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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - April 24, 2017
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This is the April 24, 2017, edition of an email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition, cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.
Today begins the final week of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Day 100 is Saturday, April 29. This week in You’re Hired, we’ll look back to Trump’s “Contract with the American Voter,” a document he released in October. At the top of the document, Trump states: “What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again. It is a contract between myself and the American voter — and begins with restoring honesty and accountability, and bringing change to Washington.”
We will look at the contract in three installments, aiming to show you if, when, and how these pledges have been addressed. Today, we will look at the first section, Trump’s pledged pursuits for his first day in office. On Wednesday and Friday, we will look to the broader legislative measures the contract outlines for the first 100 days.
A note on the formatting: Below, we reproduce the exact words from Trump’s contract to give a sense of what he pledged as a candidate for office. We focus on policy outcomes, not political ones, so we won’t weigh in on any partisan rhetoric from the contract. You’ll find Trump’s words first, in quotation marks, followed by our breakdown of the specific pledge.
What follows is the first page of Trump’s contract, which is divided into three priorities. The document states: “On the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following.”
“Six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC”
1. “FIRST, propose a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress.”
Trump proposed this amendment as a candidate and during the transition. We haven’t seen him call for it as president, but term limits have been up for discussion since his election.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) filed such an amendment on January 3, 2017, before Trump took office. The two linked their filing to Trump’s victory, saying in a statement, “The American people resoundingly agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people. It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not expressed an interest in advancing that legislation. In November, McConnell said, “I would say we have term limits now. … They’re called elections. And it will not be on the agenda in the Senate.” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said he supports term limits but would leave others to introduce such legislation.
2. “SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).”
In a presidential memorandum on January 23 (Day 4), Trump ordered a freeze on federal hiring. The memorandum included the following exclusions: “This order does not include or apply to military personnel. The head of any executive department or agency may exempt from the hiring freeze any positions that it deems necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities.”
The memorandum also ordered the freeze to end after the Office of Management and Budget developed a plan for reducing the number of federal government employees. That plan was issued as a directive on April 12, 2017, and the hiring freeze was lifted.
3. “THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.”
On January 30 (Day 11), Trump signed an executive order, “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” which directed executive departments and agencies to identify two regulations to cut for each regulation proposed. The order stated, “Unless prohibited by law, whenever an executive department or agency (agency) publicly proposes for notice and comment or otherwise promulgates a new regulation, it shall identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed.”
No new regulations have been proposed by the Trump administration, so no department has had to identify any regulations for elimination to date. The order has attracted a lawsuit from Public Citizen, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Communications Workers of America. The suit argued, in part, that the requirement to cut two regulations violates "the statutes from which the agencies derive their rulemaking authority and the Administrative Procedure Act" and would "block or force the repeal of regulations needed to protect health, safety, and the environment, across a broad range of topics."
4. “FOURTH, a five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service."
5. "FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.”
These two items were addressed in “Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Employees,” an executive order signed on January 28, 2017 (Day 9).
The order included an ethics pledge for appointees in executive agencies which read, in part, “I will not, within 5 years after the termination of my employment as an appointee in any executive agency in which I am appointed to serve, engage in lobbying activities with respect to that agency.” The pledge also stated, “I will not, at any time after the termination of my employment in the United States Government, engage in any activity on behalf of any foreign government or foreign political party which, were it undertaken on January 20, 2017, would require me to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended.”
6. “SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.”
This pledge was not addressed in the executive order on ethics commitments, and we have not seen it addressed in Trump’s administration to date.
“Seven actions to protect American workers”
1. “FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205.”
Since taking office, Trump has announced his intention to renegotiate NAFTA many times. On January 22 (Day 3), at a swearing-in ceremony for his senior staff, Trump said, “We’re going to start some negotiations having to do with NAFTA. Anybody ever hear of NAFTA? I ran a campaign based somewhat on NAFTA. We’re going to start negotiating on NAFTA, on immigration, and on security at the border.” On February 2, Trump said, “NAFTA has been a catastrophe for our country; it's been a catastrophe for our workers and our jobs and our companies. … I don't care if it's a renovation of NAFTA or a brand new NAFTA, but we do have to make it fair and it's very unfair for the American worker.”
In February, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced that he would begin negotiating trade deals in May, after spending 90 days consulting with Mexican businesses. Pena Nieto said, “At the end of the 90 days, the negotiation will properly open to update our free trade agreement.”
2. “SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
On January 23 (Day 4), Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. Trade Representative to officially withdraw the United States from negotiation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The memorandum further directed the trade representative to “begin pursuing, wherever possible, bilateral trade negotiations to promote American industry, protect American workers, and raise American wages.”
3. “THIRD, I will direct the Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator.”
Trump has reversed course on this pledge. China has not and, according to Trump, will not be named a currency manipulator by the United States. On April 12, 2017, he told The Wall Street Journal, “They're not currency manipulators.” On April 16, 2017, he further commented on China, tweeting, “Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!”
In a semi-annual currency review, the Treasury Department did list China as one of six nations whose currency practices merited monitoring (the others were Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and Switzerland). These countries were also named by the Obama administration in their Treasury Department currency review last year.
4. “FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately.”
On March 31 (Day 70), Trump addressed trade through two executive orders. He signed an executive order, “Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits,” directing the U.S. Trade Representative and the secretaries of state, the treasury, defense, agriculture, and homeland security to prepare a report which would “identify those foreign trading partners with which the United States had a significant trade deficit in goods in 2016.” The report would then assess each trade deficit for causes and effects.
The same day, Trump also signed an executive order that called for stricter enforcements of U.S. anti-dumping laws. Dumping is an economic practice in which goods are sold in another country at prices lower than they are sold in the home country.
5. “FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.”
Trump has addressed regulations in general, with an order that calls for eliminating two regulations for every new one proposed and with an order establishing Regulatory Reform Officers for executive agencies.
In terms of energy regulations specifically, Trump signed an executive order, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” on March 28, 2017 (Day 67). The order stated, in part, “The heads of agencies shall review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions (collectively, agency actions) that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy resources.” The White House also issued “An America First Energy Plan.” The plan specifies eliminating the Climate Action Plan (which was an Obama administration policy focused on cutting carbon emissions) and the Waters of the U.S. rule (which Trump ordered a review and potential rescission of on February 28).
6. “SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward.”
Regarding infrastructure projects generally, Trump signed an executive order on January 24 (Day 5) calling for “expedited procedures and deadlines for completion of environmental reviews and approvals” on projects that the Council on Environmental Quality deems high-priority. With regards to the Keystone XL Pipeline specifically, Trump signed a memorandum the same day inviting TransCanada to reapply for a permit to construct the pipeline and directing administration officials to review the request in an expedited manner. He signed a similar memorandum that day regarding a reevaluation of the permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline.
7. “SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure.”
The payments made by the U.S. to the United Nations are part of the annual federal budget. Any changes to U.N. payments would need to happen through the budget process, which requires Congressional approval. In his proposed budget that was released on March 16 (Day 55), Trump’s Office of Management and Budget called for eliminating funding to the Green Climate Fund and two Climate Investment Funds—both projects of the United Nations.
Ultimately, the House will decide issues of budget like this one. As we reported in our March 13 edition, the White House’s budget proposal “in essence, amounts to a wishlist and gives a clear indication of the president’s spending priorities.”
“Five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law”
1. “FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.”
Here are the executive actions signed by Obama which have been rescinded by Trump. We can’t comment on the constitutionality of Obama’s actions, nor do we know if these are all of the Obama executive actions that Trump considers unconstitutional.
- A January 23 (Day 4) memorandum on the Mexico City Policy that revoked Obama’s memorandum on the Mexico City Policy. The policy makes “neither perform[ing] nor actively promot[ing] abortion as a method of family planning in other nations” conditions of receiving federal funding for any NGO. As we reported in our January 23 edition of You’re Hired, “Rescinding or reinstating this policy has become a tradition when party control of the White House changes. After being instituted in 1984 by Reagan, President Bill Clinton (D) rescinded the policy on January 22, 1993. Exactly nine years later, President George W. Bush (R) reinstated the policy, only to have in rescinded by President Barack Obama (D) on January 23, 2009.”
- A March 27 (Day 66) order rescinded three related Obama executive orders concerning federal contracting and hiring. The main order rescinded was #13673, “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces,” which ordered that contractors report three years worth of labor law violations. The other related orders (#13683 and #13738) were amendments to the original executive order.
More generally, Trump has ordered reviews of a number of Obama-era policies that could result in further rescissions.
2. “SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.”
On January 31 (Day 12), Trump announced his selection of Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Gorsuch’s hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee were held from March 20-23. He was confirmed on April 7 after Republicans in the Senate voted to change the interpretation of Senate rules to no longer require 60 votes to confirm a justice to the Supreme Court. Deploying the nuclear option, as the rules change was termed, allowed Gorsuch to be confirmed by a vote of 54-45.
3. “THIRD, cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities.”
Sanctuary cities are typically defined as those who say they will not aid federal law enforcement in the deportation or detention of undocumented immigrants. Trump addressed these jurisdictions in a January 25 (Day 6) executive order, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” which stated in part that the “Attorney General and the Secretary, in their discretion and to the extent consistent with law, shall ensure that jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 (sanctuary jurisdictions) are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary. The Secretary has the authority to designate, in his discretion and to the extent consistent with law, a jurisdiction as a sanctuary jurisdiction.”
This order also directed the Department of Homeland Security to “utilize the Declined Detainer Outcome Report or its equivalent and, on a weekly basis, make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens.” This report aims to identify which jurisdictions do not comply with requests from the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants until federal officials can take custody of them. These reports have been temporarily halted while Immigration and Customs Enforcement reviews a data processing error that caused some jurisdictions to appear on the list erroneously.
4. “FOURTH, begin removing the more than two million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back.”
Trump signed an executive order, “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements,” on January 25 (Day 6). This order—which also called for the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico and called for 5,000 additional border patrol agents—stated that the administration’s policy was to “remove promptly those individuals whose legal claims to remain in the United States have been lawfully rejected, after any appropriate civil or criminal sanctions have been imposed.”
Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly wrote a series of memos in February that expanded the scope of detention and deportation for undocumented immigrants. A Department of Homeland Security document dated April 25 was obtained by The Washington Post on April 12. The report assessed the department’s progress on border security, and the paper reported that the department had “found 33,000 more detention beds to house undocumented immigrants, opened discussions with dozens of local police forces that could be empowered with enforcement authority and identified where construction of Trump’s border wall could begin.”
5. “FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered ‘extreme vetting.’”
Trump has attempted to do this twice with executive orders. Both have been blocked by federal judges.
The first, issued on January 27 (Day 8), suspended for 90 days entry into the United States for individuals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The order also suspended refugee admissions to the United States for 120 days while the process was reviewed for additional national security measures that could be implemented. The admission of Syrian refugees was suspended indefinitely. In response to a lawsuit against the order from the states of Washington and Minnesota, U.S. District Judge James Robart issued a temporary nationwide block of the order on February 3, 2017.
The second, issued on March 6 (Day 45), was similar. Differences from the January 27 order included removing Iraq from the list of countries subject to the entry suspension, specifying that current visa holders were not affected, removing the indefinite suspension on admitting Syrian refugees, and allowing entry for refugees who had already been granted asylum. On March 15, 2017, in response to a legal challenge from the state of Hawaii, U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson blocked the implementation of Section 2 and Section 6 of the executive order with a nationwide temporary restraining order (TRO).
Note: We won’t abandon you after the first 100 days are up, but our publishing schedule will change. Our emails will arrive in your inbox just once a week, each Wednesday, to bring you an in-depth look at a current topic involving the Trump administration. We will also send special editions to add context to any unexpected events. If you have a topic you would like our team to shed some light on, please feel free to email us at editor@ballotpedia.org or tweet us @Ballotpedia
See also
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition
- Donald Trump presidential transition team
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