role in his election win, with clips attracting billions of views. 

Government Spending 

Trump in his first weeks signed multiple executive orders regarding government spending. First, he created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The goal is to cut costs, and the new department will be spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk. He then mandated that all federal workers must work in offices and can not work from home. He ordered a halt on federal hires until his full government was in place. Two of Trump’s most controversial orders came in the form of freezing federal funding. First was a freeze on foreign aid, a move which was felt in all corners of the world. Trump and Musk are trying to combine America's foreign aid agency, USAID, and the State Department, saying the agency was run by “radical left lunatics” and that it got away with “tremendous fraud.” Democrats dubbed this move unconstitutional. The other controversial order was a halt on all federal loans and grants until mid-February. However, this move faced major pushback from federal courts, thus putting it on hold. Trump’s desire to cut the size of the federal government has resulted in mass layoffs, with thousands of federal workers losing their jobs. 

Health and Climate

At his inauguration, President Trump vowed to “drill baby, drill” for more fossil fuels. One of his first actions in office was to declare a “national energy emergency,” after he promised to expand energy production while he was on the campaign trail. Copying what he did in his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from both the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, both of which Biden had rejoined. Trump also overturned many other of Biden’s climate policies, including ending the ‘Green New Deal.’ Another order that garnered social media attention was that he wanted America to go back to plastic straws instead of paper. Along with rolling back actions on climate change, Trump also rolled back orders regarding abortion, that directed agencies to improve access to abortion, and Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Regarding vaccines, he has reinstated service members who were fired for refusing the Covid vaccine and has withheld funding from schools and universities that require students to have the Covid vaccine. 

Immigration 

The key issues of Trump’s presidential campaign? Immigration and the southern border. These came into the spotlight on his very first days as he signed numerous executive orders including declaring a national emergency at the southern border, sending troops to the border, designating gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and beginning mass deportations of undocumented migrants. Arrests have taken place in major cities all over the country, and Trump has said the U.S. will hold migrants at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Trump’s most controversial move, however, was signing an executive order overturning birthright citizenship. This move is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment, as the president does not have the right to amend the Constitution on his own accord. This executive order faced major pushback from attorneys general all across the country, and federal courts have placed the move on hold. 

Economy  

Throughout the last election cycle, American voters picked the economy as their most important issue by a wide margin. Trump has said he wants to end inflation. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation saw a sharp increase at the tail end of the first Trump presidency and spiked to record highs during the Biden presidency. Though it has since come down, it's still quite high compared to where it was prior to the pandemic. Trump said he would tackle inflation through large tax cuts, reducing the size of government and tariffs, the method he campaigned on most. On February 1st he signed orders imposing a 10% tariff on China and a 25% tariff on both Mexico and Canada, which were to begin on February 4. After negotiations with both Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada and President Sheinbaum of Mexico, both tariffs were delayed 30 days to March 4. He also has imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum to go into effect on March 12, and on April 2 a tariff on foreign cars will go into effect. This has ignited trade wars on multiple fronts. The goal of this is to get companies to start producing and manufacturing in America. For now, however, due to our heavy reliance on foreign imports, these tariffs will cause significant price increases for American consumers. 

Foreign Policy 

Foreign policy is shaping up to be much different now that Trump is in power. Before Trump was sworn in, he said that he wanted to annex Greenland, take back the Panama Canal, and make Canada the 51st state. Though these may sound like brash comments, they were made seriously, though Trump hasn’t made many moves to push these statements. As mentioned earlier, Trump paused foreign aid and is trying to dismantle USAID. On the 19th of January, a ceasefire came into effect, putting a halt to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Trump suggested relocating displaced Palestinians from Gaza to the countries of Jordan and Egypt, an idea that both nations have rejected. When Netanyahu visited Washington D.C., Trump proposed the idea of the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip. He then proceeded to threaten Hamas to release Israeli hostages and threatened Jordan and Egypt after they rejected the notion of taking in displaced Palestinians. 

A lot has also happened regarding Europe. At a meeting of NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers, Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Trump wants the war to end through negotiations with Russia and Ukraine but exclude the rest of Europe. He added that Ukraine restoring its pre-2014 borders and joining NATO were both deemed as “an unrealistic objective,” and that the U.S. will not deploy troops to Ukraine. These announcements shocked Europe, which then met and feared that their alliance with the U.S. could be under strain. Hoping for some clarity on the peace negotiations, there were high hopes for JD Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference. However, Vance didn’t mention Ukraine, rather criticizing European leaders for not upholding freedom of speech and voicing approval of Europe’s far-right political parties, especially Germany’s far-right party ahead of elections in the nation. 

Diversity and Gender 

Trump on his first day declared that the U.S. will only recognize “two sexes, male and female.” These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. This move will affect both passports and visas. He also signed executive orders restricting gender-affirming care for minors. In addition, Trump has terminated all DEI programs in the Federal Government. 

Conclusion

Due to the volume of changes that have taken place, I can’t fit everything into one article and can only scratch the surface. Accordingly, I encourage everyone to conduct their own research.

In conclusion, Trump has come out swinging. He is back and will do whatever it takes to go after his opponents, and whether that be within the federal government or a foreign power, he is playing an offensive game with full-court press. This is shaping up to be a presidential term the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. Sadly we are not able to see in the future, but I suggest we all buckle up and experience this rollercoaster unfold.