When President Donald Trump was re-elected in November, I, like many, worried about what his second term would bring with his many promises revolving around tariffs, abortion, education and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to name a few.
His conservative comments were laughed off, his motto adjoining yard signs and flags across the country. Panic on the Democratic side flared as last-minute orders were fired off in a weak attempt to calm the storm that would hit on Jan. 20.
And hit it did.
Not even two weeks into his administration, Trump has instigated executive orders for the massive deportation with threats to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship and the pardon of individuals convicted due to actions taken during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. He went from leading efforts to ban TikTok during his first administration to halting said ban to proposing the United States take ownership of the Gaza Strip, permanently removing Palestinian residents.
If that is not enough to provoke anger and fear as we watch our president threaten to erase amendments that stand at the foundation of our nation, then here is something that might.
DEI is at the front line in the news, and for good reason. At the head are Trump’s accusations that DEI policies are the cause of the recent plane accident that took place at Reagan National Airport. DEI policies = the cause of a horrible tragedy. You read that right. Trump, at the briefing on Thursday, Jan. 30, darted around answering why he believed DEI policies were to blame, hinting that it was due to diversity and equity hiring that the accident occurred, saying, “We want somebody that’s psychologically superior. And that’s what we’re going to have.”
There is nothing wrong with wanting the best people on jobs as significant as that of airplane pilots and air traffic controllers, but one’s race or sexuality does not impact one’s ability to do such positions.
But saying that the reason he thinks DEI policies are somehow the cause of the crash is because he has “common sense” and that “a lot of people don’t.”
Common sense, he says.
But there is more to his DEI tirade. Trump made an executive order that banned staff at various intelligence agencies from celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day. These events might only be targeted at intelligence agencies for now, which alone is already serious enough, but with Trump’s stance against DEI programs and policies, one has to wonder how long it will be before said bans extend beyond intelligence agencies and into universities and beyond.
It goes further than the holidays and celebrations, Trump is after gender ideology and is actively removing any traces of it that he can, starting with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Health organizations scrubbed and removed web pages that revolved around the concept of more than two sexes, deleting statistics on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and health data on the health disparities among LGBT+ individuals. A two-page memo sent out by an executive order by Trump demanding the halting of federal funding of gender ideology and to “recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
All this in just two weeks. Two weeks of four years under Trump’s second administration. The things listed above are just the tip of the iceberg of all the promises Trump has made during his time in the presidential spotlight, whether it was back in 2016 or now.
We should all be sitting on the edge of our seats in apprehension for what is to come because everyone is on the chopping block, and before you know it, the rights you didn’t even know you had will be stripped away, ruining millions of lives.
Gas prices will be the last thing you’re worried about in four years, and that’s if our nation survives it.
This is no longer about not liking Trump; it’s about saving the foundation of our nation and all the progress we’ve made since 1776.
We cannot go backward.
