Jan. 21 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has plans for his presidential term that break the norms of international relations and evoke imperialism. His first 100 days in office will indicate how serious his threats against foreign lands and American allies are.
Trump opened his first day in office with a flurry of executive orders aiming to follow through on many of his campaign promises.
Executive orders are a commonly used tool for a new president. Especially when there is a change of party in the White House. The new president often uses executive orders to reverse some of the policies of their predecessor. It is also a way to enact some of their own agenda or at least signal to those who voted for them that they are trying to do so.
Some of these moves may be vulnerable to legal challenges that prevent them from being enforced, but Michael Genovese, author of The Modern Presidency and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, told UPI they are still a critical part of the early days of a president’s new term.
“Even if it doesn’t stick it still looks good,” he said. “Presidents have come to increasingly rely on executive authority. They need to show results, even if it’s symbolic. Trump is a performance artist. But does he have the substance behind it? He didn’t during the first term.”
Attitudes reflected in Trump’s early executive orders include hostility to Greenland, Canada and Panama, saying he means to annex territory from them. He has threatened exorbitant tariffs for Canada, Mexico, China and other nations who he claims have taken advantage of the United States in the global marketplace. He also plans to execute the biggest mass deportation the United States has ever seen.
“The first 100 days matter, especially for a new president,” Stephen Farnsworth, political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, told UPI. “Even for someone like Donald Trump who’s been president before, it’s an important gauge to see how successful he is at converting campaign promises into policy developments. That 100 days will give us a sense of what those priorities are.”
While some of Trump’s priorities have shifted since winning the election, he has continued to echo his campaign promise of mass deportations and greater immigration restrictions. His nominee to lead his deportation efforts Tom Homan, referred to as his “border czar,” has outlined his plan to raid workplaces and build new detention centers for immigrants.
Immigration, deportation and foreign affairs were prevalent threads in Trump’s first 100 days in 2017.
The first 100 days of a new presidential term mark a crucial time to set a tone for the next four years. In his first term, he saw his first U.S. Supreme Court nomination, Justice Neil Gorsuch, confirmed, filled his cabinet, signed 29 laws and 32 executive orders and began peeling back Obama-era regulations in his first 100 days.
Trump proclaimed it “just about the most successful” first 100 days in U.S. history.
The early portion of his presidency was also marred by protests and legal battles over his so-called “Muslim Ban.” Trump issued an executive order restricting travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It also suspended refugee programs.
Trump has made a number of cabinet nominations that have drawn broad criticism. His selection of Matt Gaetz for attorney general did not last until the turn of the new year before Gaetz withdrew his nomination.
More nominations have been scrutinized, including Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Tulsi Gabbard director of national intelligence. Questions about their qualifications and character forecast a difficult path to confirmation.
“The big difference we can already see between Trump one and Trump two is through the selection of top government officials,” Farnsworth said. “Trump has nominated some people who are potentially facing rough confirmation hearings. The extent to which some of the more controversial nominees, whether they get confirmed or not, will be a key measure of how much Congress will function as an independent branch of government.”
Though largely symbolic there is some significance in a new president setting the tone of the next four years during their first 100 days.
Policy victories early on can yield a more agreeable Congress, at least on the president’s side of the aisle. Perceived losses, such as a rocky confirmation process, can send a message that the president is politically vulnerable.
“A lot of it is perception. The tougher the confirmation battles are, the more his nominees are rejected or withdrawn, the worse it makes Trump look,” Genovese said. “In the first 100 days, everybody is taking a measure of the president. If he falters early, people will feel they can take him on.”
Trump made a number of campaign promises. Chief among them was his call for lowering the costs of living for the average American. Since winning the election, his focus has shifted away from this subject. He’s gone on to walk back the claim that he will directly impact the cost of groceries, telling reporters that it will be a challenge.
Instead Trump has shifted his focus, at least during public addresses, to threatening to overtake foreign territory. He has campaigned to make Canada the 51st state, said he wants the Panama Canal and Greenland for the United States and discussed changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Whether these are serious ideas or not, Genovese said the effect of Trump boasting about them has a destabilizing effect on those countries and the United States’ foreign relations in general.
“It puts the U.S. in the same basket as Russia because that’s what they do and China because that’s what they’re trying to do,” he said. “The more we do that, the more we look like The Ugly American — the 1958 book. If we get back to that, who is trying to uphold international order? It puts us in a more dangerous position. We do help set the tone internationally. If we don’t lead to do the right things that weakens America.I don’t know if Trump gets that.”
