All-Staff Opinion Column

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  • Political cartoon satirizes President Donald Trump’s executive order banning entry of certain people from some Muslim-majority nations.

  • President Donald Trump holds up an executive order he has signed. Trump has signed seven executive orders in his first 10 days. Both Trump and former president Barack Obama signed five executive orders in their first week.

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All Staff, All Staff

What has stood out most about Pres. Trump’s first days?

What has most stood out to me about the Trump administration is how poorly they govern. The Trump team seems to have little regard for basic preparation, review and empirical reality as the new administration settles into power.

The highest profile example of Trump’s lack of governing skills is the immigration executive order. Immigration is a topic of heated-debate in the United States, but what should not be debatable is how badly this order was executed. The order underwent little to no legal review, and the administration appears to have given little thought to the details of the order.

Many White House and government employees were caught off guard by the signing of the order; either unaware such an order was in the works or they had not yet been fully briefed. Per the New York Times, Jim Mattis, Trump’s Secretary of Defense, “was not consulted by the White House during the preparation of the order and was not given an opportunity to provide input while the order was being drafted.” Mattis is known for sharply criticizing Trump’s proposed ban last summer, saying it was “causing us great damage right now, and it’s sending shock waves through the international system.”

Zero attacks have happened in the past 40 years by people hailing from the affected countries. Meanwhile, countries such as Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, whom together were the home country of 18 of the 19 9/11 hijackers, were mysteriously left off the list. Initially confusing, this development became much clearer when it was revealed President Trump has active businesses operating in all three countries.

It is clear this order was hastily written and pushed through, with little input from experts, no legal review and hardly any attention to detail. The ill-planned rush to pass the order resulted in disaster in American airports last week, and international condemnation. Is this what president Trump meant when he spoke of rebuilding Americas reputation?

This ill-informed, shoot-from-the-hip style of government is dangerous for American and the world. I hope the administration more carefully plans their future actions.

Joshua Dausener

I am pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Trump administration.

Now that you’re done scoffing and sputtering with disgust at reading something positive about President Donald John Trump (and if you haven’t put the paper away after seeing that I’m a white male who can’t possibly be taken seriously), let me explain.

I’m overwhelmingly struck by the normalcy of the Trump administration, so far. For one thing, the executive orders he has signed have been well within either the spectrum of positions on which he campaigned (such as withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership), or the historic patterns of contemporary GOP presidents (such as reinstating the Mexico City policy).

For another thing, the orders have also been surprisingly restrained. The order jumpstarting construction on the border wall is not pulled out of thin air but based on congressionally-approved legislation from 2006 authorizing it (though without funding after 2008 legislation). Even the travel ban order is a decreasingly problematic policy that is somehow being subjected to increasingly shrill panic by just about everyone.

There is, of course, plenty of room for legitimate criticism (green card holders should never have been subject to the limitations in the first place, for example), but the order is still not a “Muslim ban” nor anywhere near the apocalypse that progressives and the illiberal left are making it out to be.

Trump has even kept his promises regarding the Supreme Court, with the nomination of the remarkably Scalia-esque Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to fill the vacant seat on the high court. Be still, my #NeverTrump conservative heart.

There are some highly unusual factors at play in this new GOP administration. For example, while I don’t despise Steve Bannon like many of my fellow conservatives seem to, I am still disturbed at this trend of him receiving increasing access to the reigns of power.

Yet with this and other problems, it’s helpful to remember that the best we can do is the best we can ever do with anyone in power: praise where we can, criticize when we should and resist when we must. Let’s make sure we’re praising, criticizing and resisting that which is actually worthy of praise, criticism or resistance, respectively.

Kyle Day

President Donald Trump’s administration and its willingness to disregard conventions to get their policy agenda through as quickly as possible is most concerning.

Former President Barack Obama said, “The ship of state is an ocean liner; it is not a speedboat.” It seems that the new administration is doing everything it can legally do to make the ship of state a speedboat. There are over one thousand positions the president appoints in the federal government, and these positions touch on a huge variety of issues.

Cabinet agency sites, such as Commerce.gov, HUD.gov, Treasury.gov and Transportation.gov, reveal that nearly all top positions are still vacant.

The Congressional Record shows only, at most, a few dozen reported nominees that the president picked for the more than 1,000 positions in the federal government. These administrative positions are often filled by career employees, whose commentary on issues is valued by the administrations.

Take the State Department, for example, over 30 of the top-level positions are vacant.

This would be less concerning if it weren’t for the administration consolidating power in other ways. A presidential memorandum reshaped the National Security Council, removing the Director of the CIA and demoting the nation’s highest military officer and the Director of National Intelligence to only attend as needed. In their place is Steve Bannon, a former Naval petty officer with no combat experience.

If I have one hope for the Trump administration right now, it is that they slow down and take the temperature of the room, of American attitudes. As the administration is already in the negatives on approval and favorability, I hope they see that it is sometimes a good thing that the ship of state should turn slowly.

Aaron Friel

I continue to feel confused, and quite frankly scared, about Donald Trump’s apparent inability to appropriately attend to the dissent of others.

What we have seen so far from the current administration is alarming, volatile immaturity in terms of exercising executive power. It seems like there is a new development each day that makes me believe that the current administration is a group of insecure 12-year-old dictators that have inhabited the bodies of old white people.

I don’t feel the need to delve into much detail about President Trump’s reactive use of Twitter to attack his dissenters – you can go see them yourself, though it should be flagged as concerning. I want to make an exception, though, as I feel that the case of Trump’s Twitter smear of Chuck Jones, an Indianapolis union leader, did not receive the attention it warranted.

Trump’s series of critical tweets elicited anonymous threats against Jones and his family. This isn’t a strategy of an effective, pragmatic leader, it’s the sign of an egotistical, dissent-obsessed abuser. He has consistently weaponized social media (much like your average insecure, 12-year-old cyber-bully).

Further on the note of obsessive dissent-squashing, Trump’s removal of Attorney General Sally Yates is another example of terrifying execution of power. After urging justice department lawyers to avoid defending Trump’s illegal travel ban, Yates was fired from her position. Thankfully, the English language already has a name for the consequences of a power-happy government establishment that removes anyone that disagrees: fascism.

And lastly, the war on the media that this administration has relentlessly waged is no exception to the scary patterns we’re seeing in their delusional idea of power. Between Sean Spicer’s tantrum over reported inaugural attendance, Kellyanne Conway questioning why journalists weren’t being fired for criticizing the president or his administration or Steve Bannon suggesting that the media should “keep its mouth shut” — I can’t help but think that such easily offended adults are prepared to safely and effectively handle the dissent of foreign leaders.

Abbi Cobb