It hasn’t even been 100 days since he took the oath of office and President Donald Trump’s second term has already been full of enough Executive Orders to make your head spin. But while Trump 2.0 is going full speed ahead trying to implement his agenda by any means necessary, he’s already had to walk back a few things. In case you haven’t been keeping track (or haven’t been able to keep track), here are just a few of the things the Trump administration has had to reverse course on.
Websites Acknowledging Black Veterans
Trump wasted no time going after DEI in his second term, signing an Executive Order to end “Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” on January 20. As part of his call to remove posts and photos that promote diversity, equity and inclusion from government websites, the Defense Department removed a considerable amount of content that highlighted contributions of African Americans to the military, including a page about legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson and other Negro League players who served in the Armed Forces and a page about civil rights leader and World War II veteran Medgar Evers, according to NBC News.
But on March 20, NPR reported that some of those pages were brought back online, including those that profiled Black veterans like Robinson and the Tuskegee Airmen. Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot said veterans contributions to the country shouldn’t be acknowledged based on their race, ethnicity or sex.
“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others,” he said “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform.”
Legal Aid for Detained Immigrants
Mass deportations have been high on Trump’s list of priorities since he was on the campaign trail, so it should come as no surprise that he would do everything he could to make sure detained migrants didn’t have legal support. On January 22, the Department of Justice ordered a halt on Federal programs designed to provide legal assistance to immigrants who have been detained in this country.
But just over two weeks later, the department reversed course after they were hit with a lawsuit by the Amica Center for Immigration Rights. The program director Adina Appelbaum told Newsweek that the work they and other nonprofit legal aid organizations do is essential, adding that it is the “only way that immigrants who are detained and unrepresented by counsel have any access to the even most basic legal information about why they are detained, what’s happening, understanding that they are getting to deported and what their legal rights are.”
Tariffs on Canada
President Trump has long argued that tariffs are the best way to bring jobs and revenue back to the country. But so far, his tactics have mostly caused confusion and forced him to reverse course.
As the New York Times reported, Trump threatened Canada on March 11 with a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports (double what he’s prepared to impose on other countries) as retaliation for their announcement of an additional charge on electricity sent to the United States. But, it’s important to note that the Canadian electricity charge was their response to Trump’s announcement of tariffs he planned to enforce on Canada.
In the end, both sides agreed to back down. And while all of that information probably left you confused AF, the Trump administration saw the whole thing as just part of the art of the deal.
“President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai.