Gorging myself daily on the antics of Donald Trump and his administration over the next four years will not be a pleasant task.

But I will resist. I will help whoever is reading this resist. Resist what, you ask? The alternative facts  (the plain person pronounces this as lies)and borrowed fascism that are ripening in the Trump administration as I type these very words. Every Wednesday you can count on a brief ledger of his malignancy, corruption, and incompetency… basically all the things that matter.

If you missed last week’s Tump Tracker, click here.

On January 26th, Trump delayed his plans to issue an executive order regarding voter fraud. It was also my birthday and the launch of Intelexual Media 😉
On January 27th, Trump signed an order to beef up the military and provide it with additional resources, which is sure to come from my tax dollars and yours. The defense secretary James Mattis, who can override Trump’s defense policies, is unlikely to defy Trump’s orders.

His second and most prominent act that day was signing an order that mandated tougher vetting of refugees and refusing visas to people from countries with large Muslim populations (except for the countries he has business dealings in, and are coincidentally the same countries that have birthed Islamic terrorists who have actually attacked America. None of the countries currently facing visa restrictions have begat terrorists). According to the New Yorker,

“Its blanket exclusions—of women, children, the elderly, and the disabled—were all but scripted for the Islamic State’s propagandists. These elements remain in the executive order. Trump’s statements that he will prioritize Christian travelers over Muslim ones are likely to have a similar effect. An initiative so reviled and so easily caricatured across the Islamic world will inspire terrorists to action and invite various forms of retaliation against Americans. It will make shaky governments in Muslim-majority countries that cooperate with the United States—from Morocco to Indonesia—vulnerable to domestic protests and political pressure to break ties with American counterterrorism programs. The policy’s rollout has combined, in one act, all of the features of the Trump Administration’s startling first eleven days: it places political theater before considered policy; it threatens constitutional principles; it reflects incompetent and hasty decision-making; and it is plainly dangerous.” (Read more here)

Also read Trump’s Immigration Ban Excludes Countries With Business Ties over at Bloomberg

On January 28th, Trump officially established his National Security Council, inviting his chief political strategist Steve Bannon and the director of the CIA to sit in on the meetings. Obama had 23 members on his council, while Trump downsized to 7.

On January 30th, Trump signed an executive order requiring that for every new federal regulation placed on small and large businesses, two existing ones must be removed. It also put a cap on the amount of money that can be spent on new regulations. He claimed that hes going to “create an environment for small businesses that we haven’t had in many many decades.” The savvy spectator, however, is rightfully concerned about what regulations large businesses will be stripped of, especially when it comes to benefits and wages for employees. Furthermore this article brought to life some of the rumors that this executive order could be less helpful to small businesses than it appears.

• Trumps  Regulation Order: What It Means For Small Businesses

Trump also fired Attorney General Sally Yates, who he claimed “betrayed the Department of Justice” by refusing to defend his Muslim ban. Keep in mind that the Attorney General’s job is the chief law enforcement officer and lawyer of the government. They’re supposed to throw a red flag when the president, or anyone else high profile, does something unconstitutional. Trump is the 2nd president to fire an Attorney General… the only other president to do so being Richard Nixon, who is famous for the sheer corruption of the Watergate Scandal. In this action, Trump has made it clear that dissent will not be allowed in his administration.

• When Was The Last Time a President Fired An Attorney General?

It’s been a long week. All of this reminds me of a quote I read in an excellent article from The Atlantic, “The benefit of controlling a modern state is less the power to persecute the innocent, more the power to protect the guilty.”

Til next week, friends.