Ryan Knutson and Molly Ball are back! This time to unpack the new administration's first 100 days. Today, we discuss President Trump’s slew of executive orders and what they tell us about the next four years. Plus, they speak to WSJ’s Sadie Gurman about changes taking shape at the Justice department. Further Listening: - Trump Declares a ‘Golden Age’ for America - Trump’s Immigration Overhaul Further Reading: - Trump’s Immigration Playbook: Breaking Down His Moves This Week - Trump Takes Office Determined to Bend Government to His Singular Will Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How did Trump's first week compare to his first term?
That's right. Ending DEI programs in the federal government and in federal contracting, proclaiming, yeah, that the federal government will no longer recognize transgender identity. This is another area where Trump really feels he has a mandate. He feels like this was a big part of the campaign.
Another executive order that struck me was Trump obviously was elected in large part because voters were grumpy about inflation and he promises to bring down prices. So he issued an executive order basically directing the federal government to bring down prices. And so this is the kind of thing that's so broad and so amorphous that like, sure, we'd all like to bring down prices.
But there's no actual mechanism in it for how these government departments could actually seek to do that. And so it does look like something that's more symbolic in practice. But at least you can point to it and say, see, I ordered them to bring down prices.
On day one, I took action. Got it.
I was also struck by the things that he didn't issue executive orders about.
Like what?
Chiefly tariffs. There's an executive order that sort of directs the government to study the possibility of imposing tariffs. But he repeatedly promised that he was going to impose sweeping across-the-board tariffs on allies and enemies alike on day one. And as he was sitting there signing these orders on day one, He talked about, well, maybe we'll do it on February 1st.
And now he's, you know, threatening Putin with tariffs if the Ukraine war doesn't end. Do you have a sense of why that is?
Why would that be something that he might be delaying on?
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