The Trump tsunami: Gigantic mass of taboo violations overwhelms critics

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger The Trump tsunami: Gigantic mass of taboo violations overwhelms critics Karl Doemens • 20 hours • 3 minutes reading time The sound of the scratching felt-tip pen hurts the ears. We have heard it countless times in the past few days - whenever Donald Trump signed a new decree. The visual impression of the massive signature, which the president then always demonstratively holds up to the cameras, is also lasting: a jagged statement with three razor-sharp points. Donald Trump has only been in office for a week. But the president has felt more active in his first seven days than his predecessor Joe Biden in his entire term in office. He has fired off more than 50 presidential decrees to bypass Congress, as well as dozens of personnel decisions, unprecedented pardons and countless administrative regulations. It is a veritable political tsunami - broadcast live on television at any time of day or night. When the 78-year-old is not enthroned behind his mighty desk, he is giving press conferences or speeches. Since the moment he was sworn in, Trump has had total global air supremacy. The list of taboos he has broken seems endless: In a very short time, he has suspended the right of asylum in the USA, officially re-declared the attempted coup of January 6, 2021 a heroic act, dismantled his predecessor's climate protection policy and politically purged the federal authorities. He has allegedly unconstitutionally sent the military to the border with Mexico, opened up the country's coasts and Alaska's nature reserves for oil and gas drilling, fired the authorities' internal fraud controllers and stopped US foreign aid. In addition to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, he also got the highly controversial Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth through the Senate. In an act of narrow-minded and cynical vindictiveness, he has withdrawn personal protection from his former security adviser John Bolton, his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his former Corona adviser Anthony Fauci. Trump's avalanche of decrees consists of historic changes of course such as the pardon of 1,500 Capitol stormers and absurdities such as the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America". Some - such as the abolition of the right of birth citizenship guaranteed in a constitutional amendment, which was temporarily stopped by a judge - will probably end up before the Supreme Court. Others - such as the lifting of the TikTok ban - cannot be permanently implemented without Congress. But many decisions have immediate consequences: around 15,000 people who are entitled to leave the country are stuck in Afghanistan after their flights were canceled. Thousands of asylum seekers are stranded at the Mexican border, even though they legally made an appointment with the American authorities via a government app. Millions of irregular migrants who have been working in American agriculture, catering or construction for years are now at risk of deportation at any time. President Trump speaks all the time and everywhere The new president's thunderous arrival is planned with precision, like a military war on multiple fronts. The "bridgehead" has landed, declared Steve Bannon, the Trumpists' chief strategist: "Now we're flooding the room." In addition to the constant bombardment of regulations, there are threats to neighboring countries Canada and Mexico and constant intimidation of Panama and Denmark. The president speaks all the time and everywhere - in front of his helicopter Marine One, in the Oval Office, during an appearance with tech billionaires in the Roosevelt Room, during television interviews, a video link to the World Economic Forum in Davos and a large rally in Las Vegas. This creates the impression of impressive energy among Trump's supporters and covers up the shortcomings on two key campaign promises - the fight against inflation and ending the war in Ukraine "in 24 hours" - where the president has made no progress. But Trump's critics don't know where to start. "It's difficult to react to so much chaos," admits Democratic congresswoman Veronica Escobar. That's exactly the calculation. "The overwhelming volume is the whole point," analyzes columnist Susan Glasser in the "New Yorker": "If there are too many scandals at the same time, the system is overloaded and collapses. It can't concentrate. It can't fight back. There are just too many distractions." On Saturday evening, after a tour of North Carolina and California, during which he had already produced countless news stories, Trump still hadn't had enough. On the return flight, he invited the journalists traveling with him on board Air Force One to a 20-minute press conference. He talked about his presidency ("extraordinary"), the Democratic Californian governor Gavin Newsom ("I was nice to him") and the broadcaster CNN ("they're going bankrupt"). In passing, he mentioned the next outrage: the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should leave for Egypt and Jordan "temporarily or long-term." Then the "demolition wasteland" could be "thoroughly cleaned up," the real estate mogul said in a conversational tone, calling for the expulsion of an entire people.