Just moments after President Donald Trump took the oath of office on Friday, the official White House website was transformed to remove all traces of former president Barack Obama's climate change initiatives and to reinforce border protection policies.
The new-look website carried a set of policy pledges that offered the broad contours of the Trump administration's top priorities. It's a list that includes fierce support for law enforcement bordering on vigilantism, an immediate elimination of the White House's policy page on climate change and the notable absence of any directives involving President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
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| Donald Trump arrives for his inauguration. Photo: AP |
"Our job is to make life more comfortable for parents who want their kids to be able to walk the streets safely. Or the senior citizen waiting for a bus. Or the young child walking home from school."
The issues page of Mr Trump's White House offers no new plans or policies but rather a rehash of many of his most prominent campaign promises – a signal to the nation that Mr Trump, more pragmatic than ideological, plans to implement at least the key guideposts of his campaign vision.
His policies include plans to both withdraw from and renegotiate major trade deals, grow the nation's military and increase cyber-security capabilities, build a wall at the nation's southern border and deport undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes.
Strikingly absent from the six issues the website highlights – and from his first speech as president – is anything on repealing or replacing Obamacare. The issue was a defining feature of his campaign, and aides have signalled he may begin the process of undoing the law in a series of executive actions he hopes to sign in the early days of his presidency.
Similarly, the climate change web page that existed under Mr Obama was immediately scrubbed, with no mention of climate change under Mr Trump's energy plan.
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| First lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, farewell the Obamas. Photo: AP |
The first represents a variety of efforts Mr Obama pursued to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions while the second is a rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to protect not only the largest waterways but smaller tributaries that others believe should fall under the jurisdiction of states rather than the federal government.
Mr Trump plans to boost the oil and gas industries to help fund his infrastructure initiatives.
The Trump White House website does not devote a separate section to immigration, another central tenant of his candidacy, though it mentions immigration under the law enforcement section. Despite rumours among the immigration advocacy community that one of Mr Trump's initial executive actions could be to revoke Mr Obama's protections for the so-called 'Dreamers', those undocumented immigrants brought to the country as young children, his website so far focuses only on big-picture enforcement and security goals.
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| Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle leave Washington. Photo: AP |
The new administration's language echoes Trump's tough rhetoric on the campaign trail, including his promises to strengthen the law enforcement community, crack down on he views as a broad range of trade violations, and potentially forge alliances with countries long considered dangerous rivals, like Russia.
"Finally, in pursuing a foreign policy based on American interests, we will embrace diplomacy," reads part of Trump's policy vision. "The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies, that we are always happy when old enemies become friends, and when old friends become allies."
Also shortly after the official transition, the Trump administration overturned a mortgage fee cut under a government program that's popular with first-time home buyers and low-income borrowers.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it would cancel a reduction announced last week while Mr Obama was still in office.
The Federal Housing Administration had planned to cut its annual fee for most borrowers by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.60 per cent, effective on January 27.
*The Washington Post
Links
- Trump to environment: This is war
- Trump Aides Prepare List of Early Energy Changes, Sources Say
- All References to Climate Change Have Been Deleted From the White House Website
- Did Trump Dump Climate Change? White House Website Scrubbed Clean
- Every mention of global warming and climate change deleted from the White House website as Donald Trump arrives
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