PRESIDENT Donald J Trump’s opening sentence in his inaugural speech as the 47th President of America and the second president in America’s history to have two non-consecutive terms in the White house is: “The Golden Age of America begins right now.” The summary of the speech is that America will be great again under the leadership of the Trump administration and with the support from the citizens of America. Trump however noted that this wave a change will be a sunlight pouring over the entire world. President Trump hinted that the decision to put America first will have global impact. It is therefore imperative to assess the action points for the Trump administration and its possible impact on the world as we know it, particularly Africa.
Highlights of the inaugural speech of President Trump
The highlights of the inaugural speech of President Donald J. Trump are provided in 10 paragraphs hereunder:
- Defending America from threats of Inva-sion: Trump noted that his administration will declare a national emergency at the southern border to halt illegal entry. Also, aliens who commit crimes will be repatriated to their home countries. Finally, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 will be invoked to combat cartels and eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks perpetrating devastating crimes on the US soil.
- Economic rescue: President Donald J Trump promised to direct the members of the Cabinetto use all resources at their disposal to defeat inflation and rapidly bring down costs of living in America. Since inflation was caused by overspending and escalating energy prices, Trump promised that a national energy emergency will be declared. Trump hinted that the manufacturing industry in America will be re-suscitated. However, his strategy is to finance all these economic rescue efforts with crude oil. To this end, America will end the Green New Deal aimed at addressing climate change and revoke the electric Vehicle Mandate of America.
- Tax: President Donald J trump stated that America will no longer tax its citizens to enrich other countries. Rather, it will now tax foreign countries to enrich American citizens. He therefore stated that the External Revenue Service will be established to carry out this mandate.
- Competence and Effectiveness in Gover-nance: Trump stated that his administration will establish the Federal Department of Government Efficiency which will be tasked with restoring competence and effectiveness to the Federal Government.
- Free speech: Trump stated that he will sign an executive order to stop all government censorship on free speech and bring back free speech in America. This will also co-incide with the restoration of fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, and the restoration of law and order back to the cities.
- Racial division: Trump stated that he will end government policy socially engineering race and gender into public and private life of America. He stated that he envisions a society that is colourblind and merit based. To this end, he declared that there are only two genders in America: male and female.
- Military reform: Trump promised to reinstate service members who were expelled for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate and do all to stop subjecting the armed forces to political theories and social experiments while on duty. He aims to build the most effective and strongest military in the worldwhose success will be measured by the battles won and battles prevented.
- Peace: Donald included in his speech that he will be a peacemaker and a unifier. He noted also that the American hostagesin the Middle East are coming back home to their families. He noted that the power of America will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world ravaged by anger, violence and total unpredictability.
- Reclamation of America’s lost Heritages:
- Trump noted that the Gulf of Mexico will be changed to the Gulf of America and that the Panama Canal will be reclaimed for America.
Space exploration: Trump assured the world that under his leadership American astronauts will land on Mars.
According to Trump, ambition is the life blood of a great nation and the United States of America is more ambitious than any other nations. Trump noted that his being in the White House is a testament “that no one should ever believe that something is impossible to do. In America, the impossible is what we do best”.
Trump’s Executive Orders
Shortly after his speech,President Donald J Trump signed a series of historic executive orders to ensure “the restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.”
An executive order is a written, signed and published directive from the President of the United States of America to the executive arm of government on the management of the operations of the federal government. It is a kind of instant law which has much of the same power as a federal law. It does not require the approval from Congress. Hence, the congress cannot simply overturn them. How-ever, the congress can pass laws that make it difficult, if not impossible to implement the executive order. An executive order is made by the president, and can only be overturned by the president. President Trump’s executive orders communicated his dedication to implement all he said in his inaugural speech.
He signed a total of 42 Executive Orders on the day of his inauguration. These are identified below, attached to headings in the highlight of his inaugural speech contained above:
Executive Orders on the Defence of America against threat of invasion
- Securing our Borders: The first executive order is to secure the border, keep the Mexicans out, and complete the construction of the wall on the southern border. This executive order also ended the use of CBP One App, a phone app which allows noncitizens to fly into America from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and facilitated appointments at ports of entry. This order also allows for the collection of the DNA samples of illegal immigrants in custody to determine if these immigrants have relatives in the states for processing and prosecution if they are also illegal immigrants.
- Protecting the American People Against Invasion:Trump’s executive order overrode the Biden policy on handling migrants who cross the southern border and might claim asylum. Rather, empowered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection with the authority to deport illegal immigrants. It also established the Homeland Security Task Forces to cooperate with state and local law enforcements in the removal of gangs and criminals from America.
- Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States: This executive declaration allows the Department of Defence to deploy active-duty and National Guard military to the southern borders, erect barriers and work on ways to take down enemy drones in the area.
- Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States:
This order assigns the military the mission protect and seal the territorial borders of America.
