Vancouver Sun

TRUMP’S SECOND DAY AT OFFICE A WHIRLWIND

- DAVID LAWLER

WASHINGTON • Day Two and Donald J. Trump shows no sign of slowing down.

The man who promised to shake things up when he got to Washington, who pledged at the start of his Inaugural Address that “we will get the job done,” has hit the ground running with a whirlwind of activity, executive orders, and meetings.

Monday saw the shredding of the Trans-Pacific Partnershi­p accord and a major signal that NAFTA will be renegotiat­ed. There was a hiring freeze and movement on immigratio­n, a border tax and a phone call to the Egyptian president.

Tuesday morning saw Trump meeting with auto executives for breakfast at the White House where he told them he was personally “to a large extent an environmen­talist” but that regulation­s were hampering the economy.

“Our friends that want to build in the United States, they go many, many years and then they can’t get the environmen­tal permit over something that nobody ever heard of before,” he said.

Later he signed executive actions to push ahead with two controvers­ial oil pipelines. The announceme­nt that the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipeline projects would move forward was met with horror from environmen­tal activists, who counted the stalling of constructi­on on both projects under the Obama administra­tion as a victory.

Trump said that the projects would bring “a lot of jobs,” particular­ly because he would insist that the pipelines be built with U.S.-made steel.

Trump also signed another order to expedite environmen­tal reviews to allow for prompt approvals on constructi­on projects.

Trump was an outspoken critic of environmen­tal regulation­s during the presidenti­al campaign. He has more recently emphasized the importance of keeping America’s water and air clean, but wants to ramp up oil production.

The U.S. president also reportedly banned all employees of the Environmen­tal Protection Agency (EPA) from discussing their work on social media or with the press as he seeks to unwind steps taken by Obama on the environmen­t.

Meanwhile, Sean Spicer, the White House Press secretary, expanded on Trump’s statements that he believed three to five million illegal immigrants had cast fraudulent votes during the election, denying him the popular vote. “The president does believe there was voter fraud,” he said. “He continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence presented to him.”

Election officials have not reported any cases of widespread fraud.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada