On November 6, 2024, a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was hijacked by tech oligarch Elon Musk, who inserted himself into the dialogue akin to the weird kid your mom made you invite to your birthday party. With Trump having already pledged to end the war in Ukraine, this phone call was a pivotal moment in US-Ukraine relations, yet Musk’s comical presence in this confidential conversation– in which he had no place –was indicative of the impractical, almost theatrical nature of many of Trump’s campaign promises.
With Trump setting a record for the most executive orders signed in a single week, it is necessary to analyze the merits of his actions in relation to his agenda. To gain the support of moderate Americans and facilitate financial support from the world’s wealthiest cheerleader, Trump made a series of grand promises throughout his quest for returning to the White House. Beyond his baffling vows to end generational international conflicts within 24 hours, the newly-elected President has resolved to initiate the “largest deportation program” in American history, intensify unsustainable drilling practices, and single-handedly fix our fledgling economy. Now, with week one having passed by, how do his actions compare to his promises?
Bolstered by the appointment of a border czar and commitment to a “mass deportation” campaign, Trump has increasingly dedicated time to method acting as a walking South Park caricature of himself. Objectively, illegal immigration is a pressing problem that the Biden Administration catastrophically failed to manage. The inability to address the link between the border’s insecurity and the devastating American drug epidemic left a negative impression of the Democratic Party as a whole. In particular, the shortcomings of the prior administration’s leadership emboldened Trump to successfully cultivate a faulty, populist perception of dog-devouring migrant minorities that propelled him to victory in the 2024 election. However, with the hysteria surrounding illegal immigration having subsided since the election season, the actions undertaken by the Trump Administration have caused increasing ethical concerns.
With ICE reporting more than 1,000 daily arrests, the operations of the government agency have been greeted with hostility from the citizens of Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, and Los Angeles. As these major cities have significant immigrant populations, an attack on illegal migration is being perceived as an affront to the act of immigration itself. President Trump's adherence to his promise in this regard has not only galvanized his opposition, but it has resulted in schisms within his own base.
Ironically, his kingmaker, the aforementioned MAGA superstar Elon Musk, is an immigrant himself. Accordingly, the magnate and major campaign benefactor have vocally opposed efforts to restrict H1-B Visas. This conflict over the extent to which President Trump can fulfill his promises will likely intensify over the first few months of his tenure, and this can especially be seen concerning drilling.
Undoubtedly, Musk’s ties to the oil and gas industries and his subsequent contributions to the campaign have influenced Trump’s policy. Significantly, the average Trump rally would feature aggressive displays of white-boy-can’t-dance syndrome from the former and bold intentions of “drill, baby, drill” from the latter. With oil coursing through his veins and a diesel engine for a heart, one of President Trump’s first executive actions was revoking a Biden-era ban on new offshore drilling. In doing so, he set the stage for the uphill battle climate activists face with him in office. Although the United States is already producing more oil and gas than any other country in the world, the president’s characterization of the nation as being energy-inefficient during Biden’s tenure must be furthered for optics. Unfortunately, it seems that President Trump is keeping his promises on this matter, and it will only spell disaster for environmentalist efforts.
Beyond optics, there is one pressing problem that plagued his predecessor throughout his time in office: the economy. Infamously, President Trump pledged to slash food prices on his first day at his post. Now, as I come back from having spent my entire paycheck on eggs and Eggos, I must contend that his promise has aged about as well as the milk that I couldn’t afford.
To anyone with a basic understanding of how the world works, the implausibility of this effort was clear as day. However, the young and impressionable Trump voter was swooned by his bold braggadocio. Now, with the president moving to pass protectionist tariffs on Mexico, China, and Canada - our biggest trading partners - it is likely that prices will continue to hound the consumer.
However, there may be a method to this economic madness. Just recently, President Trump was able to utilize his protectionist image to compel Colombia to accept deportees. Threatening retaliatory tariffs against the South American country, President Trump leveraged his logistically questionable economic policy to fulfill his morally questionable immigration agenda.
As the first phase of the Trump Presidency is in full swing, it is evident that his tenure will likely be filled with the peculiar alchemy of false promises and unexpected victories that have characterized his political reputation.
Photo Credit:
[1]- Getty Images
[2]-Third Way
[3]- Ap | Alex Brandon
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