5 Ways Trump Has Dramatically Changed Our Government

What’s the story?

The daily news cycle tends to focus on easily explained, ‘big ticket’ political issues. From that perspective, the Trump administration has yet to score a major political ‘win’ except for the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been very successful in their goal of reforming the federal government.

Here are just a few ways that the Trump administration has drastically changed the direction of the United States government:

1. Environmental policy and regulations

The obvious item here is the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, but that was proceeded by the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan, which was designed to regulate power plant emissions. Under Scott Pruitt the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also begun the process of rescinding the 2015 Waters of the United States rule, which protects smaller waterways from pollution and has rolled back a ban on coal mining on public lands. Finally, the administration has been using buyouts to reduce the federal workforce. Following a recent round of buyouts and retirements, the EPA has reached lower staffing levels than any time since the Reagan era.

2. Criminal Justice

Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions the Department of Justice has retreated from consent decree agreements overseeing police misconduct in cities across the country, encouraged a return to mandatory minimums, strengthened the federal government’s powers to seize civilian’s assets, and lifted restrictions on military hardware going to local police.

3. Civil Rights

First via Twitter and then via a presidential memorandum President Trump banned transgender individuals from the military. The president also rolled back protections for transgender students. The Department of Justice filed court briefs arguing that discrimination based on sexual orientation was not covered under Section VII, and supporting the case of a bakery that refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple. The administration also recently abandoned an equal pay rule, focused on data collection to combat the gender pay gap.

4. Financial sector

Though the administration cannot undo the Dodd-Frank Act, put in place after the economic collapse in 2008 to regulate banks and protect consumers, without the help of Congress, the administration has taken steps to review the Act in order to assess regulator’s authority. They also this week took steps towards rolling back a fiduciary rule focused on protecting investors from advice that benefits financial advisors.

5. Immigration

There’s no massive border wall yet, and aspects of President’s Trump’s travel ban are still held up in court, but the administration’s actions have still greatly affected immigration. In addition to repealing DACA, the Department of Homeland Security has rescinded prioritization protections against deportation of non-criminal undocumented immigrants, and reversed policy on immigration targeting of guardians of undocumented minors. The administration has also drastically reduced the numbers of immigrants accepted annually into the country and begun review of the H-1B visa program, which authorizes work by foreigners with specialized skills.

Depending on your perspective this is a laundry list of wins or losses, but there’s no denying it’s a long list.

What do you think?

Are these positive changes or negative changes? Are their changes in terms of rules and regulations that we missed that you were happy to see or that you are concerned about?

Tell us in the comments what you think, then use the Take Action button to tell your reps!

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— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons)