Trump’s 300 Executive Actions Made His First Week The Most Consequential In Presidential History

President Donald Trump did not need to learn the location of the White House breakroom during his first week in office. He rarely takes a break, and the beauty of a second term is he already knows how things work in the White House.

He also knows how things work in Washington. Trump’s first term was full of ugly political lessons taught through betrayals, bogus impeachments, and ongoing lawfare. He first came to office in 2016 promising to drain the insidious swamp, and the swamp tried to drown him.

While his supporters hated the four years trapped under former President Joe Biden, it was time well spent for Trump. As the nation learned how bad things could get, Trump was planning his return, building a nearly swamp-proof administration.

As Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist recently told Mark Levin on “Life Liberty, & Levin,” Trump understood that he had to be decisive and bold in taking on the permanent Washington, D.C. bureaucracy that has thwarted the will of the American people in recent decades.

“Americans have been frustrated for a long time, and that’s why they’re so optimistic and hopeful about what they’ve seen this week,” Hemingway said.

During his first week, Trump returned stronger, wiser, and mentally agile enough to orchestrate the most consequential first week of a presidency ever, putting more than 300 executive actions into motion.

Investments

Trump received commitments for more than a trillion dollars in U.S. investment.

Under Biden, “investment” always meant, how the administration was spending tax payer money. If they were giving out grants, it was an investment in the program, if they built a bridge, it was an investment in infrastructure.  

But under Trump, “investment” means companies bet on America’s future and spend money here. In his first week, Trump announced a large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure project, for which he has secured $500 billion in planned private sector investment. And Saudi Arabia announced plans to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years.

Stellantis, a global automaker, met with Trump and announced it will reopen its assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois — putting 1,500 employees back to work — and it will build its Dodge Durango in Detroit, Michigan, plus promised company investments in their Toledo, Ohio, and Kokomo, Indiana, facilities. Electronics manufacturers Samsung and LG are considering moving their plants from Mexico to the U.S.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Trump put the word out to international companies that they should make their products in the U.S. or expect to pay tariffs.

These are immediate, job creating, community building jumpstarts the economy needs.

Illegal Border Crossings

Trump took a shock and awe approach to the border. Biden and Kamala Harris said on the campaign trail that illegal border crossings could not be stopped without an act of Congress. Bet they were shocked when Trump turned it around on his own in a few days.

In his first week, Trump declared a national border emergency; started deportation flights of criminal illegal aliens; deployed military troops to the southern border; started the process of ending birthright citizenship; reinstated the remain in Mexico policy; and he empowered ICE to do its job. By the end of the week there were reports nationwide of more than 1,000 arrested illegal aliens. The media turned it into tearjerker stories: mean old Trump is forcing criminals out of the country.            

The following is a sample of some of the ICE arrests, according to a statement from the White House:

Pablo Beningo Calva-Deamonte, a Mexican national with three DUI convictions who had already been removed from the U.S. twice, faced removal after his arrest Jan. 22 arrest in Denver.

Jose Roberto Rodriguez-Urbina, an alleged MS-13 gang member, faces removal after his Jan. 22 arrest in New York. He is wanted in El Salvador on extortion charges.

Adan Pablo-Ramirez, a Mexican national with 2 DUIs, has an existing removal order from 2019. But he was still here, in Chicago, until his Jan. 22 arrest.

Energy For Economy

Trump declared a national energy emergency and rescinded all of Biden’s “job-killing, pro-China, anti-American” energy regulations, including “the job-killing green new scam,” a White House statement said. He aims to lower the cost of energy which in turn should lower consumer costs, Trump has said, because all products require energy in manufacturing and delivery.

American consumers will not face restrictions on water flow and energy used by vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, light bulbs, and dishwashers. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement caused some of these restrictions.

He paused federal leasing and permitting for wind farms, opened off-shore drilling, and the Department of Energy ended Biden’s pause on Liquefied Natural Gas.

Trump Policies That Made People Cry

People who identify as crocodiles shed big fat tears this week as Trump eliminated government DEI offices and declared there are officially only two genders in the U.S., man and woman. Other probable weeping may have come from federal employees ordered to return to the office instead of working at home; and the 51 spies who lied about the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s smut filled laptop were stripped of their security clearances.

Deported illegal aliens, and the nonprofits and shady businesses that earn money off them, may have cried too.  

But for political prisoners who languished in federal prison under Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice, there were tears of joy as they were reunited with family when Trump released them from prison.

Peaceful street counselors who tried to persuade pregnant women to turn away from their abortion appointments were freed.

And those charged for being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, some of whom had been waiting for years to have their first court hearing, were released.     

On Inauguration Day, there were tears from Trump’s supporters: the ones who believed Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election win; the ones who saw him shot in the head in Butler, Pennsylvania; the ones waiting  for the market to change so they can buy a house; those who have been spied on by the FBI or ATF; those who prayed for Trump to turn this country around and bring unity and prosperity. They are stronger and wiser too, and they cried because for the first time in a long time, they have optimism. The man who beat every unfair fight he faced in the last eight years, will keep his promises to them.

His iconic first week proved it.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.