MUCH of the United States President, Donald Trump’s, first weekend in the White House was driven by criticism from Trump and press secretary Sean Spicer of media coverage over the size of his inauguration crowd.
But the new administration is also driving policy changes that will have far more long-term significance.
Here’s a list of the Trump administration’s actions in its first 48 hours:
1. Taken over running of the entire federal government.
2. Issued an executive order aimed at rolling back former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
3. Halted a reduction to the annual mortgage insurance premiums borrowers pay when taking out government-backed home loans.
4. Ordered agencies to freeze new regulations, giving the new administration time to review them.
5. Received a key legal OK from the Justice Department for Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to take on a role in the White House.
6. Met with the CIA, where he addressed employees. Trump also took over the nuclear codes.
7. Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, contradicted his earlier testimony and said he was open to revisiting limits on interrogation techniques including waterboarding if his intelligence officers think it is needed.
8. Raised the specter of another conflict in Iraq, with Trump expressing regret for not taking over the country’s oil and telling the CIA, “We should have kept the oil. Maybe we’ll have another chance.”
9. Spoke to the Mexican president and said the two will meet at the end of January.
10. Spoke to the Canadian prime minister about the two nations’ economic relationship.
11. Announced he has meetings with leaders in Mexico and Canada to begin re-negotiating NAFTA.
12. Announced his first foreign leader meeting will be Friday with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May.
13. Signaled a shift in the Justice Department’s civil rights efforts when it requested a delay in the lawsuit over a Texas law requiring voters to present certain types of government-issued IDs.
14. Prepared to issue more executive orders this week.
15. Told the National Park Service not to tweet after it retweeted side-by-side images showing the crowd at former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and Trump’s inauguration.
16. Began discussions about moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
17. Confronted his first national disaster as President, deadly tornadoes in Georgia.
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