What a difference an election – and a previous term in office! – make. President Trump wasted no time in exercising the powers of his office to begin to make the change he promised on the campaign trail. To the delight of his supporters, and the benefit of the nation. he has already begun following through on a wide range of issues, taking the nation’s capital and its Swamp by storm.
Trump learned from that previous term in office – he learned that time is his adversary, not his ally. He came to understand the importance of moving quickly.
On the first of the 1,460 days he was elected to serve as president, Trump put that knowledge to work. Less than an hour after he was sworn in for his second term, he signed paperwork in a Capitol office before joining members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other dignitaries, and their guests for lunch. He signed executive orders at the mid-afternoon basketball and hockey arena staging of the truncated inaugural parade, moved inside because of concerns over sub-freezing temperatures outside. Later, before attending inaugural galas, he signed more executive actions in the Oval Office, even conducting an impromptu press conference as he signed papers for more than an hour.
All told, within hours of taking the oath of office, Trump signed more than 200 executive actions. From declaring an invasion and a national emergency at the southern border to declaring a national energy emergency and ordering a review of obstacles to domestic energy production; from ending the federal government's DEI initiatives and removing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord to freezing federal hiring and the issuance of new regulations; from directing the Secretary of State to employ an "America First" policy at the Department of State and pausing all U.S. foreign aid, pending a review, and to defining males and females as ”biological, binary, and immutable” and removing the promotion of “gender identity” and “gender Ideology” from federal communications, policies, ID cards, and more, Trump signed, and signed, and signed, one action after another, in a demonstration of political shock and awe that left Democrats and the left back on their heels.
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Significantly, each of those executive actions stands in direct contrast to the executive actions taken by Trump’s lawless predecessor, Joe Biden. Trump’s executive actions seek to reclaim the rule of law even as they launch (or relaunch) popular initiatives, while Biden’s (think: the student loan debt “forgiveness” scam, the eviction moratorium, the vaccine mandates on employers and the military, among others) were done to contravene Congress and impose an unpopular agenda.
Allow me to exercise the writer’s prerogative to share two personal anecdotes.
On the night of the inauguration, I attended a gala. Sitting at the same table with me were two longtime friends, who happened to be the parents of a man who was released from prison because of Trump’s pardon of the individuals involved in January 6 activities. I’ve been praying for that family for almost four years now. As I looked at my friend from across our dinner table, and saw the look on his face as he was receiving the news by phone that his son was going to be released as a result of President Trump’s grace, and his son’s wife and children were on their way at the very moment to retrieve him from prison, I realized that what I was looking at was answered prayers.
Elsewhere in Washington, on that same night, the United States Senate came to agreement to pass the Laken Riley Act. Twelve Democrats crossed party lines to join 52 Republicans, an encouraging sign for those of us concerned about the ill effects of illegal immigration. The young lady for whom the bill is named – the victim of an unspeakable crime of violence committed by an illegal alien who had been apprehended and released multiple times – was from my community, in Cherokee County, Georgia. Now that the amended bill has passed the Senate, and will surely pass the House once again, President Trump will likely sign it into law as the first piece of legislation he signs in the 119th Congress. That, too, is an encouraging sign, made possible by President Trump’s return to the White House. We can hope to prevent other families from having to experience the kind of pain Laken Riley’s family has experienced.
These two personal anecdotes may be emblematic of what our fellow citizens are feeling all over the country. President Trump is back and making the change he promised – change we need desperately.
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.
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