“What’s So Bad About Trump?" A Demonstration of His Retractive Policies

The denial of Trump’s blatant racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia have been a point of contention for the republican party since Trump’s first election in 2016. But due to Trump’s declining mental state, his extremism is now on full display which makes the former accusations an undeniable truth. Using his current policies, we can easily demonstrate that not only are they a cancer on the progress of the US as a whole, but that Trump is genuinely morally reprehensible and is putting forth no effort to make America great.

The founding fathers advocated for individual liberties by way of natural law, which is defined as “a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct.^[1]” As we have progressed through the 250 years of the United States we have seen these natural laws respected and expanded by way of amendments to the constitution and individual Supreme Court landmark cases. In Trump’s year and a half in office, his policies have massacred these natural laws, setting a dangerous precedent that individual freedoms promised by the founding fathers are under attack. 

Executive Orders

 January 20th, the first day of Trump’s presidency, Trump rescinded 78 of Biden’s former EOs. Although this is a common practice, it began a troubling domino effect of unnecessary removal of protections that otherwise would only inhibit the ability for Trump to govern as he sees fit if his intention was to discriminate or marginalize groups. The specific groups targeted by means of Trump’s rescission are POC ( EO 13985, 14031, 14035,, 14045, 14050), LGBTQ+ individuals (EO 13988,14020, 14021, 14075), Immigrants (EO 13993,  14010, 14011, 14012, 14013), and Service members (EO 14004) ^[2]. These specific policies were aimed at empowering groups so that they both have even footing in the workforce and bring awareness to the former prejudices they faced. While these policies can be considered “performative” they were in no way harmful or disruptive to the government’s operation. 

Immigrants

 Immigrants have always been a cornerstone of the American enterprise, providing diversity and novel ideas that result in educational, technological and medical advancements. The 14th Amendment, which is the issuance of Birthright Citizenship, was under immediate scrutiny for no other reason than its promise that people born on US soil maintain the right to citizenship. This in no way provided generational citizenship, but instead cemented the potentiality of an individual to become as great an American as the immigrants before them. There is no coherent reason for the questioning of this amendment, so it just seems purely malicious that it is being brought into question along with other policies where the intention is to demonize these individuals. The over-funding of ICE (by way of 75B dollars) provided a vehicle for the immediate expulsion and “otherfication” of POC that disproportionately affected Hispanic individuals. This was further cemented under Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem which protected individuals from being stopped by ICE because of their ethnicity, race, or perceived accent ^[3]. As a matter of fact, removal of these policies have caused more than 170+ individuals who were American Citizens to be detained and brutalized by police ^[4]. Furthermore, the initial promise of Trump removing “The worst of the worst first” has not been met as despite ICE now being one of the most overfunded agencies in the entire Federal Government, but also has surpassed the benchmark for detaining people with zero criminal record ^[5]. Some of these individuals were merely here due to lapses in green cards or other minimal issues but were treated the same as these “worst of the worst”^[6]. Not to mention that the inhumane nature of detainment exists as a mockery of human rights ^[7], as facilities like Alligator Alcatraz and the promises that the escaped detainees might be eaten like shackled prey. And to add insult to injury the Trump administration even perverts the place further by allowing sycophants to purchase merchandise referencing the jail, further shoving down the worth of the individuals confined to this horrendous facility. 

“Protecting” women

These individuals are a mere shoulder shrug to the average American because they “aren’t one of ours.” Emphasizing how humanitarian issues have never inspired true empathy in the Republican party (unless it’s specifically related to unborn fetuses). But it’s harder to handwave away when its citizens are affected. People who have contributed their entire life to the United States now find their freedoms under threat due to pure narcissism and the perceived wronging of the white, male, cis landowning man. On January 20th (The same day Trump tarred the White House with his presence) he passed EO 14168 ^[8]designating that sex is a binary and any ideology that detracts from this strict mandate is banned. That is to say, that “gender” and “sex” are apparently now one in the same, and the long history of gender roles among societies (which the Talmud, Hinduism,  Bugis ethnic group, Muxes, recognizes as separate^[9]) have been summarily erased. Furthermore, gender ideology is even represented in our Native population before the concept allegedly viciously emasculated the fragile males in the GOP. These individuals were called “Two-Spirit”; coined in the 1990s marrying the idea that one can see life through both a male and female perspective^[9]. This is all in the pursuit of the thinly-veiled guise of protecting women’s rights. But these protections seem weakly implemented when those same women are disallowed from the agency of their own body by means of Roe v. Wade. As far as natural rights go, this has to be the most egregious, as it completely deconstructs the expressionism promised to us. 

Furthermore, Pete Hegseth has gone so far as to go after the once deeply respected institution of the military by ousting women ^[10]with his harmful practices of rolling back whistleblower laws meant to protect women (and men) from assault and harassment, and standards of fitness meant to put men and women on an equal playing field have been altered– which seems antithetical to the former EO. So summarily sex is a binary according to the White House unless you’re in the military, then it’s a unitary. But this is all in the pursuit of the protection of women (allegedly). Perhaps, it can’t get worse? You’d be remiss to think so; because Hegseth also banned the involvement of all trans service members, regardless of their fitness levels. We have yet to discover what problem this is solving, because military enlistment has been struggling the past decade and excluding potential service members makes it impossible to resolve this. And to further add insult to injury, ICE agents, who are required to pass a PT exam in order to be hired, have an abysmal record of a nearly ⅓ failure rate ^[11]. The standards at this point are non-existence. Some might argue these PT requirements are being waived for the sake of individuals who may not possess the wherewithal to pass them so that the army of patriotic Americans can quickly begin deportation efforts.

DEI

In response to the amnesty for ICE agents, Trump cast a wide net onto the other individuals in the government who might have bypassed certain standards, or been hired based on other criteria, with the of passing EO14151:  “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.” Under this EO Trump purports:

“The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military.  This was a concerted effort stemming from President Biden’s first day in office, when he issued Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.^[12]”

Irony aside, this launched an entire restructuring of hiring for the Federal Government which produced (in my opinion) one of the grossest attacks on individuals who aren’t white cisgendered men: A new era of hiring practices released by the Office of Personnel management (OPM).  This memo, entitled “Merit Hiring Plan”^[13], set forth a plan to “[Reform] the Federal recruitment process to ensure that only the most talented, capable and patriotic Americans are hired to the Federal service ... to ensure candidates are selected based on their merit and competence, not their skin color or academic pedigree.” The word “pedigree” not being defined or expounded upon to explain its use. 

Although not requiring individuals to have a degree is standard practice in some government agencies, the most troubling part of the entire memo is the inclusion of a test of patriotism. It might seem logical to some that an individual who wants to work for the Federal government should have some level of loyalty, and for those who need a polygraph this is easy to fulfill. In order to challenge the so-called “patriotism” of others, along with your resume and letter of intent, a series of essays have to be written. One of the essay questions asks: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.” This is a call to undying, unabashed loyalty. This is not a test of merit, an assessment of their ability to do the job. It is clear that Trump has transitioned the government into employing people who will not tell him no. 

Perhaps it is now clear that DEI is not the problem. Women and trans people in the military are not the problem, And immigrants are certainly not the problem. The problem sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC and is piece by piece dismantling the entire structure of the government by ejecting people who might have a unique perspective to an army of uneducated, unfit, underqualified loyalists. And like a pigeon on a chess board, Trump is moving his pieces not to win, but to chaotically disrupt an otherwise structured time-tested institution. The founding fathers would be ashamed.