The Reason Review — January 2017
In November we told you that liberal resistance to the US presidential elections had “simmered down to a state of quiet shell shock,” and resigned acceptance. But since inauguration day it’s been open season for protesters opposing the manifold activities of the new administration.
With good reason. Since taking office President Trump has been quick to affect change: taking climate issues off his administration’s agenda, attacking the press, upsetting Mexico, banning Muslims, blocking TPP, crushing abortion rights, and proposing the reintroduction of CIA black sites and torture techniques, all within a week that’s seen his approval rating drop to 42%.
Which means that, although there’s other issues of great importance to discuss right now — the Russian Duma’s decriminalisation of domestic violence, the Knights of Malta’s contraception row with the Pope, Brazil’s prison riots, and terrorist attacks in both Istanbul and Jerusalem — this month’s Reason Review is turning its beady eye on Trump to offer an overview and add insight to the first weeks of his presidency. It’s not pretty.
Bring on The Wall
Let’s start on familiar territory. Trump’s presidential campaign was defined by one explicit promise: to build a wall between Mexico and the USA. “I will build a great wall,” he said, “and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” All clear?
Five days after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order to make good on that promise, putting the wheels in motion to break ground on the border. “A nation without borders is not a nation,” he said. “Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders, gets back its borders. I just signed two executive orders that will save thousands of lives, millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars.”
The Mexican government weren’t so sure. Shortly after, former Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada tweeted White House press secretary Sean Spicer: “Sean Spicer, I’ve said this to @realDonaldTrump and now I’ll tell you: Mexico is not going to pay for that fucking wall. #FuckingWall.” Fox neatly summarised the sentiments of the Mexican people — coining a catchy new hashtag in the process — and current president Enrique Peña Nieto immediately cancelled a Washington summit between himself and Trump.
But none of this has stopped Trump’s administration from discussing the wall as an inevitability, despite a seeming lack of understanding about how to fund it. Spicer announced last Thursday that a 20% tax would be levied on all goods imported from Mexico, allowing some $10 billion a year to be channeled directly into the project. What he seemed not to realise was that the impact of such a tax would cause consumer prices to skyrocket, thus costing U.S. citizens and not the Mexican government.
This has yet to be resolved.
Fake News
If Spicer’s name sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve been hearing a lot of it lately. Since his appointment as press secretary he’s hardly left the limelight, taking centre stage shortly after the inauguration to tell the world that Trump had wrangled the “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period.” He blasted any press sources that disputed his assertion, labelling it “deliberately false reporting,” and suggesting that Trump had been “deliberately framed” by the MSM.
This has been typical of the tone adopted by the new administration when dealing with the press. At his first press conference Trump took particular offence to the line of questioning adopted by CNN reporter Jim Acosta, saying “Not you. Not you. Your organisation is terrible… I’m not going to give you a question. You’re fake news.”
His rant followed Buzzfeed’s publication of an unsubstantiated memo suggesting that Russian operatives possessed compromising financial and personal information about the President. While Buzzfeed published the entire contents of the document, CNN, and other news organisations only reported on the existence of such a memo.
“Fake news” has become a rallying cry of the President and his team in relation to stories that paint him in a negative light. The New York Times in particular have attracted his ire in the last few days. “Somebody with aptitude and conviction should buy the FAKE NEWS and failing @nytimes and either run it correctly or let it fold with dignity!” he tweeted. Ironically during the election, fake news was the preserve of the alt-right, who have flipped the term on its head to suit the needs of the new administration.
In need of some light relief already? Try Alexandra Petri’s true, correct story of what happened at the inauguration.
The Muslim Ban
Trump’s New York Times tweet took place during the furore surrounding his most contentious executive order, which banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the Unites States. Passport holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen will be denied entry for at least 90 days. Furthermore, the United States will not accept any refugees for 120 days, with Syrian refugees being denied access indefinitely. American airports began detaining travellers just hours after the signing of the order, amidst widespread confusion at the border.
There is still confusion about just who the ban applies to. It was initially thought to apply to green card holders and dual citizens, meaning that a UK passport offers no guarantee of entry. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed to have negotiated an exemption for UK passport holders, but this was contradicted by the U.S. Embassy in London on the same day.
The list of those potentially affected included Olympic athlete Sir Mo Farah, a resident of the U.S. who holds dual Somali-UK citizenship, and who was training in Ethopia at the time of the enactment. Like many others, Farah feared he would be prevented from returning home to his wife and family. Farah subsequently received confirmation of his right to re-enter the country, but while the Foreign Office claims to have established that UK passport holders will not be affected, ambiguity still muddies the details of who the ban applies to.
In response to the ban, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said, “Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty,” while Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham described the ban as “a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.”
In trademark fashion Trump lashed out at his critics via his personal Twitter account, saying the act was necessary to keep “bad dudes” out of the United States. He also mocked “Chuck Schumer’s tears” and said of McCain and Graham: “They are sadly weak on immigration. The two Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.”
Trump first proposed a blanket ban on Muslims in December 2015, in a campaign trail speech greeted with widespread opposition from Democrats and Republicans alike. With rumours of a power struggle within the presidential inner circle, the travel ban shows the influence of Steve Bannon, Trump’s Chief Strategist. As the former chair of Breitbart News, Bannon is a prominent figure in alt-right and white nationalist circles.
As with many of Trump’s executive orders, the travel ban is expected to be contested before the Supreme Court. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Trump sacked attorney general Sally Yates for instructing justice department lawyers not to defend it in court. Yates believed that the ban was unconstitutional.
Theresa The Appeaser
All of this left Theresa May in a tricky situation; the executive order was implemented shortly after her visit to the new commander-in-chief. Meanwhile, plans for Trump’s own state visit to the UK came under fire: a petition calling for its cancellation received over 1.5 million signatures, backed by Jeremy Corbyn and former Labour leader Ed Miliband. Several former Tory cabinet ministers, including Baroness Warsi, also suggested that the state visit be called off.
In Parliament, MPs from across the political spectrum stood up to denounce Theresa May and Boris Johnson’s failure to challenge the executive order, with one Labour MP branding the Prime Minister “Theresa the Appeaser”. By contrast, the leaders of France, Germany, Canada and Mexico — the U.S.’s key economic and strategic partners — have been vocal in their criticism of the ban.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the act “runs contrary to the basic principles of international refugee assistance and international cooperation”, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote an open message of support to those affected: “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength”.
Theresa May’s own response was slightly more subdued. “We do not agree with this kind of approach,” was the wording of the official statement. Thousands subsequently gathered outside 10 Downing Street in response to May’s meek criticism, and the government’s refusal to cancel Trump’s state visit. Channel 4 news reported that May had been briefed about the travel ban during her visit to the U.S., but the Prime Minister has so far refused to comment.
After leaving Washington DC, May met with another dubious strongman — President Erdoğan of Turkey — to negotiate a £100 million arms deal. As president, Erdoğan has clamped down on freedom of the press and imprisoned political opponents. Turkey is 99.8 percent Muslim, and has so far received around 2.7 million Syrian refugees. The US, for its part, has taken a mere 18,000.
Women March
Liberal opposition to Trump’s presidency began in earnest the day after his inauguration, as millions of women around the world took to the streets. 500,000 people are thought to have marched in Washington DC, roughly three times the number that attended Trump’s inauguration. According to some estimates, the Women’s Marches were the largest demonstrations in US history, with 3.3 million taking part nationwide.
Around five million people are believed to have marched worldwide, with protests in 673 towns and cities — the smallest taking place in a Nova Scotia hamlet with a population of just 65.
In spite of his dubious past, 53 percent of white women voted for Trump, although Hillary Clinton won the votes of women as a whole. Pro-Trump sentiment was particularly pronounced amongst white women without college degrees, who voted for Trump over Clinton by a 27-point margin.
Pro-Life or Pro-Choice?
Trump also reinstated a ban on federal money going to international organisations that fund abortion treatments overseas. The ban also applies to charities and NGOs offering abortion advice and counselling.
In 2016, the US spent around $575 million on family planning in over 40 middle and low-income countries. However, many NGOs provide other forms of healthcare in the developing world, such as treatment for HIV and the Zika virus, as well as abortion services. Trump’s executive order will mean that these organisations will lose all federal funding, forcing many health clinics to close.
A widely circulated photograph showed Trump signing the order surrounded by six of his closest advisors — all of them men. Signed the day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which swept away many restrictions on abortions, many fear this order merely signals the beginning of a broader assault on abortion rights in the US.
A landmark of controversial American legislation, the abortion funding band has been signed and repealed by successive Republican and Democratic Presidencies over the past three decades. First signed into law by Republican president Ronald Reagan as the ‘Mexico City policy’ in 1984, it was repealed under Bill Clinton’s administration. George W. Bush reintroduced the ban in 2001, only for it to be overturned by Barack Obama in 2009.
Trump’s position on abortion has been notoriously inconsistent. In 1999 he told reporters that abortion was “a personal decision that should be left to the women and their doctors”. However, during his election campaign he changed tack and pledged to overturn Roe v. Wade, which would automatically criminalise abortion in 13 states.
Yesterday, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court, filling a seat left vacant since the death of Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch is seen as a conservative judge, and Democrats fear that his appointment could tip the balance in favour of overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Pipelines Prevail
Overturning the work of previous administrations has been a common occurrence in the past week. Notably Trump has instructed work to resume on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, both blocked by the Obama administration. The DAPL dominated headlines in late 2016, as clashes escalated between police and protesters at the Standing Rock reservation.
President Trump has signed yet more executive actions to “get that pipeline built”. He has also streamlined the regulatory process around similar building projects, shortening the environmental review process and ordering that all the raw materials for construction should come from the U.S.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman David Archambault II was understandably unimpressed. “President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process,” he said in a press statement. “Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream.”
After the DAPL was halted by the Obama administration, an existing pipeline, Belle Fourche, ruptured, spewing oil into a creek less than 150 miles from Standing Rock. Environmental groups have already mobilised to take action against the renewed construction plans. You can donate to their cause over here.
Bye Bye Obamacare
And finally (for now), Trump has made swift work of dismantling the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The act, passed in 2010, was designed to make health insurance cheaper and more accessible to the general public, making it a legal requirement for insurers to offer cover to patients without discrimination.
The act has been a bone of contention for Republicans since its inception; the name Obamacare was coined to deter citizens from signing up, based on their distaste for Obama himself. It worked. Many still believe the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare to be two separate things.
This may not be a problem for much longer. Trump’s first executive action was to repeal Obamacare:
“It is the policy of my Administration to seek the prompt repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148), as amended (the “Act”). In the meantime, pending such repeal, it is imperative for the executive branch to ensure that the law is being efficiently implemented, take all actions consistent with law to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act, and prepare to afford the States more flexibility and control to create a more free and open healthcare market.”
By that it seems Trump meant pulling the remaining advertising of the January 31 enrolment deadline, even scrapping ads that had already been paid for.
If all of this has got you feeling powerless and frustrated, you can donate to the ACLU over here.
We’ll be following up on many of these themes in our forthcoming issue: Power. Available early March.
