Now that the election is over and Donald Trump has been officially inaugurated as President of the United States, it’s time to see what will actually change under a new administration. Anyone with political knowledge can tell you that the first 100 days of a new President’s term are extremely important, as they are the days when that president can enact the most change with their new-found influence.
Trump’s 100-day plan is outlined in “Donald Trump’s Contract With The American Voter,” released in October by his campaign. In it he promises a number of things, the most controversial of which involves “removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country”, “the construction of a wall on our southern border”, and the Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act, which “fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts.”
There are many more points on outlined in his plan, which you can read here.
In the first few days of office, Trump has already gotten to work on two major points; the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the TPP negotiation. To discuss NAFTA, he will meet with Mexican President Pena Nieto on Jan. 31, and has scheduled a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an unknown date.
The TPP is a trade deal in progress since February 2016 under President Obama. The deal aimed to created better economic ties between the member nations, as well as to foster economic growth. However, the deal needed to be ratified by all 12 member nations before it could come into effect, a result that is no longer possible after Trump’s executive order. The TPP has been slammed by critics as bad for workers and regular citizens, and as a secretive big business deal that that favored other countries over the U.S.
NAFTA is a similar trade deal between Canada, the United States, and Mexico signed into law in 1994 under President Bill Clinton. The deal eliminated tariffs between the three countries and made it much easier to move operations from U.S. companies to Mexico. Donald Trump has stated in the past that he is against American businesses moving operations to foreign countries, a view that is reflected in his “America First” policy. Trump has called NAFTA, “the worst trade deal in history”, and blamed the deal for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
Trump has also attacked The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare with an executive order last Friday that “directed the Health and Human Services secretary and the heads of other agencies to minimize the financial burden of Obamacare on Americans, states, insurers, health care providers and others to the maximum extent permitted by law.” Because the ACA is very deeply embedded in laws and regulations, an executive order cannot erase the act, but this is a definitive first step in proving that the new president means business.
Trump’s decisions on these trade agreements, and his attempt at repealing the ACA represent a major shift in American outlook on international trade, and are a prelude to the massive economic and social changes that may result from his presidency. As for the rest of his 100 days, there is little doubt that they will be controversial.