President moves fast to keep promises
WASHINGTON — Freshly sworn in to office, President Trump set about Friday trying to deliver the change he promised as he took the helm of the vast executive branch bureaucracy and began steering it toward a new conservativedominated government.
Away from the pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Day that celebrated the handover of power to Trump from former President Barack Obama, the nuts-and-bolts implementation began largely behind the scenes.
In a ceremonial office of the Capitol shortly after he took the oath, Trump signed papers nominating candidates for Cabinet secretary posts, paving the way for their confirmations. The Republican-led Senate voted hours later to approve retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of Defense and John Kelly, another retired Marine general, as head of Homeland Security.
And Friday night in the Oval Office, Trump signed a largely symbolic executive order directing agencies to take steps to “ease the burden” of the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature health care law, as Republicans work to repeal and replace it.
“The time for empty talk is over,” Trump declared in his inaugural address. “Now arrives the hour of action.”
Early clues about Trump’s top priorities came on the updated White House website, including a commitment to reverse Obama’s climate plans, pursue tax reform, enhance law enforcement and the military, and withdraw from a major Pacific Rim trade pact that had been an Obama administration priority.
Trump’s most significant plans will require cooperation from Congress. But Obama’s own aggressive use of presidential authority also provides a path Trump can use to quickly reverse course on his predecessor’s actions on immigration, foreign policy and other issues.
An hour after Trump assumed the presidency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development indefinitely suspended a pending rate cut for mortgage insurance required for governmentbacked home loans.
The move reverses a policy announced in the waning days of the Obama administration that would have trimmed payments for borrowers by hundreds of dollars a year. Similar directives were being made at other agencies, an adviser said, though not all were expected to be announced.
Like many other candidates in the lengthy presidential campaign, Trump had identified dozens of actions he intended to take on his first day in office.