The Presidential Pen: The Threat Of Trump Undoing Biden’s Legislative Accomplishments

Signing pens with the signature of President Joe Biden are seen prior to an event at the State Dining Room of the White House on January 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Alex Wong / Getty

I get it. If the past couple of weeks have proven anything, it’s that some folks have some very strong opinions and feelings about last month’s Presidential debate in Atlanta. I can understand that. But while that discussion runs its course, let’s keep our eyes on the goal: defeating Donald Trump, the MAGA mob and the Project 2025 agenda that threatens the foundational freedoms and principles that have kept us free as a nation and as a people for nearly 250 years.

Now, if you haven’t heard about Project 2025 and the nightmare future it envisions for America, I wrote about it back in March. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say it’s absolutely terrifying. More importantly, it’s a clear declaration of what Trump will do if we ever get back into the White House outlining how he’ll invoke martial law, eliminate public education, ban birth control and much, much more starting with overturning every executive order President Biden has issued since he took office.

The executive order is where the presidential buck stops.

Why does that matter? I’m glad you asked.

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation and executive order declaring that “on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

Source: Ed Vebell / Getty

Probably one of the most remarkable and the most consequential use of direct executive power in our nation’s history, the Emancipation Proclamation is far from the only time a president has reshaped history with the stroke of a pen. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7034 which established the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which lifted millions of Americans out of The Great Depression. In 1963, President Lyndon Johnson established the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy through Executive Order 11130. President Truman desegregated the military with Executive Order 9981, President Ford pardoned Nixon with Proclamation 4311 and President Carter created FEMA with Executive Order 12148.

We spend a lot of time talking about legislative accomplishments—from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan investing $1.9 trillion to protect our families from COVID-19 to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law creating so many jobs and helping so many Americans that even Republicans who voted against it are now trying to claim credit— we should.

But the most direct action any president can take for good or ill is through the use of executive orders. You see, executive orders aren’t subject to congressional approval or gridlock. They can’t be killed in committee and they can’t be halted by filibuster.

The executive order is where the presidential buck stops and, if we want to see the true mark of presidential leadership or fraud, that’s where we should look.

For example, President Biden has used his executive orders to promote diversity, raise wages for American workers, improve healthcare, protect reproductive justice and fight climate change.

President Trump used his executive orders to break up families at the border, ban Muslims from entering the country, whitewash American history, withhold funding from cities that allowed Black Lives Matter Protests and use disaster relief funds to build a wall.

Flanked by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, lawmakers and cabinet members, President Joe Biden signs an executive order enacting further police reform in the East Room of the White House on May 25, 2022, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Anna Moneymaker / Getty

Since taking office, President Biden has issued 140 executive orders to address serious issues with direct action like:

• Protecting the reproductive freedoms of women across America in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
• Raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $15 per hour.
• Closing long standing loopholes to strengthen the nation’s Buy American program.
• Promoting racial equity and supporting underserved communities.
• Exercised the Defense Production Act to mobilize our the full resources of our nation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis.
• Directing all federal agencies to ensure racial equity among their employees.
• Raising the bar on ethics in the federal government.
• Strengthening access to birth control and family planning.
• Preventing gun violence.
• Lowering prescription drug costs.
• Leading the fight against climate change.
• Providing new funding and support to HBCUs.
• Delivering $146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million Americans…and much more.

Of course, this is far from a comprehensive list, as time and again, President Biden has used the presidential pen to serve the American people from supporting our military families to protecting us from cyberterrorism and the full list is just way too long to write here.

President Donald Trump signed one of three orders on withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, freezing the hiring of federal workers and hitting foreign NGOs that help with abortion on January 23, 2017. | Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

Unfortunately, executive orders are a fragile power. For instance, if Lincoln had lost the 1864 election to former General George McClellan, McClellan could have rescinded the Emancipation Proclamation throwing countless men, women and children back into slavery. He could have and likely would have.

Today we’re facing the same dilemma as the same executive order power that allows one president to promote progress allows the next president to eliminate it and, if he is to be believed, Trump plans to do just that.

In fact, in addition to invoking martial law and replacing as many as 50,000 federal employees with MAGA fanatics, Trump’s Project 2025 group has made rescinding President Biden’s executive orders, particularly anything that supports diversity, equity or inclusion, a cornerstone of the Trump campaign.

So, if you like the fact that President Biden banned chokeholds and “No Knock” warrants in federal law enforcement, then this election should be important for you. If you like that President Biden gave federal contract workers a raise and ensured all federal workers have the right to organize, then this election should be important to you. If you think discrimination has no place in our federal government, then this election should be important to you.

Because President Biden’s executive orders stand while Trump and the MAGA mob want to rescind them as soon as he can.

Antjuan Seawright (@antjuansea) is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way.

SEE ALSO:

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