A Year Into the Trump Presidency

A+Year+Into+the+Trump+Presidency

By Zubair Muhammad, Staff Contributor

President Donald Trump will mark his first year in office this Sat., Jan 20. Throughout this time, the president’s tenure has not been lacking in feuds and controversies.

Only a week into his presidency, Trump signed an executive order that halted all refugee and immigration admissions into the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days. Nicknamed the “Muslim Ban,” the order resulted in uproar around the country as immigration attorneys and activists rushed to major airports to demonstrate their support for the incoming immigrants.

Although the ban ended on Feb. 3, students at Niles West still remain passionate about the issue.

“America was built by immigrants. Stopping them from coming into our country just to have a better life for themselves and their families is just screwed up,” junior Divya Patel said.

With a watered-down version of the travel ban released shortly after on March 6 in the form of Executive order 13870, it became clear that Trump was pushing for severe immigration control.

His supporters remain firmly in favor of the president’s views on immigration, even comparing him to former president Barack Obama.

“It doesn’t matter if he banned those countries because Obama had done the same thing,” junior Ethan Kalchik said.

The Trump administration has also came under fire for its quick staff turnover rate. As early as July, several senior White House officials, including communications director Anthony Scaramucci, chief strategist Steve Bannon, chief of staff Reince Priebus, and press secretary Sean Spicer had departed the White House.

Also in this past year, we’ve seen increased military spending, several botched attempts by the GOP to repeal and replace Obamacare, and a call to end DACA. The Trump administration has announced its plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which would end legal protection for the thousands of Dreamers brought to the U.S. illegally as children. 

As of now, no bipartisan deal has been reached with regards to DACA; as recently as Jan. 13, Trump tweeted that it was Democrats who don’t “want to see a deal on DACA.”

The president also came under scrutiny for his controversial tweets and battles with the media. In one instance, the President referred to any polls that negatively depicted him as fake news “just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election.”

Trump has even gone as far as resorting to Twitter beef with Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un by referring to him as “little rocket man” and tweeting how the U.S. has a bigger and stronger nuclear button than North Korea.

English Teacher Michele Lewis believes the President’s bickering with North Korea puts the country’s safety at risk.

“I want to feel like I’m safe. I want to think a lot of things he says are to distract us. I find it hard to believe that the president can make a decision that would threaten the safety of the entire nation,” Lewis said.

Looking past Trump’s many controversial moves, he has had his share of achievements.

Not only has the American economy picked up, but the country’s unemployment rate is down to 4.1 percent and the gross domestic product and the stock market are performing above expectations.

At only a year into his first term, Trump’s supporters are eager to see what he will do next.

“So far he’s accomplished a lot, especially with passing tax reform, but how could we expect progress having seen so little,” Ethan Kalchik said.