On Monday, Donald Trump ordered federal aid to social programs, on which thousands of homes depend. And unleashed confusion. On Tuesday, a judge stopped the order minutes before the measure entered into force. On Wednesday, the White House collected and undertaken freezing. On Wednesday night, a plane and a helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan airport in Washington DC. On Thursday, the president, instead of sending a message of reconciliation and support to the families of the 67 victims, politicized the tragedy and pointed out without evidence to the policies of inclusion and diversity as the causes of the accident.
But that has not been everything. Already this Friday, the same White House confirmed that it will begin to apply from this Saturday 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products. It will also impose rates to Chinese products of 10%, as confirmed by Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump press secretary.
The “Day of Chaos” (Days of Thunder) that predicted the ex -ash of Trump Steve Bannon the weeks before the inauguration are here. The Republican had made it clear that this time he returned to Washington with a plan and knowing the rules of the game. It was no longer a Outsider. But this knowledge and experience have only further reinforced their capacity as an agent of chaos in the US government.
Trump shows that chaos and the confusion of his first administration were not a consequence of ignorance, but that it is his way of doing politics.
A power vacuum caused by Musk
The torrent of executive orders and decrees is incessant and the agenda sent by the White House with Trump’s plans for the day always includes the same forecast: “The President signs Executive Orders.” The decrees have not stopped a second. Even Thursday, after the accident, the tycoon took the opportunity to sign a memorandum where he ordered the end of the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and appointed Christopher Rocheleau as the new functions in functions After a ten -day power vacuum.
While signing the memorandum, and more executive orders, Trump answered the question of one of the journalists about whether I would visit the scene of the accident: “I have a plan, but not to visit the place. Because tell me, what is the place?, The water? And, once again, he told journalists again that the gender or race “could” have had some responsibility in the tragedy: “It may be. Don’t know. Incompetence could have played a role. ”
Trump constantly points to cultural wars and inclusion and diversity policies not only to advance their ultra agenda, but to create confusion about what is happening in the White House. With the politicization of the tragedy, Trump sought to drain the bulge that when the plane crash occurred there was no one under the command of the FAA to respond to the crisis situation. The previous director of the agency, Michael Whitaker, resigned on January 20, when the Republican president took possession.
Whitaker resigned from position after colliding with Elon Musk, the president’s right hand, and whose company Spacex is regulated by the FAA. Musk’s pressures on Whitaker were already something extremely known before the elections. The owner of Spacex had been publicly complained many times about the agency for fines to their company Spacex and Starlink. Last September, the FAA fined it with $ 633,000 for launching missions with unmpeary changes. He also fined Starlink, after the SpaceX subsidiary did not present security data before launching satellites in 2022.
In an appearance in the House of Representatives, Whitaker explained that FAA’s civil sanctions were “the only tool to achieve compliance in security matters.”
With the resignation of Whitaker, Musk managed to get rid of an annoying figure for his interests and clear the way to choose another director at the head of the FAA. It is not confirmed that Musk was involved in the appointment of Rocheleau, but it is known that for the choice of other positions the South African has been vetoing names. For example, he has participated In the supervision of development, by Boeing, of the next Air Force One aircraft.
Beyond the power vacuum, a preliminary report made by the FAA about the accident points to the lack of personnel. The document, cited by the The New York Timeshe stated that the situation of the Ronald Reagan airport control tower on Wednesday night “was not normal for the time of day and the volume of traffic.” The controller that was attending to the helicopters was also instructed to the aircraft and take -off aircraft.
These functions are usually made by two controllers instead of one.
Starts a new commercial war
The White House has confirmed that, as of this Saturday, February 1, the 25% tariffs promised by Donald Trump will begin to apply to the products from Mexico and Canada. The measure, announced by the US president in November and confirmed this Friday by its press secretary, will also include 10% tariffs on Chinese products. China had already prepared the land at this possibility.
On his first day as president -elect, Trump defended that tariffs will remain in force “until drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal immigrants stop this invasion to our country” and said that both Mexico and Canada could “easily solve This problem ”.
Trump alleges similar reasons related to the fentanyl addiction epidemic to justify tariffs on China’s products, which he accuses of not having stopped the traffic of this substance enough.
Mexico and Canada are two of the main commercial partners of the United States, so the application of commercial tariffs will have a strong impact on the US economy, and one of the immediate effects that can be expected is an increase in prices. One of the main reasons why many people voted to Trump in the elections was because of the belief that the cost of the shopping basket would decrease.
However, companies such as Ikea or General Motors have already warned that this wave of tariffs will take off prices.
Trump has turned tariffs into the main letter of his unpredictable international policy. Not only has he threatened to use them against their neighbors to solve problems such as immigration or addictions, but has done the same with China, Russia or Colombia, the latter being the most recent case.
Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Colombia before the refusal of its president, Gustavo Petro, to accept the deportation of 160 speakers handcuffed in military planes. A threat that, finally, did not come to term after a negotiation that lasted just a few hours.
Tijeretazo to federal workers
Amid the avalanches of executive orders and promises such as building a detention field for deportations in Guantanamo – something that already existed under the presidency of Joe Biden – Trump has continued to pass the scissors within the administration. The order to freeze all foreign aid, except Israel and Egypt, has also triggered the dismissal of hundreds of employees working for USAID, the US agency for development aid, through public hiring.
As happened with the freezing of federal aid, confusion has become the tonic for all workers who are linked to foreign aid. Especially after the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sign a memorandum where he said that the help that was considered “vital” would not stop to save lives.
A worker for the USAID explained to eldiario.es (under condition of anonymity) the chaos that have meant this week the villagers of the administration.
While at the beginning of the week he was informed that he was fired, as well as all his teammates, now he does not know if he will be hired before the new exception. This person explains that even so, seeing the chaotic management of the new administration, it is not clear that I would like to return to work, so he will seek work in another company without links with the government.
The mess within USAID and the serious consequences that the suspension of foreign aid can have for key programs to save lives around the world (such as HIV in Africa), has been eclipsed by the incessant headlines that Trump is releasing daily.
In the press conference on Wednesday, while announced that the Laken Riley Act became a law to facilitate deportations, the president boasted of having “prevented the sending of 50 million dollars from Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.” Which is a bulos because Usaid never allocated a cent to Gaza condoms.
Two minutes after talking about condoms, Trump changed the subject and announced his plans to enclose 30,000 migrants without papers in Guantanamo. The Immigrant Detention Center on the island has already existed for years and the same legal guarantees in immigration matters that govern American continental territory are not applied.
The incessant rhythm of ads and statements by the 78 -year -old president is such that Associated Press explained that White House sateings are having difficulty following the rhythm and transcribe all his words. Especially if compared to the appearances of the previous President Joe Biden. According to sources from around AP, the possibility of hiring more personnel to remedy the situation is being discussed.
Trump has not only launched a campaign of fear against vulnerable groups such as migrants and LGTBIQ+, but also sowing uncertainty among federal workers. Amid the fear of not knowing if they will be fired or not, the president offered this week compensation for those employees who resign before February 6. If they leave now, they would receive eight months of salary. The proposal, in which Musk participated, has still generated more insecurity between the workforce, because it is not clear that the government really has the authority to apply it.
First, Justice; And now, the FBI
After Trump dismissed the workers of the Department of Justice who investigated him for the criminal cases of the Mar-A-Lago roles and the assault on the Capitol, now he has touched the turn of the FBI.
A group of senior federal agency officials has received the notification to resign in a matter of days or will be fired, according to Friday andl New York Times.
The notification coincides with the confirmation exam for the new future director of the FBI, Kash Patel, a conspirationist that promoted the theory of “fedsurrection”, which argues that on January 6 was instigated by secret agents of the FBI to discredit the movement the movement Make America Great Again (Maga).
Patel, which must still be confirmed, has already promised to purge the federal agency once he came to power and it is not ruled out that he can put it at the Trump service to persecute his political enemies.
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