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On August 8th 2020, President Trump signed four executive orders challenging congress’s authority. All of these actions had to do with pandemic relief, but when it comes to the White House and Congress, there are certain boundaries of power that the president is supposed to respect.
Supposed to respect. But this is Donald Trump we’re talking about here.
Now, I admit. At first listen, it sounded like what he was doing was a noble thing, and that he was really going to try to help people who are struggling. But, by the time I looked at all the details and facts, I realized that he was just the same old Trump.
The Scene at Trump’s Executive Order Signing Event
The location was the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and the atmosphere that day had the simultaneous feeling of both a campaign rally and a signing ceremony. As Trump addressed the audience, he bashed the Democrats every chance he got.
For example, the President declared that the Democrats didn’t want to do anything to help people not get evicted from their homes because of lack of money during the coronavirus pandemic. CNN’s Fact Checker, Daniel Dale, later said in a report immediately following Trump’s remarks that “There was a lot of lying, frankly, and most of it was about Democrats…” Daniel also pointed out that Democrats had actually “proposed rental assistance for tenants”.
SMDH.
The 4 Executive Orders That Trump Signed
The first executive order that Trump signed he said that he was signing because the Democrats couldn’t come up with a decision about how much money they wanted to give Americans for enhanced unemployment benefits. So, he said that he decided to take it upon himself to come up with a concrete number. That number was $400 in continued unemployment benefits each week.
The thing is, a reporter asked him why was it now $400 when people were previously getting $600, and did he think that would be even more financial hardship for them? Also, I found out that the $400 was only 75% Federal money, and it was up to the states to issue the other hundred to its citizens.
Kristen Holmes, the nice-looking Correspondent at CNN, said that she called a state official and told him what Trump said, and the person just laughed. They told her that they were depending on the federal government for money as it is, and that they just can’t do it because they don’t have the funds to issue that other $100.
Another executive order that Trumped signed was for a payroll tax holiday for all American citizens who make less than $100,000 a year. This was another one that had Kristen confused. And, by the look on her face when she was making the report on CNN that followed Trump’s signing event, you can tell that she was genuinely puzzled.
So where we, Kristen. So where we.
The issue with the payroll tax holiday is that it’s hard to understand because it’s unknown whether or not folks I have to pay it back later on or not. Trump said that if he’s elected back into office, that he would, in the word Kristen used, “dissolve” folks from having to pay it back.
The folks at CNN didn’t know how to interpret that and I sure as hell don’t either. All I know is that one of the definitions of the word “dissolve” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “to separate into component parts”. It generally means to “destroy” or “disintegrate”, but a company can be “dissolved” into smaller units, which is the example sentence the dictionary actually gives to exercise the use of the word.
Given Trump’s track record of lying all the time, I’m inclined to think that he use that middle definition and is planning to make people pay those taxes back, just with smaller payments. But they would actually have to pay it back. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Another order he signed was one for deferring student loan payments. He had said that they’d eliminated all interest towards student loan payments earlier in 2020, and that what he was signing would extend the time frame in which students would have to start back paying on those payments. That executive order he signed seemed like it was pretty good one. I myself have student loan debt, so that one I personally appreciate, even if it does challenge Congress’s authority.
Finally, the last order he signed was for the Department of Housing and Urban development to not evict renters, because of how the coronavirus pandemic has had everybody out of work, and people not having enough money to pay rent and such. The order is also supposed to make them provide financial assistance to struggling renters, such as myself. I feel like this is a pretty cool one, too. It would have been even cooler if he wouldn’t have tried to lie on the Democrats, like I mentioned a few paragraphs ago.
All in all we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens. Because, with Trump, there’s really no telling man.
Trump Signs Executive Orders on 8 Aug 2020. CNN.
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