The Trump administration has begun and just like the last time I was hoping that he would calm down all the vibrato and become an actual leader. It is too early to tell but it isn’t looking good to me so far. An inauguration is an event that is supposed to be a celebration of the continuation of our democracy. A celebration of our greatest document that has endured our Constitution.  The Constitution is the document that established our government which is sworn to be protected by the incoming administration. The document ensures we have a government of the people, by the people, for the people. It is a day that in the past was used to ensure the incoming administration would work for all the citizens of this great country. It is supposed to be a day of unification. From what I have read so far I don't think it is off to a good start. 

One of the first things Trump did was to pardon 1600 of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol. He said he was going to do so no one should have been surprised. Biden was criticized for pardoning his son because he lied on a gun application but Trump pardoned 1600 people who wanted to burn the very document that just hours before he had sworn to protect. He didn’t swear to protect a piece of paper he swore to protect the words on that piece of paper which is the vision of greater men that has been passed onto us for almost 250 years. We all knew he was going to pardon them because he had stated it many times. We don’t know at the time of this writing, if any of the people who attacked the police are going to be pardoned but I am pretty sure some will. What I had always written about the insurrectionists was real justice had to start at the top and not just with the people who were duped into believing the lies.  These people did not attack our Capitol building because they were defending our democracy. These people did not go to jail because they defended our Constitution. They were guilty of attacking our Capitol building because they believed the lie that the election was stolen. That lie was told to them by the very man who has again sworn to protect and defend our Constitution but didn’t. To me, this is a slap in the face of all law enforcement that protect and serve.

Trump issued two executive orders ending our participation in the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. These decisions are not a good thing on several fronts. First, Climate Change is real and it is a problem the entire world has to deal with.  I think the country that leads in green technology will be a major player in the world's future economy. That country will more than likely be China. As I have written in the past, we are already the number one oil exporter in the world. I have read even oil executives are not that excited about starting to drill more because this is a market-driven product and right now the market doesn’t merit the increased drilling. What the oil companies do want is for the regulations that protect us and our environment gone. This is bad for the environment and our future. Our leaving the World Health Organization just makes us more vulnerable to the next pandemic. The last time Trump was President hundreds of thousands died from Covid and much of that was from his lying and misinformation. One thing that it does is also show the world that we are no longer a country that wants to lead. That is right. I feel that Trump is giving up the leadership of the free world. He may be the leader of the most powerful military in the world but to be a leader you must have countries willing to follow your leadership and that just isn’t happening. You can try and bully people into submission but that is not leadership. That was one of the downfalls of the Soviet Union.  As we vacate our leadership role, he weakens our country and opens that door for other countries to fill the void. One of those countries filling that void will be China. 

Trump also issued what I would call his hate executive orders. One is the authorizing the use of the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States, which effectively authorizes the military to create a plan that would deploy troops to the southern border. He will also reinstate his first-term border policies in a broad executive order called Securing our Borders bringing back his old policies that helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border and of course the wall. Trump will be going after immigration with a vengeance wanting criminal charges against anyone violating immigration law. Of course, we know a couple of people very close to the President who were in this country, maybe illegally but what the hell, they are not from Central America. I will always remember the passage from the book of Matthew where Jesus says “Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home.” What we are doing is not a good look for a Christian nation.  What we are doing is turning our backs on the teachings of Jesus. I believe in immigration control and I believe in a secure border but I believe our border control shouldn’t be based on racism and hate. The majority of our illegal aliens come in through legal ports of entry. Every one of the 9/11 terrorists was in this country legally. Our hatred will never make our country more secure. It is the world's hatred of America that makes us a terrorist target. 

On the day he swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States, he wrote an Executive Order against birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is part of the Constitution he had just sworn to protect. Whether you think that birthright citizenship is a thing from the past that should be done away with an Executive Order is not the way the Constitution can be changed. Many parts of the Constitution should be looked at because they are no longer relevant 250 years after the document was written. Still, our Forefathers put in place a procedure on how to do that, and an Executive order is not part of that procedure. For Trump to truly change our Constitution would mean working with the legislative branch of our government, which he doesn’t want to do. 

For Trump to start his administration with a total disregard for the very document he had just sworn to protect is not a good thing for the future of democracy or our nation. The fact that too many members of Congress are so willing to allow Trump to disregard his oath just shows you how much our democracy is in peril.