First, for the key headlines from the last 2 weeks (1/20-2/2) click here
Now...some topics for deep dive..
As it was expected Trump wasted no time in unleashing the flurry of Executive Orders from day-1 in office. Apart from rescinding previously established EOs by Biden administration, Trump added 45 new ones to send a message to the people who voted for him and also the people who were observing his agenda. Needless to say the plethora of EOs seemed promises made, promises kept to his followers where he went heavily after the favorite agenda items of the MAGA movement, from going after the illegal immigrants to re-defining gender as binary to axing federal programs that had anything to do with DEI.
Below is the summary of all the EOs from NPR.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5276293/trump-executive-orders
Here are the actual PDFs of all the EOs.
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-trump/2025
While a several of the new EOs seemed like v 2.0 of the EOs Trump had issued in his first term, like withdrawal from WHO and withdrawal from the Paris Climate accord, there were some which were new and seemed to be an absolute constitutional stretch. That bring us to our topic number 2.
2. Birthright Citizenship
Of all the EOs announced the Birthright citizenship seemed the most ambitious, tenuous or far-fetched attempt at pleasing the base without any constitutional basis. Article 14 clearly states..."All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside". There seems to be almost zero ambiguity on this in the constitution. If you are born or naturalized are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Actually, apart from some diplomatic immunity in some instances you are pretty subject US jurisdiction when you are in the country irrespective of your citizenship status. Needless to say, within a very short order 22 states and several civil rights organizations challenged the EO in courts and a judge in Washington state put a halt to the execution of the EO. In doing so he called the EO “blatantly unconstitutional.” I think Team Trump full well knew that making an amendment to the constitution is an uphill task and the party does not have that kind of majority to pull it off (2/3 of Senate voting in favor and 3/4 of the states ratifying), but they went along with it anyways to have a long shot of landing this baby at the doorstep of SCOTUS, hoping the 6-3 Republican leaning bench may put the rubber stamp on this. But I do not think even a Republican majority SCOTUS will agree with Trump on this. More to come on this as things unfold. But for now, I am betting my money on this EO hitting the trash can soon.
3. Brown boy Vivek Cancelled
Brown boy Vivek maximized his media exposure during the election season by being on the right of MAGA, if that’s possible. On every stage he was the stooge-like supporter of every idea that Trump generated… baked, half-baked or totally off-the-cuff. He campaigned hard in the Republican primary thinking he had a shot. But with .44% of the primary votes, he realized the pipe-dream of being the Republican Presidential nominee as a Hindu brown boy was far-fetched. So he switched to plan B and tried to be surrogate #1 to Trump with the hope of making the shortlist of VP candidates. But even that did not happen. However, in the road to this experiment he learned that being Indian and Hindu is not an asset in electoral politics of the Republican Party. You can watch this exchange with Ann Coultour to know what I mean.
Having this sober realization he switched strategy and somehow jumped on the DOGE bandwagon as the co-pilot of Elon to rescue America from out of control spending etc. For a couple of months he got enough headlines as being on the equal footing with world’s number 1 entrepreneur, Musk. However, during the whole time …running in the primaries and running as the intended co-pilot of DODGE, he ruffled enough feathers within his own party as the finger-wagging petulant character who never not loved a microphone he saw. Needless to say, when it came to actually being offered a great position with national-level recognition, DODGE leadership downsized itself to 50% and laid off Vivek. To save face, Vivek and his minions, came up with an alibi that he quit DODGE as he he wants to run as a Governor in Ohio. I say good luck to that. So far, in the USA, there have been only 2 Indians who became elected as Governors, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley. Interestingly, both are converted Christians. I will be rooting for the first Hindu Indian governor of USA, if Vivek makes it beyond the Primary. But the chances of that happening are slim to none.
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