To Preserve, Protect, and Defend
Article by Aly Moreno / Art by Jillian Hartshorne
Immediately after Donald Trump swore his oath to the 47th seat of office, his reign of office began headstrong. President Trump’s list of executive orders seems overwhelming and even dire. This article will explore the implications and consequences of Trump’s heavy hand and how it affects you.
The day Trump took office, he signed an executive order initiating the withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). Trump stated that the key reason for the United States’ withdrawal was the “mishandling” of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose in China. However, leaving the WHO means the nation will face more complicated matters when addressing future global health crises and pandemics. Trump’s withdrawal is rather hypocritical, considering that it was his administration that ignored cases of the pandemic in January, barely naming it a national emergency months later. For the average American, the withdrawal from the WHO warrants fewer protections of health risks when traveling abroad, with the loss of significant travel advisories. Vaccines and other necessary treatments will be a much lengthier process without foreign aid. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will have reduced access to global health risks, increasing the likelihood of health crises emerging within the United States. It is overwhelmingly obvious that Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO sacrifices significantly more American lives than it benefits.
After a night in office, Trump rolled back Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 executive order promoting the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) of minorities in the workplace. In the wave of Civil Rights movements and efforts, the 1965 order stands as a long reminder of equality for all Americans and the promotion of our nation’s deep value of allowing opportunity for all individuals. Trump’s rollback not only prevents future hires, but also removes all DEI programs, policies, and federal employees (who were only granted a paid leave elapsing three days). Trump’s order also banned the implementation of DEI in private sectors, yet many argue a legal degree of discrimination if removed from the non-federal workplace from the DEI rollback. DEI is not designed, and was never designed, to promote unworthy candidates for a prestigious government job; DEI has always been a symbol of promoting diversity in an ever-changing nation that often finds itself reliant on the diverse working class. An attack on the workforce is a direct attack on the rights of man.
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order that directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon to use Naval Station Guantanamo Bay as an expansion of the existing Migrant Operations Center. The Naval Station would be used as a detention camp, holding 30,000 immigrants whom the president worries their home countries will not punish. Guantanamo Bay’s holding capacity is significantly less than this number. Currently, the camp can only hold 130 people. Trump’s plan is to increase the amount held in Guantanamo Bay by 22,976.9%. It is nearly impossible to expect anything but tortuous conditions in the camp. The same day, the Senate passed the Laken Riley Act, requiring the DHS to detain any individual in the United States who “is unlawfully present in the United States or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission” (S.5). Trump has deemed the border crisis a national emergency; his executive order and the red Congress’ bill are just parts in a series of actions being taken to target immigrants, pushing an unjust marginalization of said immigrants, and removing them altogether.
Trump is very clearly pushing an agenda that seems to resemble the very agenda he swore off of, as Project 2025. The crackdown on immigrants, the everyday American, and minorities goes against everything our nation was founded on: entrepreneurship, migration, self-starting ambitions, diversity, revolution, and liberty. We are not a free nation until immigrants have the opportunity to begin a life in America without being placed in a tortuous detention camp. We are not a nation of justice until Americans can trust their government with their livelihood, with their family’s livelihood… We cannot properly deem ourselves as such until liberty and justice are truly provided for all Americans, despite their origin country, despite their demographics, and despite their setbacks. It is a fact that if the founding fathers were alive today, they’d be sent to a detention camp for seeking the birth of a nation that granted them a fair opportunity, a brick to lay in the foundation of what has the potential to learn from its fragmented motherland… Our founding fathers have no place in our nation today, and such an instance is unprecedented.
Sources
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/coronavirus/
