Trump’s fast start hits problems
PROTESTS MARK US PRESIDENT’S COMBATIVE INAUGURAL ADDRESS
>> US President Donald Trump vowed to bring swift change to Washington in a fiery inaugural address, yet that promise collided with the reality that only two members of his cabinet cleared the Senate by the end of his first day in office.
Unlike his successors Barack Obama and George W Bush — who each had seven of their cabinet members confirmed on Inauguration Day — Mr Trump saw votes only for Defence Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. Other nominees are held up by paperwork delays and partisan fights in the Senate.
A Trump trip to the CIA’s headquarters that aides said would happen yesterday had not been announced as of late on Friday after his nominee to head the agency, Representative Mike Pompeo, didn’t get a confirmation vote. Mr Trump is trying to repair relations with the spy agency after openly questioning its conclusion that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic officials’ email accounts during the campaign.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Mr Trump’s secretary of state nominee, former Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson, tomorrow. A Republican on the panel, Florida’s Marco Rubio, has expressed misgivings about Mr Tillerson’s ties to Russia and hasn’t said whether he will vote for him.
His nominees for attorney-general, housing and urban development secretary and education secretary all will receive committee votes on Tuesday.
Representative Tom Price, his choice to lead health and human services — and a key official in any Obamacare repeal — won’t receive a confirmation hearing until Tuesday. Democrats have raised concerns about stock trades Mr Price made while in Congress and the timing for votes on his nomination is uncertain.
That is helping to slow repeal of the Affordable Care Act, a central Trump campaign pledge. Some Republican lawmakers are also balking at changes that may lead to many US citizens losing their insurance coverage.
Even so, six hours after taking the oath of office, Mr Trump made clear he wouldn’t wait to act on top priorities. He signed an order on Friday declaring his intent to repeal the Affordable Care Act and instructing federal agencies to “minimise the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens” of the 2010 healthcare law.
His chief of staff, Reince Priebus, issued a memorandum to federal agencies freezing new regulations. President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, issued a similar order when he first took office, but Mr Trump has promised to repeal two regulations for every new one he issues.
Mr Trump opened his presidency with a combative inaugural address aimed at his populist political base and by painting a dire portrait of the nation’s circumstances: a place of violent “American carnage” where “rusted-out factories” are “scattered like tombstones” and the middle class’s wealth is “ripped from their homes”.
He promised an unapologetic nationalism of “only America first, America first”.
In the evening, Mr Trump and his wife Melania began a round of three inaugural balls. He struck a softer tone in remarks at the Liberty ball before dancing on stage with Melania to a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.
“People that weren’t so nice to me were saying we did a really good job today,” Mr Trump said. “You’re going to be so happy. We want to make America great again. We’re not going to be playing games. We’re going to be producing results.”
The new president enters office with historically low approval ratings — 40% according to Gallup. He and his party in Congress already are at odds, especially on the issue of the Russian government’s role in electing him. Financial markets, which soared immediately following his election, have recently cooled.
Mr Trump’s confrontational t one was echoed by tensions in the streets of Washington and protest marches that erupted in sporadic violence. At least 217 protesters were arrested and six police officers sustained minor injuries. Windows were shattered at a McDonald’s restaurant, a Starbucks coffee shop and several office buildings and a limousine was set on fire outside The Washington Post’s headquarters.
The protests are expected to continue today during the Women’s March on Washington. Organisers said they expect the event to attract up to 200,000 people.
Mr Trump plans to begin his first full day as president with a customary inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral.
>> WASHINGTON: Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the United States were expected to pack into downtown Washington yesterday for a women’s march in opposition to the agenda and rhetoric of President Donald Trump.
The Women’s March on Washington, featuring speakers, celebrity appearances and a protest walk along the National Mall, was planned as a counter-argument to Mr Trump’s populist presidential campaign, in which he angered many on the left with comments seen as demeaning to women, Mexicans and Muslims.
It comes the day after the nation’s capital was rocked by violent protest against Mr Trump, with black-clad anti-establishment activists smashing windows, setting vehicles on fire and fighting with riot-gear-clad police who responded with stun grenades.
The protests illustrated the depth of the anger in a deeply divided country that is still recovering from the scarring 2016 campaign season. Mr Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major US party.
The organisers of yesterday’s march said they had extensive security plans in place, and would have both visible and hard-tospot security workers along the route.
The event, the brainchild of Hawaiian grandmother Teresa Shook, was intended as an outlet for women and men who consider themselves feminists to vent their frustration and anxiety over Mr Trump’s victory. It spotlights the fierce opposition Mr Trump faces as he takes office, a period that is typically more of a honeymoon than a hate-fest.
A recent ABC News/ Washington Post poll found Mr Trump had the lowest favourability rating of any incoming president since the 1970s.
Women reached by journalists gave a host of reasons for marching, ranging from inspiring other women to run for office to protesting against Mr Trump’s plans to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which among other things requires health insurers to cover birth control.
Overall, the women said they hoped to send a unity message to Mr Trump after a campaign in which he said Mexican immigrants were “rapists”, discussed banning Muslims from entering the United States and was revealed to have once bragged about grabbing women by the genitals and kissing them without permission.
“It’s a lot of things: to protest [against] the administration that’s coming in and the blatant disrespect for women and people of colour,” said Whitney Jordan, 28, who works in retail in New York and said she was coming to Washington on a bus organised by Planned Parenthood, the reproductive health organisation that is the march’s biggest sponsor.
Another march participant, Carli Baklashev, a stay-at-home mother of five boys from Missouri, said, “I want to resist the ideology of everything that he stands for and teach my children that, you know, love, empathy and inclusion and diversity are a staple of who[m] we are.
Mr Trump’s team did not respond to a request for comment about the march.
During his inauguration speech on Friday, Mr Trump vowed to work for the good of the US worker, saying, “Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families”.
Celebrities such as the musicians Janelle Monae and Katy Perry — both of whom supported Ms Clinton in the election — were expected to take part in yesterday’s march. Women have knitted pink cat-eared “pussy” hats, a reference to Mr Trump’s claim in the 2005 video that was made public weeks before the election that he grabbed women by the genitals.
Dozens of groups representing myriad issues joined together to sponsor the march.
Shannon Watts, the head of pro-gun control group Moms Demand Action, said her organisation will send more than 100 marchers.
“Gun violence is a women’s issue,” Ms Watts said. She said women in the United States are 16 times more likely to be the victim of gun violence than in other high-income nations and that studies have found 4.5 million women have been threatened at some point with a gun.
Groups including Emily’s List, which supports Democratic women candidates, said the election had already spurred increased turnout at classes to train women to mount campaigns for mostly low-level political offices.
“I want it to be energising,” Erica Eisdorfer, 59, of Carrboro, North Carolina, said. “Nothing is going to change on Sunday morning. Nothing will have changed ... but I think the people who wish it were other will be energised.”