Op-Ed: An Overview of Three Years of Trump

I wrote an op/ed that was published last week in the Amsterdam News entitled “The Trump Era.” It is an overview of the policies and practices of President Trump and his administration from the time he took the oath of office until today.

It concludes with responses to the often asked question “what can I do?”

Here is a short excerpt, followed by a link to the full article.

It is now a few days short of the third anniversary of the Trump presidency, a time that has been a tumultuous, stressful and for many a painful and exhausting era. A review of the last three years reveals:

Shortly after the Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration, the Trump administration removed all references to civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change and Spanish language content from the White House website. These symbolic acts were a bellwether for what was to come. In fact, the list of Trump policies and practices that are antithetical to American principles, values and constitutional provisions is extensive and unconscionable.        

A trip down memory lane causes us to remember the following:

Travel Bans I, II and III (a.k.a the “Muslim Ban”); the demand for a wall along our Southern Border followed by a National Emergency Declaration when Congress refused to allocate funds for the wall and the administration’s questionable transfer of federal funds for the wall; the attempts to defund or place new conditions on distributing grants to Sanctuary cities; emolument clause challenges; DACA challenges; the proposed transgender military ban; attempts to add a new question to the 2020 census that asks, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”; asylum restriction/bans and revoking the right to a bond hearing pending an asylum hearing; free speech/twitter bans; free press/revoking Jim Acosta’s (CNN) White House credentials; challenges to the Affordable Care Act; attempts to roll back on religious and moral grounds, a federal requirement that employers include birth control in their health insurance plans; attempts to create a “blanket” denial of access to abortion for unaccompanied minors; attempts to rescind Haitians’ protected status; and finally, last week’s military actions and threats against Iran which stem from Trump and his administration’s disdain for the 1973 War Powers Resolution as well as Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 which states Congress shall have the power “to Declare War.” 

Read the full commentary from the Amsterdam News …