It is easy to criticise Donald Trump.  He is a thin-skinned, narcissistic bigot.  Concerned only with adulation, the shouts of supporters and the fervour of the racist right, he does nothing but continue to destroy all the things that had made America great.  This country was a leader in the world, championing democracy, and the rights of all people, a symbol of the power of immigration to grow the economy, compassionate, caring, and considerate.  Today he is a pariah among world leaders, and nations large and small are turning away from the USA as they look for others to carry the flag of progress.  When history judges President Trump, the consensus will be clear: he was a disaster.  When he leaves office and contemplates the soggy foundations of his business empire, sinking into the rising waters of Florida, he might realise, too late, that he was wrong about climate change, wrong about immigration, wrong to support racists, and wrong in his self-serving belief that increasing the wealth of the rich creates a better, more egalitarian society.

However, I am not writing to offer a general criticism of President Trump today, far too easy a task.  Rather I want to explore what he is doing.  Not the speeches to his supporters, but the basis of his actions.  As I see it, his activities are all focussed on ‘undoing’.

First and foremost, he seems driven to undo everything that was done by President Obama.  Exercising his political power through unilateral executive orders and memoranda, he has rolled back the recognition of transgender persons in the military.  He has rolled back the protection of newly recognised heritage sites.  He has rolled back restrictions on mining, and on the use of fossil fuels.  He rolled back immigration to the USA by a partial travel ban on visitors from (selective) Muslim countries.  He has rolled back the opportunities for illegal immigrants to seek the right to stay by immediate deportation of anyone who has committed an illegal act, (which means everyone, since by definition they are in the country illegally, whatever the other elements of their situation).

The executive orders keep appearing.  He announced withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.  He has signed an order to reduce business regulations.  He has pushed ahead with approving the construction of two controversial pipelines.   However, one of the president’s most fateful undoings didn’t even require an executive order – when he announced the US would pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

Across the departments and agencies of the federal government, hiding behind the President’s grandstanding and continuing barnstorming, his appointees are working hard to eliminate many of the rules and regulations that were put in place over the past 50 years.  The Trump administration is implementing a right-wing agenda to destroy protections for workers, the environment and non-white Americans.

Of course, executive orders are not law, a fact he was keen to use in criticising his predecessor, although now it seems to be his favoured form of action.  There is good reason.  Much of what Trump says he wants to do requires Congress to pass appropriate legislation.

He wants to roll back the Affordable Care Act, but, so far, Congress has been unable to come up with an alternative that every Republican supports, neither through introducing a new health care act, or by simply dumping the ACA. However, if President Trump has given up on Congress repealing the A.C.A., his administration is still actively undermining it in other ways.  A death by a thousand cuts, as Federal funding and support for the ACA is slowly whittled away.

He wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico.  No progress there yet, but he will keep pushing Congress on this, and on tax cuts.

If he was asked, he would point to the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.  He did nominate him, but this was McConnell’s achievement, preventing President Obama’s nomination from being brought to a vote – for a year.  That was a triumph for the conservatives.  However, in the long run, it may turn out to be a strategy they will regret.  Cheating on the rules has a habit of rebounding on the cheater.

Overall, we can summarise his strategy quite easily.  It is undoing things.

But now his undoing is beginning to cause him problems.  He has announced that President Obama’s executive order on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals will expire in six months.  That announcement created a storm of criticism from all sides of politics.  President Trump was quick to backtrack, remembering his earlier promise: We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud.  They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

As local Republican Senator Thom Tillis has observed: Immigration policy must be set through legislation, not executive orders … President Trump is wisely [??] giving Congress a period of time to fulfill its responsibility to legislate and take long-term action to address the uncertainty facing undocumented children, who were brought to America through no fault of their own”.  Perhaps the House will do the right thing, despite failure to address this issue over years.  But not because of the confused messages from President Trump.

How does the great undoer see his achievements?  He’s not concerned.  As he said on 16 February “I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done”.  That’s OK, we know he doesn’t think, or otherwise he would know that is simply untrue.

Donald Trump, the great undoer.

If only we could work out how to ensure the undoing of President Trump.

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