DC Edit | Trump moves cause chaos in US as India keeps watch
A blitz of executive orders covering immigration, on which Trump has expanded by bringing in the possibility of using the notorious US prison camp Guantanamo Bay and its 30,000 spare beds into a camp for detained migrants, ordered sweeping pardons, banned birthright citizenship, besides pulling out of the Paris Agreement and WHO. Many of the actions have invited the filing of cases, legal scrutiny by federal judges and widespread condemnation, and not only among Democrats
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US President Donald Trump, his cabal of billionaire advisers and his administration had barely entered their second week in office when, remarkably, an executive order freezing spending on federal grants was rescinded. In just two days, the order had generated chaos and invited legal action on a possible challenge to the constitution and its division of powers among the executive, legislature and judiciary.
The first significant reversal would, however, hardly mean that Trump & co. will not stay on their path of disruption of the order that had prevailed in Democratic rule and even in their own first spell at governance for four years from 2017. The end to federal funding of trillions of dollars in grants and loans was so confusing as to have caused this walk back that may have stopped money for social security, students and government spending in critical areas.
A blitz of executive orders covering immigration, on which Trump has expanded by bringing in the possibility of using the notorious US prison camp Guantanamo Bay and its 30,000 spare beds into a camp for detained migrants, ordered sweeping pardons, banned birthright citizenship, besides pulling out of the Paris Agreement and WHO. Many of the actions have invited the filing of cases, legal scrutiny by federal judges and widespread condemnation, and not only among Democrats.
The reversal on the federal funding order was quite surprising given how vociferously Trump’s officials had defended it. What the blanket order itself showed was to what extent the new President can do to upend the status quo. And the fun and games are just beginning as the threatened tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China are supposed to kick in on February 1.
The new tariff regime is not in place and Trump is already speaking up the possibility of cutting all income tax for Americans as tariffs will more than compensate considering the US imports more than $3.2 trillion in goods each year. An intriguing idea, nevertheless, but not an impossible one considering his record and his steadfast support to the rich and of the corporate world in lowering taxes. And it is just another fascinating concept in a series of thoughts that could potentially change the way America.
It is into this web of uncertainty that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be walking in with his trademark hug for his friend Donald Trump in February. Even though Trump had often spoken of China and India in the same breath as brutal leviers of tariffs, it is being predicted that India will have a softer run in Trump’s new world of punitive tariffs in his “America First” provided, of course, that it plays its cards right.
What Trump said in his phone conversation with Mr Modi about India doing the right thing in agreeing to accept documented illegal Indian immigrants from the US may just be a signal that he may not pounce immediately on India with penal tariffs even if the import duty on high end motorbikes like the Harley Davidson still irks the US president.
India has been one of the first nations to interact with the new Washington team with foreign minister S. Jaishankar meeting secretary of state Marco Rubio in a mini-Quad summit. As talks on trade and other issues with the US are yet to start, India is playing wait and watch as the Trump team might move on from home issues to matters of world trade next month.