Trump prepares for busy Monday, pledges NAFTA changes, other executive orders
Trump prepares for busy Monday, pledges NAFTA changes, other executive orders:- President Trump, having declared post-inaugural Monday the true opening day of his new administration, spent Sunday pondering a string of executive orders on topics ranging from immigration to Israel to the economy, including what he called a re-working of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Supervising the swearing-in of 30 new White House staff members, Trump said he will soon meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto to discuss changes to NAFTA, the trade deal he claims has shipped U.S. jobs to those other countries.
“We will start some negotiations having to do with NAFTA. Anyone ever hear of NAFTA? I ran a campaign somewhat based on NAFTA,” he said. “Mexico has been terrific, actually, and the president has been really quite amazing.”
Trump’s public schedule for Monday includes separate meetings with corporate and union leaders, an intelligence briefing, lunch with Vice President Pence, a reception for congressional leaders and a one-on-one meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan. And in the morning, he’s set aside time to ceremoniously sign executive orders.
Two days after his inauguration, Trump also spoke with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the Situation Room, and prepared to meet with law enforcement and first responders who worked during the inaugural weekend.
Trump said his conversation with Netanyahu was “very nice,” but declined to elaborate. The White House later said the two men discussed Iran, the Islamic State, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and that Trump invited Netanyahu to Washington in February. Netanyahu said he accepted.
Not mentioned in the White House summary of the call: A possible plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump had pledged to do so during his campaign — bucking 20 years of precedent by Democratic and Republican presidents — although press secretary Sean Spicer said the White House was “at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject.”
The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 requires the president to move the embassy to Jerusalem unless he certifies every six months that it’s not in the national interest. Every president since Bill Clinton has done so, including President Obama most recently last Dec. 1 — giving Trump until the end of May to make a formal decision.
Other executive actions will likely come Monday. Trump told Fox News last week that “Monday is really the day that we start signing and working and making great deals for the country.”
Expected executive orders in the coming days give Trump a chance to put his initial stamp on his administration, including plans to roll back chunks of President Obama’s agenda. Trump and aides said orders are being designed to reverse Obama-backed restrictions on carbon emissions of energy production, as well as changes in immigration policy.
Trump has also talked about taking actions to change trade policy, including shelving the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asian nations as well as changes to NAFTA. Other possible topics of looming executive action include health care and national security.
Trump may hold off on one notable Obama executive order, the previous president’s decision to defer deportations of migrants who were brought into the United States illegally as children. “I think we’re going to work with House and Senate leadership as well to get a long-term solution on that issue,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told Fox News Sunday.
During his first weekend as president, Trump served repeated notice that he will continue to employ the outspoken tactics he used during his successful presidential campaign.
In a brief inaugural address, Trump attacked the political establishment for leaving behind an “American carnage” in the former of lost jobs and crime-ridden neighborhoods. During Saturday remarks to CIA officials, he criticized media coverage of various aspects of the inauguration. The new president maintained his Twitter feed, sending out messages ranging from more media attacks to television ratings for the inaugural.
But on Sunday, during his first public appearance in the formal East Room of the White House, Trump returned to a more conventionally presidential tone. “As I said in my inaugural address, this is not about party. It’s not about ideology. It’s about country, our country, and it’s about serving the American people,” he said. “We’re not here to help ourselves. We’re here to devote ourselves to the national good.”
During the ceremony, Trump said he received a “beautiful letter” from Obama, as is tradition when a new president moves into the White House. “It was really very nice of him to do that. We will cherish that,” he said. “We won’t even tell the press what’s in that letter.”
Later, Trump held a reception for law enforcement agencies and first responders who worked to protect his inaugural events on Friday. He spotted FBI Director James Comey, who many Democrats blame for tipping the election by making public his investigations of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Source:-Â http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/22/donald-trump-executive-orders-monday-jerusalem-president/96920966/
