This post has been updated.
President Donald Trump on Monday morning signed an order withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, fulfilling a campaign pledge to back out of the deal, according to several reporters.
Trump also signed orders to freeze government hiring except for in the military and to limit abortion funding overseas.
NEW: Responding to my question about emoluments lawsuit, Trump calls suit “Totally without merit.” pic.twitter.com/rX4gw9tEaY
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 23, 2017
NEW: Trump just signed 3 executive orders:
1. Withdrawal from TPP
2. Fed’l hiring freeze except military
3. Limit abortion funding overseas.— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 23, 2017
When Trump signed the executive order withdrawing from the TPP, he said it would be a “great thing for the American worker.”
Watch a video of Trump signing the orders via ABC News:
JUST IN: Pres. Trump signs 3 executive orders, including withdrawal of US from Trans-Pacific Partnership, non-military federal hiring freeze pic.twitter.com/t8OKiasdue
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 23, 2017
And China cheers. And does this hiring freeze mean that Donny can’t hire anybody either?
According to a recently published Propublica story, neither Trump nor Ivanka have relinquished control of their businesses.
(edited: typos/correction)
He still has over 3000 government administration positions to fill.
Does this mean he will leave all those positions (mostly within the Security/Intelligence agencies) unfilled?
Oh. Your. God.
And so it goes, with the corruption increasing in subtle, barely perceptible ways. Loudly announce you’ll do a thing that somehow never gets around to actually happening. Anyone who hasn’t read Animal Farm, which is proving to be much more prophetic than 1984, go and read it. Read Brave New World too. And read the serious news outlets like this one.
I can’t find the hiring freeze Order’s language online, but knowing Trump, the Order isn’t fine-tuned enough to differentiate between “new” hires and “replacement” hires. The Feds are facing increasing Baby Boomer retirements, so a complete hiring freeze could begin to cripple organizations across the federal government . . .