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Editorial: Trump's shotgun approach at executive orders

 
Published Jan. 23, 2017

After a disastrous weekend peddling falsehoods and trashing the media, President Donald Trump spent Monday issuing executive orders across a dizzying front, announcing the United States would leave the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, reimposing a ban on aid to international groups that counsel on abortions and calling for aggressive steps to promote home-grown American industry. Though none of the actions are surprising, Trump's eagerness to act by executive order creates more uncertainty among other countries about the direction of U.S. foreign policy.

Trump's actions Monday were meant to underscore the pledge he made during the campaign to make America more competitive with its global trading partners. His announcement that the United States would leave the TPP, which seeks to reduce trade barriers with 11 other nations across the Pacific Rim, was mostly a formality. The deal was attacked by populists and labor-allied Democrats, and President Barack Obama, who negotiated the deal, never sent it to Congress for approval.

Trump also met with American business leaders, imploring them to invest at home and promising tax cuts to those who build here and retain American workers. Trump vowed to impose a "substantial" tax on foreign products and said he would assist U.S. employers by cutting regulations "by 75 percent, maybe more." He offered no details about what specific tax cuts, penalties and regulations were being considered. Trump also signed an order freezing the hiring of federal employees. His first executive order, issued only hours after being inaugurated on Friday, called for federal agencies to do whatever they can to defer or delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Also on Friday, Trump's administration repealed an Obama-era decision to discount mortgage insurance for first-time and low-income homeowners, leaving borrowers with about $500 in higher costs this year.

The president's order to slow Obamacare could further unsettle the insurance markets. His ban on aid to counseling for abortion, a staple of Republican administrations, is a loss for women's health services internationally and an invitation to reignite social division. His boasts of cutting taxes and regulation are reckless. And the Trump administration's intention to shift to bilateral trade pacts in Asia will slow the process and leave China and other major players to fill the void. Trump's shotgun approach in the early going hardly reassures allies abroad and skeptics at home, and it's unclear where he's headed from here.