🗓️ Trump’s First Week

Since Donald Trump returned to office on Monday, he has been signing executive orders so fast that it’s been nearly impossible to keep up without getting overwhelmed. I think he’s actively trying to tire us out with lots of triggering headlines so we lose steam early. If you want to stay up-to-date, but you don’t want to burn out trying to keep up, I’ve summarized some of the biggest announcements from Trump’s first week with links to full stories if you’d like to read more.

📍Elon Musk’s Nazi salute

I am stating it here plainly, because I’m disgusted with the number of people who have tried to deny it - at Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk threw out the most aggressively gleeful Nazi salute that I have ever seen TWICE. Unfortunately, ADL defended the salute as an “awkward arm gesture,” giving his fanboys deniability and plenty of audacity to hop online and downplay facism. It didn’t matter to the actual neo-nazi’s though who embraced Elon, including Nick Fuentes who celebrated that the salute “wasn’t even subtle.” ADL backpedaled on Thursday though after Elon went on an rant making Holocaust jokes on X. Can we all finally agree? If it quacks like a goose and steps like a goose…

📍Ending birthright citizenship & militarizing the border

On his first day back in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order that questions the validity of the 14th Amendment which extends citizenship automatically to anyone born in the United States. His order says that citizenship is no longer guaranteed for children born to parents who are either undocumented or on temporary visas for work, travel or school. It was set to take effect on Feb. 19 but 22 states sued shortly after the announcement and a U.S. district judge issued a ruling on Thursday temporarily blocking the executive order while calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”

📍Pardoning January 6 rioters

On Monday, Donald Trump also issued pardons to over 1,500 rioters who participated in the January 6 insurrection at the capitol four years ago. This order is all-encompassing, so that includes pardons for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman who had been sentenced to 22 years in the federal penitentiary, as well as a commutation for Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group. Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after a judge said he presented "an ongoing threat and peril to this country ... and to the very fabric of our democracy." One rioter turned down the pardon saying “I broke the law that day, period.”

📍Rolling back DEI, trans rights, and civil rights progress

Trump signed a series of executive orders requiring executive branch departments and agencies to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion programs within 60 days. He also terminated a 60-year-old executive order setting anti-discrimination requirements for government agencies and contractors, as well as several Biden-era orders preventing discrimination for gender identity or sexual orientation specifically in school settings and the military.

📍That’s not all…

Obviously there’s a lot more that he announced that I didn’t include here, so I suggest you take a look at AP’s full summary of everything that Trump did this week if you want to know more.

💻 AI investments are a waste

Donald Trump just announced a new $500 billion investment plan as part of a partnership called Stargate. The companies OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank will be joining forces to build data centers and electricity generation in Texas.

Now, nearly every tech company, social media platform, and AI service is run by a billionaire with direct ties to Donald Trump. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were all at the inauguration. So, it’s not a coincidence that Facebook is taking away fact-checking tools in the name of “free speech.” TikTok went offline the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration, then returned with a message thanking him for saving the service. Since then, many people have said their algorithm is censoring progressive content.

It’s more important than ever to fact-check everything independently, and keep a list of sources you trust who center people over corporations in their coverage.

The AI investment announcement also comes one week after a great MIT News article that I read which explained the environmental impacts of AI: data centers are bad for the planet and use too much water to cool the servers. Since Texas is experiencing a drought right now, it’s a terrible idea to spend that much money on technology that’s ruining the planet and stealing jobs, when that money could be used to clear healthcare or student loan debt for millions of Americans.

☮️ Protect your peace this year

Like I said earlier, Donald Trump is going to do everything he can to wear us out. Take time off when you need it - log out, go outside, be around people you love, and protect your energy. Read things that help you learn. Read things that take your mind off everything. Watch things that connect you to real human stories. Watch things that make you smile and laugh. Find balance and don’t feel like you have to take on everything by yourself. Simple things like visiting your local library can make a huge difference in your community. You don’t have to heal the world by yourself - just work on making yourself a better, more educated, deeper loving, well-rounded person this year and share that version of you with your community.

This article from VOX has some helpful tips for dealing with the stress and anxiety you might feel over the next few weeks or even years.

This video from Dasia Sade might resonate with you if you’ve been feeling disillusioned by capitalism and politics lately.

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