President Donald Trump descended on Washington last week, weathering a cold front Moving the inauguration indoors. But the cold winds of winter were no match for his flurry of executive orders, pardons and pens. Mr. Trump’s every jagged stroke swept away the policies of the Biden administration.
For many in Washington, history seems to be unfolding before us. "Absolutely," said presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon, Virginia. “What’s really interesting about studying history is that when people experience historic moments, they Know it.
"Without a doubt, seeing President returns after losing electionthis only happened once, then it came back Charged with dozens of feloniesand is Participate in a rebellion that overturned a previous election. These are things we have never seen before," Chervinsky said. "So, there is no question that we are living in a historic moment. "
Mr Trump's first day in office Pardons approximately 1,500 January 6 defendantsand Breaking record for signing an executive orderwith more released in the following days.
They range from Rename the Gulf of Mexico … arrive Ending Federal Workforce Diversity Efforts … arrive Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and World Health Organization … and Reinstate anti-abortion policies from his first term. he also tried Subverting the civil constitutional rights of all children born on American soil. But a federal judge has put the change on hold.
"We're in a system of separation of powers," Chervinsky said. "There should be checks and balances. Both Congress and the courts have to do their part to check the president, just as the president checks them. That's how the system is designed. , I think that should give Americans some comfort that they still want to actually play the role occasionally."
Executive orders are often crucial and controversial. Think of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, or Roosevelt's Emancipation Proclamation Manhattan Project Fundingand his 1942 internment of Japanese Americans. Think back to Eisenhower's Deploying the Army to Desegregate Southern Schoolsand Kennedy’s creation of the Peace Corps.
The past decade has seen a back-and-forth in policies from Obama, Trump and Biden.
"When the president needs to use executive orders to accomplish much of his agenda, it means either that agenda is not particularly popular, or it reflects the ills of our current political system. Congress doesn't do that and they didn't pass it," Chervinsky said. So much legislation, so what we're seeing is the president is trying to get around this until Congress tells them not to do it.
"Of course, there's always a time to fight," Chervinsky said. "American politics is messy."
"You even called it 'vicious,'" I said
"That would be an accurate description!" Chervinsky laughed.
It all brings to mind Benjamin Franklin’s response when asked whether the United States was a monarchy or a republic. Franklin said, "The Republic, if you can keep it."
I said, "We've been through this before and we're still going on today."
"So far!" Chervinsky laughed. "One of the great things about history is that it reminds us that we can be in really bad times but come out of it. I think about the current moment maybe differently because we forget that nothing is absolute, either. Nothing lasts forever.
"The Founding Generation, they were in the game because they were in the war or they were in Congress when the government was formed. So no matter how dire the situation was, they didn't want to completely throw it away because they were trying to build this from the ground up thing.
“I think a lot of Americans today take it for granted that we will always be here,” Chervinsky said.
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Story by Ed Ferguson. Editor: Ed Givenish.
