Foreign Policy

Television, print media, and the American public are not properly focused on the impact this administration is having on our standing in the world.  This is due to an endless series of destructive executive orders, tweets with false accusations, attempted bans of Muslims, a terrible Supreme Court lifetime appointment..... and so much more.

Fareed Zakaria of CNN and the Washington Post, points out that the impacts will be significant and long lasting:

After several days of rumors, an executive order to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been delayed for the time being.  It appears that Congressional Republican's lack of desire to fall in line has stalled Trump's efforts for the time being.

Trump told the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Wednesday that he would not immediately move to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, only hours after an administration official said he was likely to sign an order that would begin the process of pulling the United States out of the deal.

It can be a struggle in daily conversations to explain the real life impact this election has every day on the decisions being made to govern our society.  This election has put numerous individuals in positions of real, tangible power who are spending every hour of every day implementing policies in an efficient, destructive manner.  They are doing the exact things their prior words, actions, and lobbyist bosses should have made obvious.

In an executive order to be signed on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, the President aims to make it more difficult for companies to hire foreign technology workers in an attempt to keep those jobs for American workers.

Expectations from the industry, however, suggest that this will badly damage the American technology sector. According to Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology Innovation Foundation:

The administration sent instructions last week to American embassies to increase scrutiny of visa applicants seeking to travel to the U.S.  This "exteme vetting" was a promise of Trump's on the campaign trail in connection with his desire to restrict Muslims from entering the country.  

As a candidate, Mr. Trump vowed to ban all incoming Muslims until leaders could “figure out what the hell is going on.” Later, he backed away from a total ban on Muslims but promised “extreme vetting” of those trying to come to the United States.

While federal judges in Maryland and Washington handle cases challenging what has been termed "Muslim Ban 2," a federal judge in Hawaii has issued a nationwide temporary restraining order.  The ban was set to take effect at midnight on Thursday March 16th (the evening of the 15th).

The White House has signed a new executive order intending to achieve the same effects as the first one but with nuissances it hopes will prevent courts from blocking implentation.  Rather than attempt to summarize the enormous issues, both legal and ethical, with this action, please review and share the New York Times piece below detailing in bullet point format what's changed and what it all means.

A provision of the Trump administration’s plan to increase deportation of undocumented immigrants grants authority for federal agents to deport to Mexico anyone caught crossing the southern border, regardless of where they are from.  For example, the United States would push hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Brazilians, Ecuadorans, even Haitians into Mexico.  Presently these individuals are detained in the U.S. and allowed to request asylum.

Facing accusations about his dealings with Russia and misleading the Vice President and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, Michael Flynn has resigned as the National Security Adviser after less than a month on the job.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/politics/donald-trump-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn.html