The Trump Administration: 6 Months In

By Ravenne Reid on August 6, 2017

President Donald Trump beat all odds when he won the election on November 8.

Despite the fact that Trump did not have any military or government experience, his base became infatuated with his bravado, making the claim that America would flourish under the rule of a tenacious president. His indifference towards the “polished politician” act made him all the more believable when he promised to create a better America. But now that he has been in office for six months, people are starting question when his first bout of triumph will take place.

Yet, if you ask Trump supporters that very question, they may credit the travel ban as his first accomplishment. The stipulations of this ban state that those who are allowed to come here must have a “bona fide relationship” with a person or entity within the United States. Essentially, this means that an individual from the six countries (Libya, Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Iran, and Yemen) that are banned must have connections with a member of the immediate family — parents, spouses, children, sons and daughters-in-law, siblings — in order to be considered for entry. In addition to that, people with business or educational ties here would also have that same privilege.  

 As you may have guessed, this ban does not make exceptions for refugees, as the State Department made it clear “that it would not, in the future, consider refugees’ relationships with a resettlement organization here in the United States to be ‘bona fide.’” This decision comes as no surprise since the Trump administration, Republican lawmakers, and conservative voters have already emphasized their disregard for refugee resettlement for reasons that are either explained by patriotic entitlement — America first, right? — or fear.

To them, the latter is a valid excuse, and the travel ban will alleviate these concerns over terrorist attacks. Well, the truth is that most of the attacks that do happen on United States soil are carried out by American citizens, such as Omar Mateen, the man responsible for the Pulse nightclub shooting, which was the second deadliest mass murder since 9/11. In fact, he was from Queens, New York, the same borough that Trump is from.

According to Niall McCarthy, a contributing writer for Forbes, “The vast majority of jihadist terrorists since [9/11] have been American citizens or legal residents. In fact, every single jihadist who conducted a lethal attack inside the U.S. in the post 9/11 era was either a citizen or legal resident. No fatal attacks were committed by terrorists from the countries restricted by Trump’s travel ban.”

So, the ban may have satisfied his supporters, but its implementation was not based on facts that back up the claim that Muslim immigrants and refugees should be held accountable for jihadist attacks in America. Therefore, can we really call the Muslim ban an achievement? Will it really be that effective in deterring terrorist attacks? We cannot be sure that it will at this point in time, but for now, this ban should not considered a true feat.

Furthermore, partial feats should not be applauded either, but the president and fellow Republicans did exactly that when they celebrated the passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), in the House back in May. The ceremony took place in the White House Rose Garden, giving Trump the opportunity to declare his upcoming triumph.

“We want to brag about the plan,” Trump said. “Hey, can you believe it? I’m president!”

On July 22, the Senate vote to proceed with the healthcare debate was 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie. Before this “motion to proceed” vote, it was said that this bill would eventually die. Why? Because despite the president’s intentions to make it the first major accomplishment of his tenure, it backfired repeatedly.

While some of the delays were caused by politicians who protested the bill for ethical reasons, Senator John McCain’s health problems also stalled a critical vote. The Arizona lawmaker revealed that the blot clot above his eye is associated with a cancerous brain tumor, which came as a shock to an already overwhelmed America. Surprisingly, he did vote yes to proceed with the debate, even though people were hopeful that his diagnosis would be a wake-up call that changes his views on the importance of affordable and accessible healthcare.

Oftentimes, we like to think of our representatives as “one of us,” but what if they truly did undergo the same hardships that regular, hardworking Americans do? Would that persuade them to vote against legislations that would intensity these struggles? Senator McCain did live up to these expectations when he placed the interests of the people over his own party, stating that he would not vote for the bill “as is.” This conviction made him one of three Republican legislators who helped save the Affordable Care Act along with Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted no early-on.

To Trump’s dismay, not only are members of Congress tarnishing his chance to fulfill his campaign promises, but members of his own administration are also deteriorating his reputation. Specifically, the president was adamant that he “hires the best people,” and voters believed him, familiarizing themselves with the mostly successful business ventures that made him a household name in the first place. But considering the most recent resignation of former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, it is safe to say that his belief that he has the best judgment about potential employees is false.

He felt compelled to leave when Trump appointed Anthony Scaramucci, oftentimes referred to as the “Mooch,” as the White House Communications Director. Initially, it was unclear why Mr. Spicer objected the president’s decision, referring to the hire as “a major mistake.” Not too long after the news broke, Twitter users began to search for and share videos of Scaramucci fiercely criticizing the then candidate Trump for being a “hack politician” as well as a “bully whose campaign would eventually implode.” He even went as far as to suggest that some of his comments were “anti-American.”

In addition to that, similar to Mr. Trump, Scaramucci was a Democrat who now claims that his views have evolved. But here’s the thing about evolving: it is gradual and does not happen all at once. Shamelessly, the Mooch had repeatedly attacked Trump’s character, credibility, and competence, and the tweets that he recently deleted shows that he was more interested in having a President Hillary Clinton.

So, it is possible that Mr. Spicer said that the president would regret hiring Scaramucci because he only recently began to show his loyalty to him. He is certainly not the odd ball out, given the fact that Kellyanne Conway, who is the current counselor to the president, also condemned Trump for “offending his way to the nomination” and consistently “bulldoz[ing] over the little guy to get his way.”

Unlike Conway, who still has her job as Counselor to the President, Scaramucci resigned after only 11 days. A man who sold his business, missed the birth of his child, and thus ruined his marriage (his wife filed for divorce) to secure his position with the Trump cabinet eventually became a laughingstock in the media, especially given the fact that he had promised to “fire all staffers,” including Reince Priebus, who served as Chief of Staff.

In addition to doing an insufficient job of honing-in on damage control, Priebus was also one of the victims of Scaramucci’s profanity-laden interview with Ryan Lizza from The New Yorker, in which he accused him of being a “leaker.” This all started when Lizza tweeted about a dinner that Scaramucci was having with the president, citing a senior White House official as a source. The former Communications Director called him that same night and expected that the reporter would give up his source. When he refused to do so (obviously), Scaramucci became irate, referring to Priebus as a “paranoid schizophrenic.”

“What I want to do is I want to kill all the leakers and I want to get the President’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people,” he said. “This is going to get cleaned up very shortly, okay? Because I nailed these guys. I’ve got digital fingerprints on everything they’ve done through the FBI and the Department of Justice.”

Reince Priebus’s eventual resignation came as no surprise, but Scaramucci’s certainly did. After all, he promised to do the firings, not to be fired himself. But the new Chief of Staff, General John F. Kelly, was on a quest to bring order to the trainwreck that is the Trump administration. He has not only fired the Mooch, but he has also enforced rules that would dissuade the “free-for-all” that cabinet members and the Trump family had previously practiced.

According to a New York Times article, written by Glenn Thrush, Michael Shear, and Eileen Sullivan, “Mr. Kelly cuts off rambling advisers midsentence. He listens in on conversations between cabinet secretaries and the president. He has booted lingering staff members out of high-level meetings, and ordered the doors of the Oval Office closed to discourage strays.”

This type of “military discipline” is working for now, but who knows if President Trump can let go of his haughtiness enough to allow someone else to take charge and call the shots? They may just butt heads when discussing the fate of Jeff Sessions, who has the received the cold shoulder from the president lately, despite being his most loyal supporter all throughout his campaign.

General Kelly assured him that he would stay on as attorney general, even though Trump has revealed that he would never have hired Sessions if he knew that he would recuse himself from the Russia probe back in March. Sessions felt that he needed to do so because he had contacted the Russian ambassador during the campaign, which he did not reveal to the Senate until the meeting was leaked to The Washington Post.

For that reason, he did make the right decision by taking himself out of the investigation, but Trump felt that his recusal was a sign that he was not as loyal to him as he thought. As months went by, the Trump/Russia investigation continued to be a topic of discussion inside and outside of Washington. It became clear that Trump was growing tired of this probe, so much so that he vented his frustrations on Twitter… as usual.  

These past six months have stressful on Trump’s administration and on voters. For those who elected him, they are still waiting on signs of a better America. But so far, this slow start to any form of progress has slightly subdued that “Make America Great Again” motto and gradually changed into a plea to get something done… eventually.

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