Trump starts to tear down Obama’s legacy on day one

President Donald Trump signing the executive order

Just hours after being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump signed an executive order to roll back parts of former President Barack Obama’s signature health care reforms.

According to the New York Times, Trump directed government agencies to scale back as many aspects of the Affordable Care Act as possible. Without mentioning the specifics of which aspects of the law his order targeted, Trump gave federal agencies powers to change, delay or waive provisions of the law that they deemed overly costly for insurers, drug makers, doctors, patients or states, suggesting that it could have wide-ranging impact, and essentially allowing the dismantling of the law to begin even before Congress moves to repeal it.

This order fits into Trump’s campaign rhetoric of overhauling Obamacare on the first day in office. By signing an executive order on the first day, Trump practised his inaugural proclamation that the time of talk and no action was over.

Besides his executive orders against Obamacare, Trump’s team pulled down sections of the White House’s Commitment on Climate Change.

But Trump’s populist methods have attracted a lot of opposition. As he took the oath of office, hundreds and possibly thousands of Americans engaged in running battles with the police as they chanted ‘Not my President’.

On Saturday, a day after Trump was sworn in, the anti-trump coalition organised an Women’s March in Washington that hopped to attract some 200,000.

Organisers say they want to highlight racial and gender equality and other issues perceived to be under threat from Trump’s administration.

Similar marches have taken place in Australia, New Zealand and in Asian cities, and many others are getting under way around the world.

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