President Trump Quietly Makes Influential Policy And Staff Changes During Last Months Of Presidency

Although former Vice President is not officially the President-elect, and the Trump campaign continues to fight legal battles, the current Trump administration has entered its “lame-duck” period and is not slowing its pace. Like most things that President Trump has done, he is balking traditional politics and using the time to implement policy and staff changes that are decidedly inconsistent with a Biden administration. Many will be difficult for Biden to reverse in order to implement a radical agenda, much to the dismay of the liberal media champions of a Biden administration who make sure to report unfavorably on President Trump’s perfectly acceptable presidential decisions, which are actually supported by millions of Americans.

President Trump’s political appointees are finalizing an array of last-minute federal regulations ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, including rules that would make it harder to enforce environmental protections.https://t.co/JST5wndsPL

— CNN (@CNN) December 6, 2020

In recent weeks we watched as Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs were fired, as well several other key figures who resigned. These positions were then filled by individuals whose ideology is consistent with the current Trump administration. While it’s not impossible for Biden to simply fire them and then hire his own personnel, U.S. News calls this “a cumbersome process.” 

Consistent with President Trump’s general stance on regulations and red tape, he continues to make policy and staff changes to cut through or reduce over-regulation. Deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said,

“President Trump has rolled back government regulations, streamlined project approvals, brought much-needed agency accountability, is bringing our troops home, and changed the way domestic and international deal-making is done so that the results help hardworking Americans, not the Washington elite.”

This lame-duck period seems to have had no effect on the pace with which President Trump addressed these issues. The Washington Post speculates that some of the “policy and staffing gains” that President Trump is working to “lock in” may be difficult for a Biden administration to reverse.

Much to the chagrin of The New York Times, the Trump Administration continues to implement sweeping changes to the immigration system, including changes to the citizenship test. The Migration Policy Institute reported that the Trump administration has implemented more than 400 immigration changes, and continues to push to limit asylum protections. This push seems to be a preemptive protection against Biden’s promises to significantly increase protections for undocumented immigrants, halt all deportations for 100 days, and raising the refugee admissions cap from Trump’s 15,000 to 125,000.

Although Biden’s administration would focus on reversing President Trump’s immigration policy changes, Politico reports that many of the changes “can only be unwound through a lengthy regulatory process, months of court battles and legislative movement.”

“Yes, Biden will be able to rescind some policies through the stroke of a pen on Day 1. But scores of others face massive hurdles, according to a dozen people on both sides of the issue. A lengthy, cumbersome regulatory process will draw out rule changes. Months of legal challenges could imperil executive orders. A recalcitrant Congress is unlikely to swiftly change laws. And a divided public and shifting border situation could create political difficulties.”

USA Today explained that “Biden might need years to reverse Trump’s immigration policies.” And this seems to be exactly President Trump’s intended goal: to prevent a Biden administration from undoing all the progress that President Trump’s “America First” policies have worked to bring. Government Relations Director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform RJ Hauman said,

“Reversing everything President Trump did to secure our borders, curb asylum abuse and protect American workers isn’t only bad policymaking that will trigger a crisis, it’s a political plank walk. We hope that commonsense and the weight of responsibility for a nation reeling from a pandemic will alter Biden’s radical immigration plans once he enters the Oval Office.”

Despite the probability of a lengthy process to undo the changes President Trump has made, Politico says that “Biden is expected to instantly repeal the ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries, halt further funding for the southern border wall and lift a moratorium on foreign workers implemented during the pandemic.”

In addition to continued immigration policy changes, President Trump also recently announced a reduction of U.S. Troops in Afghanistan from 5,000 to 2,500, a move to cut U.S. troops in Iraq from 3,000 to 2,500, and the withdrawal of almost 700 U.S. troops stationed in Somalia.

In terms of foreign policy, The Washington Post reports that since the election, the Trump administration State Department and Treasury Department have also increased sanctions against enemy countries like Iran and China.

In a post-election interview, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said,

“I still have an obligation every hour, every minute, to defend the American people and to keep them foremost in our efforts. We’ll do that to the very last minute.”

Another area where the Trump administration has been working to shape the future through policy changes is in energy and climate concerns. On December 7th, the Interior Department announced that the Bureau of Land Management “will auction off drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by early January,” which could lead to future legal battles with environmental groups.

Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency officials are moving to finalize several major rule changes before Biden takes office, which The Washington Post says would increase the standard for implementation of new public health protections.

Despite Biden’s promise to reverse the Trump administration’s actions regarding energy and climate policy, this will also be a lengthy battle for a Biden administration, as Columbia University reports that Trump has authorized more than 100 climate deregulation actions, with more in the works.

While President Trump has been quietly enacting these policy changes despite his current administration coming to a close, no one would be surprised by this fact. On Thanksgiving, President Trump said,

“I think that there will be a lot of things happening between now and the 20th of January, a lot of things.”

As the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said, “The president is elected for four years not three years, so the power he has in year three continues into year four,” and President Trump intends to take full advantage of the time that the American people have elected him to the office.