Every liberal media outlet is reeling with words they have already exhausted from the dictionary: sweeping, bracing, threaten, upend, dismantle, unravel, scramble, and slashing. These eight words were spotted on the front page of the New York Times alone this past week.
Even if only a third of Trump's Executive Orders survive, it would mean a dramatic change from Washington's old, tired, and unchecked ways for nearly 25 years when President Clinton last submitted a balanced budget. So amok has Washington run that the slightest change appears harsh, inhuman, and cruel. It is always the parent who says no to a wayward child who gets the public grief.
Trump has signed over 300 executive orders covering immigration, federal workforce reduction, energy policy, and cultural issues like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Notable actions include ending DEI programs across federal agencies, reinstating policies to recognize only two biological sexes on federal forms, initiating a mass deportation effort by classifying drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and reinstating the "Remain in Mexico" policy for asylum seekers.
Trump has offered buyouts to millions of federal workers, dismissed or reassigned hundreds of officials, and removed agency watchdogs. He has also used executive orders to make it easier to fire civil servants by reinstating the Schedule F executive order from his first term, which strips job protections from federal employees. [If a federal employee refuses to show up for work on February 3 after working from home for years, the employee will be fired.]
The President has made significant changes to the military by reinstating troops discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines. He has deployed 1,500 troops to the southern border and initiated ICE arrests of violent criminals, aiming to secure the border and reduce illegal immigration. He has halted civil rights investigations and rescinded executive orders related to federal contractors' discrimination policies.
He has moved to repeal Biden-era executive actions related to climate change, withdrawing from the Paris climate Accords. He has withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization, which was a silent bystander during the early months of the spread of COVID-19. He has practically shut down foreign aid and brought USAID into the folds of the State Department, under an able lieutenant, Marco Rubio.
Every Trump action signifies a swift and comprehensive approach to reshape several federal policies, aligning them more closely with his campaign promises and ideological stance. However, many of these moves have been controversial, leading to lawsuits and potential legal challenges as they affect long-standing policies, civil rights, and government operations.
There’s a reason for the uproar. The federal government began to grow after 9/11 when America was brutally attacked. President Bush 43 had assumed office eight months prior only because the United States Supreme Court intervened in a highly contested election between him and former Vice President Al Gore. Florida gave Bush the margin of victory by just 537 votes.
Rising from the smolders of the World Trade Center ruins, Bush spoke with a fog horn to thank the rescue workers, firefighters, and police officers who were still searching for survivors in the debris. He was standing atop a crumpled fire truck with a retired firefighter, Bob Beckwith, by his side. The speech was spontaneous and unscripted.
Someone in the crowd shouted, "I can't hear you," Bush responded with words that would become emblematic of national resolve: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"
It was a seminal moment in American history, akin to Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Americans rallied behind Bush and approved of all of his actions thereafter. American forces bombed Afghanistan; Washington told countries that they were "either with us, or they are not." Washington spent hundreds of billions on preventing the next 9/11 as the national security state grew, and grew, and grew. The Department of Homeland Security was formed as a response to the terrorist attack on American soil. The CIA became all-powerful. All seventeen intelligence agencies of the federal government were brought under one person reporting directly to the president - the Director of National Intelligence.
Washington went amok.
Even civilian agencies grew. Reasonable limits to government power and reach subsided. Everyone was in charge, yet no one was in charge. The second Gulf War was a colossal failure because seven years of searching yielded no weapons of mass destruction.
America had become hooked on borrowing, spending, and waging wars. The government had become a behemoth and unmanageable. The slightest resistance was suppressed under newly passed laws so expansive that our Founding Fathers would have winced in pain. From 2001 to 2020, federal spending increased by about 252%, from $1.86 trillion to $6.55 trillion, which equates to an average annual increase of approximately 5.5% per year, significantly outstripping inflation over the same period.
Since 9/11, federal expenditures have been significantly more than revenues each year. In 2024, federal revenues were $4.92 trillion, but the government spent approximately $6.75 trillion. The federal budget deficit for that year was $1.83 trillion. The government is set to spend $7 trillion this year.
We have very little to show for all the money that America has spent during the last 25 years. The lack of federal oversight resulted in a terrible financial crisis (subprime). The solution involved an excessive injection of federal funds into the economy to shore up the banks, along with a decades-long move by the Federal Reserve to print free money. America withdrew from Afghanistan, got engaged in the Russia-Ukraine war (which Russia continues to win), and now faces a dramatically changed Middle East with Syria back in the control of groups labelled terrorists. Meanwhile, China has become a global superpower.
The ship has gone so far off course that drastic measures are sorely needed.
TIPP Picks
Selected articles from tippinsights.com And More
Policy Shifts
1. Mexico Caves, Deploys 10,000 Troops To Border In Exchange For Trump Pausing Tariffs — Jason Hopkins, DCNF
2. Trump’s Foreign Policy: What To Expect From MAGA 2.0 — James Carafano, The Daily Signal
3. Dems Slamming Trump’s Spending Freeze Were Silent When Biden Weaponized Medicaid Against Red States — Ireland Owens, DCNF
4. Trump’s Antisemitism Order Puts Foreign Students—And US Colleges—On Notice — Simon Hankinson & Jason Bedrick, The Daily Signal
5. WHO Bent The Knee To China. Now It Could ‘Collapse’ Without US — Emily Kopp, DCNF
6. 70% of Americans Back Trump’s Order to Release JFK, RFK, MLK Assassination Files — R.E. Wermus, The Daily Signal
Leadership
7. Lee Zeldin Hits The Ground Running At EPA — Rob Bluey, The Daily Signal
8. Virginia Catholic Bishop Advocates For ‘Well-Regulated Borders’ Amid Vance Controversy — George Caldwell, The Daily Signal
9. Kristi Noem Flips Script On Corporate Media After NBC Host Asks Her If Legal Immigrants Should Worry — Hailey Gomez, DCNF
10. Scott Walker Reflects On 4 Years With YAF, Lessons From Reagan Era, And Conservative Agenda Under Trump — Kevin Mooney, The Daily Signal
11. Trump and Rubio Should Come Out Swinging on International Religious Freedom — Sean Nelson, The Daily Signal
12. ‘Liberals Control Everything’: Council Members Rip Chicago Leadership For Refusing To Budge On Sanctuary Law — Jason Hopkins, DCNF
Ideological Battles
13. Silicon Valley Is Sick And Tired Of Its Woke Employees — Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal
14. The Chainsaw President! — John Stossel, The Daily Signal
15. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Harms Those Whom It Claims To Protect — Jane L. Johnson, Mises Wire
16. If Prosecutors ‘Followed The Science’ As They Claim, We’d Have Less Crime, Not More — Cully Stimson, The Daily Signal
17. Romanian Election Undone By TikTok — Alexander Zaitchik, The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
18. Condos In Gaza! Solving The Mideast Problem Trump Style — Eric Margolis, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
19. CIA/NYT Remove North Korean Troops From Ukraine’s Front Line — Moon of Alabama, The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
20. Education Savings Accounts Would Give Military Families Freedom They Deserve — Crystal Bonham, The Daily Signal
