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The sheer volume of President Donald Trump’s actions and his...

The sheer volume of President Donald Trump’s actions and his blitz of often inaccurate comments have overwhelmed the news media’s efforts to keep the public apprised. Credit: AP/Mark Schiefelbein

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Readers may write to him via email at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com.

A majority of the voters who returned Donald Trump to the White House told interviewers they had two overriding concerns: the persistence of inflation and the influx of illegal immigrants.

But the once and future president made clear throughout the campaign that he had a more personal agenda for regaining presidential power: retribution against his enemies and critics.

“For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” Trump declared more than once, making clear he would apply his own personal standard for determining wrongness and betrayal.

In his first week back, Trump’s retribution campaign has overshadowed the impact of his preliminary steps to fight inflation and curb illegal immigration, threatening to undercut any potential political benefits from his stunningly swift start.

And Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, hasn’t even started on his self-proclaimed enemies list, the 60 past and present government officials he targeted as “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.”

Trump quickly abandoned his vow to be a Dictator just for Day 1 oil drilling and immigration, unleashing an unprecedented flood of executive orders, several flouting popular opinion and many legally questionable. He also took some more personal actions, aimed at penalizing political enemies or supporters stricken from favor.

His most outrageous actions were his decision to free all 1,500 supporters convicted for crimes committed in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection – whether just trespassing or assaulting police officers — and his long threatened though constitutionally dubious effort to limit “birthright citizenship.” Polls show most Americans oppose both.

Several federal judges who presided over Jan. 6 cases criticized Trump’s decision to free demonstrators convicted of serious crimes. The Capitol police chief said its message is “politics is more important than policing.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Seattle blocked Trump’s order denying citizenship to all babies of non-citizen parents, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” The 14th Amendment says, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Trump also took steps to impose his will on key federal agencies. He halted government-wide civil rights and diversity efforts and routine health information reporting, fired without the required congressional notice the inspectors general of 18 federal agencies, fired career federal prosecutors who worked on cases against him, suspended federal job recruitment including summer national park guides and vowed to scrap the agency that supervises federal disaster relief efforts.

On last Friday’s visits to North Carolina areas still struggling to recover from last fall’s hurricane and Los Angeles communities destroyed by still raging wildfires, Trump politicized the federal effort to mitigate them. He named the Republican national chairman to coordinate North Carolina recovery and repeatedly denigrated California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In North Carolina, he again claimed without evidence that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) discriminated against Republican-voting areas. He suggested abolishing it and letting states handle emergencies, ignoring its substantial role in providing emergency help and coordinating the various federal agencies that help individuals and businesses afterwards.

He announced a probe of FEMA’s future, though Congress created it in 1979 and would need to have a role.

In California, Trump threatened to withhold federal help unless California institutes a voter identification requirement and increases the flow of northern California water to the South, something water experts called not feasible.

Meanwhile, he withdrew government security from Dr. Anthony Fauci and three first term foreign policy officials. Conservative critics have threatened Fauci, the retired head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, over his advice during the COVID pandemic.

And former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Brian Hook have faced Iranian threats over their advice to Trump.

Bolton has long derided Trump. But Pompeo generally supported him though he pointedly said, when mulling a presidential bid, that voters wanted solutions, “not tweets.” The New York Times said Trump has banned former Pompeo aides from his new administration.

Asked if he worried his action might endanger Fauci and Bolton, Trump said, “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security, too.”

He also withdrew security clearances from 50 former government officials, who signed a 2020 anti-Trump campaign statement.

As for fighting inflation, Trump’s initial steps were vague. He directed Cabinet members to take unspecified actions against inflation, launched a review of federal regulations, and urged an increase in energy production to lower gas prices. He also demanded the Federal Reserve lower interest rates, which it has resisted for fear of reigniting inflation.

On Immigration, Trump ordered the border shut and launched a multi-agency effort to deport millions of illegal immigrants. Initial raids rounded up several hundred and flew them in military aircraft to Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia, achieving the latter only after he threatened economic sanctions. For the most part, these roundups were slower than initially promised and took place mostly out of the spotlight.

To some extent, the sheer volume of Trump’s actions – and his accompanying blitz of steady, often inaccurate commentary -- overwhelmed the news media’s efforts to keep the public apprised.

“We’re going to do things that people will be shocked at,” Trump said at the outset. But the only shock was that he really followed through with as much of what he promised in his campaign.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Readers may write to him via email at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com.

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