For most people, crossing the midnight barrier from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 is a chance to embrace a new persona — one more impressive than their previous selves. For Donald Trump, the idea of a "new year, new me" is merely a mortal suggestion.
Trump ended 2016 on a humble note to his "enemies"…
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…because a simple "Happy New Year" is just not enough anymore.
There is, however, one big change coming to America this new year, and it started appropriately amid controversy.
With less than two weeks until President-elect Donald Trump's Inauguration Day, the American people were given their first glance into a political system dominantly controlled by Republicans. The members of the 115th Congress were sworn in last Tuesday and public scrutiny is already upon them.
Let's take a look at what the next four years will probably look like based on week one:
Monday Jan. 2
In Congressional News — Without any notice, the House Republicans attempted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Monday. The OCE, created in 2008 to investigate corruption scandals, is an independent and non-partisan entity meant to serve as a watchdog over the House of Representatives. Basically, it exists to make sure our lawmakers are remaining ethical in their jobs. But who needs that anyway?
House Republicans also voted Monday to reinstate the Holman Rule, which gives members of Congress the power to propose amending appropriation bills to specifically target a government employee or cut a specific program. This is most likely an attempt by Republicans to create a smaller government. Appropriation bills authorize the government to spend money and set aside certain amounts for specific uses. Under the Holman Rule, Congress can vote to cut funding to a particular program or reduce the salary of a government employee to $1, effectively ousting their position. In order for such a vote to pass, it only needs a majority vote in both the House and the Senate (unlike a budget vote that requires 60 votes), which normally would be quite a feat. Considering Republicans have a majority in both, though, they might not have as much of an issue accomplishing that.
In Trump News — China continues to be the target of Trump's tweets. On Monday, Trump criticized China for taking advantage of the U.S. and doing nothing to help with North Korea. China, of course, was not happy about this claim and denied it. This also begs the question is Trump going to respond to every political leader through a tweet storm? Written words are often misinterpreted (as well all know too well from awkward text exchanges). Does this style of communication leave America vulnerable to attack?
And as if taking on
China wasn't enough to fuel Trump's twitter rage, he took a swing at General
Motors as well criticizing them for selling Mexican-made models to U.S. car
dealers free of tax.
To which GM responded with…
GM's stock fell in response to Trump's tweet, calling attention to the serious influence Trump has on the market. Have no fear, though, because there's an app to help you invest safely during the Trump era. Yes, you read that right. The app Trigger launched a "Trump Trigger" that informs you when Trump tweets about a company you have stock in and will allow you to "buy," "sell" or "short." Happy investing.
Tuesday Jan. 3
In Congressional News — Members of the 115th Congress were sworn in Tuesday at noon with some issues to address immediately. In the wake of their decision to get rid of the OCE, House Republicans were criticized by their very own President-elect in — you guessed it — a tweet.
This goes to show you how much Trump and the Republican party are not on the same page whatsoever. One of Trump's promises to Americans was to "drain the swamp," and getting rid of the OCE definitely did not align with that motto. The OCE was reinstated by the end of the day.
In Trump News — Trump denied the claim that Russians had anything to do with hacking the DNC and helping him win the election.
Wednesday Jan. 4
In Trump News — Trump publicly sides with Julian Assange about the Russian hackings over the Intelligence Community, even going as far as to retweet a FOX News interview with Assange. Both Democrats and Republicans speak out in concern over Trump's tweet.
Trump did end
Wednesday with one win. Ford announced it would forgo setting up a plant in
Mexico to create jobs in the U.S. and sited Trump as the reason for making this
decision. Trump took to Twitter to say there would be more moves like this to
come.
Thursday Jan. 5
In Congressional News — Paul Ryan announced Planned Parenthood would lose funding with the repeal of Obamacare. I cannot stress enough how vital Planned Parenthood is for women's health. This is a topic for a whole other article, which was conveniently already written by a fellow Odyssey writer. Everyone should take the time to read I Stand With Planned Parenthood, Do You?
In Trump News — Trump denied all of Obama's politically appointed ambassadors an extension — a highly unprecedented move. Usually, the incoming president grants some ambassadors an extension, especially those who have children in school so they can finish up the school year. Instead, Trump has told them they must leave their posts by Inauguration Day even though he doesn't have replacements for them yet (?). Now, all ambassadors with children have to scramble to find a place to live in whatever country they're currently in or try to get a school here in America to accept their kids mid year.
On Twitter, Trump criticized the media for attacking him over his support for Assange.
Now, if we just ignore the Assange part…can we talk about how despite Trump's claim that he's a "big fan" of getting Intelligence he puts the word in quotation marks and also suggested on Tuesday the Intelligence Community was trying to build a case to convince him the Russian hackings were real…
Well, let's just
move onto Friday for a second because…
Friday Jan. 6
In Trump News — Trump accepts the Intelligence Community's report that Russia was behind the DNC hacking after finally being briefed. The intelligence report concluded Vladimir Putin directly ordered Russian interference in the U.S. election to help Trump win.
Oh, and taxpayers are paying for the wall now, but Mexico is definitely paying us back later.
Sounds legit.
Welcome to America's future. Hold on tight, folks.
