The Trump Era

2025-01-21 11:40:00, Opinione Ilir Kalemaj

The Trump Era

Re-elected President Donald Trump kicked off his new and final term not only with a historic speech that encapsulated the main themes of his campaign, but also with the speed he demonstrated after the vote count was completed and he was declared the 47th president of the United States. Despite the old adage that campaigns are written in poetry and governance in prose, implying a retreat from many of his electoral promises, so far this does not seem to be the case. In fact, he has gone faster and deeper than he did in his first term, starting from his first day in office.

Since the first day of sitting in the Oval Office, President Trump signed over 200 executive orders, convincingly breaking and surpassing all previous presidential records. All of these were announced during the campaign but also emphasized during his inaugural speech, which was more like an inauguration, considering the enthusiasm with which it was received in the US and the attention it received from all the world's media. But what exactly did these executive orders focus on, some of which were fundamental for determining the new course of US foreign policy, while others were complementary and addressed bureaucratic problems?

If we can group them into main lines, they first addressed the previous Biden administration and defined a break and change of course in relation to it. Not only by reversing a full 78 policies of the previous administration, but also by holding it responsible for the increase in the cost of living of Americans, for the deepening of the deficit and debt, for the excessive bureaucratic and regulatory aspects that had inhibited entrepreneurship, etc. Another signal that is actually a deja-vu of the first Trump administration, was from the Paris climate treaty.

Other campaign promises kept from the first day of work were the order to declare a national energy emergency, allowing oil extraction and the lifting of regulations on fractal drilling, and on the other hand, three orders aimed at stopping illegal immigration at the border with Mexico, which was perhaps the most sensational electoral promise. This promise kept was accompanied by the order to stop the right to citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, which is likely to cause a lot of debate in the coming days and weeks. These, along with the fight against the Mexican mafia cartels, which would now be considered terrorist organizations.

Also, from day one, he decisively emphasized what many took as an electoral provocation, which is the order that recognizes the 'Gulf of Mexico' as the 'Gulf of America', as well as the promise by February 1st of 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico, which was among the most discussed electoral promises. But which is in line with the new Trumpist philosophy of "America First".

Another category of orders was the one guaranteeing the constitutional right to free speech, in parallel with the order that launches investigations into the use of justice in the previous administration against political opponents. Meanwhile, a series of other orders put an end to what Republicans and conservatives in the US call the spread of cultural Marxism, starting with the announced order recognizing only 2 genders in the US: man and woman, the removal of federal money for transgender surgeries by putting an end to the false transgender ideology, as well as the order to ban Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government by hitting the cultural Marxism spread by Democrats in American public life.

Another category also contained some sudden moves that were only recently highlighted, such as the order to allow Tik Tok even after the ban by Congress (a step after this by the previous Trump administration itself, which had initiated it as a process) for at least the next 75 days until a long-term solution is found, the creation of the ERS (Foreign Revenue Service, which aims to collect tariffs on imports), and the order to place the American flag on Mars, which is a long-standing initiative of his strong political partner, Elon Musk, who seems to be the strongest voice after Trump himself in the new American administration.

There were also some bombastic campaign promises that were not mentioned during the speech or reflected in the first executive acts, such as the end of the Russia-Ukraine war that was initially promised for 24 hours but then through the special envoy, a period of 6 months was spoken of, government cuts by a third that would mean a stratospheric figure of 2 trillion dollars, or the acquisition of Greenland through purchase but without excluding military force, while the Panama Canal was mentioned during the speech but was not reflected in the first acts signed.

But in any case, the message is that Trump of this mandate intends to stick to his electoral promises, no matter how strong and provocative they were, and of course now that he has been sworn in as president, the words and acts he signs take on an extraordinary political weight that can shock the markets, shake political chancelleries, outline new geostrategic courses or open new opportunities by releasing energy. What is known for sure is that the newly inaugurated Trump 2 era is going to be interesting.