Executive orders: Joe Biden attempts to undo Donald Trump ‘damage’ with a pen
- Joe Biden has signed more than 30 executive orders in his first week as US leader
- US president says executive actions are effort to ‘undo the damage Trump has done’
The president in just over a week has already signed more than three dozen executive orders and directives aimed at addressing the coronavirus pandemic as well as a gamut of other issues including environmental regulations, immigration policies and racial justice.
Biden has also sought to use the orders to erase foundational policy initiatives by former president Donald Trump, such as halting construction of the US-Mexico border wall and reversing a Trump-era Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender people from serving in the military.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Biden’s early reliance on executive action is at odds with the Democrat’s pledge as a candidate to be a consensus builder. The New York Times editorial board on Thursday ran an opinion piece headlined “Ease up on the Executive Actions, Joe”.
Biden, for his part, on Thursday framed his latest executive actions as an effort to “undo the damage Trump has done” by fiat rather than “initiating any new law”. During a brief exchange with reporters in the Oval Office after signing two more executive orders, he noted he was working simultaneously to push his US$1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid package through Congress. After being asked by a reporter if he was open to splitting up the relief package, the president responded: “No one requires me to do anything”.
