Trump's First Week Was About As Bad As It Could Have Been

Trump’s first-week performance was calculated, expected — and highly traumatic. What happens next will be crucial.

By Chauncy Devega, Salon

Donald Trump’s “shock and awe” first week in office was exactly what he had promised — or threatened.

He issued almost 100 executive orders and policy changes during that chaotic week. These included freeing virtually all of his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to nullify the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship, declaring a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, launching nationwide raids against undocumented immigrants and their communities as part of “the largest deportation plan in American history,” escalating attacks on the LGBTQ community, closing down government programs and offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, withdrawing from both the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, and throwing out many other changes made by the Biden administration regarding the environment, the economy, education, and other areas.

Most of this was spelled out in advance by Project 2025 and Agenda 47. None of it should have come as a surprise.

President Donald Trump with a serious look as he delivers a speech at a campaign rally held at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

As Trump’s eventful first week concluded, he fired more than a dozen inspectors general across a wide range of federal agencies. The role of such inspectors is to provide nonpartisan legal supervision and oversight, something Trump manifestly sees as an obstacle to autocratic rule. Firing them all was likely illegal, but Trump simply doesn’t care. According to him — and also according to the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court — his narrow electoral victory now renders him above the law as a de facto dictator.

One of the most ominous and dangerous of Trump’s executive orders targeted the supposed “weaponization of the federal government.” Under this directive, the Department of Justice will begin systematically investigating those deemed to have “persecuted” Donald Trump by attempting to hold him and his MAGA allies accountable under the law like any other person in this country.