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Dear Progressive Reader,

Many incoming Presidents are measured by the actions of their first hundred days in office. For Donald Trump, the record books may chronicle his first hundred hours in which a blizzard of Executive Orders and other actions have emanated from the White House. A campaign that some of Trump’s adherents have referred to as “shock and awe”—echoing the name given ([link removed]) by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to the 2003 invasion of Iraq—has left many observers shell-shocked, and as one commentator noted has served to keep the public’s eyes off of everything else that is going on in Washington.

The confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, the threats ([link removed]) to do away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the pausing ([link removed]) of nearly all foreign aid programs, the directive to countless federal agencies to cease the release ([link removed]) of critical information and reports until it can be approved by “a Trump appointee,” and a plan ([link removed]) to take the United States out of the World Health Organization, are just some of the actions taken or announced in just the first few days of the new administration. In many cases, the “shock and awe” might better be termed “scrap and undo” as Trump tries to not only tear down
everything done during the Biden Administration, but reaches all the way back to the Great Society era of Lyndon Johnson by overturning ([link removed]) Executive Order 11246, signed ([link removed]) on September 24, 1965, which “require[d] affirmative action and prohibit[ed] federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”

In some cases, Trump “will have the powers he assumes,” said Kai Ryssdal on Friday on Marketplace (using a phrase that has an ominous dual meaning), “but a torrent of a legal challenges will show that, in other cases, he does not.” But where those challenges will originate, and where they may go, remains to be determined. Trump’s plan to, through reinterpretation, change the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of “birthright citizenship” has been paused ([link removed]) by a federal judge who was first appointed by Ronald Reagan. However, if this case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, it is very possible that the “originalists ([link removed]) ” on the Court might back ([link removed]) Trump’s assertion.

Although he continues to work hard to pack federal agencies, Cabinet posts, and the courts with sycophants and compliant acolytes, Trump may face some opposition from the leadership of the organized religions that he has tried to court. On January 21, in the National Cathedral, the Right Reverend Mariann Budde, Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C., spoke directly to Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance: “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she invoked ([link removed]) , speaking specifically about “gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives” and “the vast majority of immigrants [who] are not criminals.” Trump immediately f ([link removed]) ired back ([link removed]) on social media, referring to her as a “so-called Bishop,” calling
her a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” and demanding an apology. The bishop said ([link removed]) she would not apologize, but at least one Congressmember is now calling ([link removed]) for her to be “added to the deportation list.” While Budde is already facing backlash from the right, she is also receiving loud cries of popular support—including a commemorative cookie ([link removed]) that is selling out in Texas.. Perhaps Trump and his followers need to read the 1950s booklet, Your God Is Too Small ([link removed]) , written by renowned New Testament translator J.B. Phillips.

This week on our website, Eleanor Bader, together with photographer Zach Roberts, chronicle ([link removed]) the People’s March in Washington, D.C. that took place in advance of the Inauguration; Zach Roberts also opens the book ([link removed]) on the dangers of Trump pick for “border czar” Tom Homan; Sam Stein speaks with ([link removed]) Russian-Israeli peace activist Andrey X who was arrested for placing a sticker on a post; and Anna Lekas Miller looks at ([link removed]) the role of immigrants in helping during the ongoing Los Angeles fires. Plus, Mike Ervin analyzes
([link removed]) the tension between short-term immediate help versus the long struggle to change systems and policies; Jake Whitney reviews ([link removed]) the new book by Chris Hayes on “how corporations have set out to capture and exploit our most precious resource—the thoughts in our heads;” and Eleanor Bader pulls back the curtain ([link removed]) on the right’s lies about our schools. Also, the group Women for Weapons and Trade Transparency pens an op-ed of the militarization of police forces; and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, opines ([link removed]) on the threats to church-state separation under an incoming Trump
Administration.

Finally, we sadly note the passing ([link removed]) of Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood. She died of cancer on January 20, just two days before the
fifty-second anniversary ([link removed]) of the historic Roe v. Wade decision, which itself died in June 2022 when the Supreme Court issued its ruling ([link removed]) in Dobbs. Cecile Richards wrote an autobiography, called Make Trouble, with colleague Lauren Peterson. It was featured ([link removed]) in The Progressive in April 2018. Richards was the daughter of former progressive Texas governor ([link removed]) Ann Richards, who was also a longtime friend of the magazine.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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