Sohn: Trump's first week has been a roller-coaster

Is has not been a good beginning.

President Donald Trump's first week in the White House has been a barrage of attacks on the policies built over recent years, ranging from the Affordable Care Act to immigration reform, trade, environmental protection and government information.

It seems months ago - though it's been less than a week - when our new president began his term by lashing out at the media over the crowd size at his inauguration. Then he tried to rewrite the history of his dealings with the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

It got worse when Kellyanne Conway tried to tell us Trump and the White House spokesman weren't telling us falsehoods, but rather pushing "alternative facts." Like our eyes didn't really see what they see in the televised inaugural or in photographs made at the same place and roughly the same time of day from former and first African-American President Barack Obama's historic inauguration eight years before.

Then there was his reaction to the massive and historic Women's March on Washington, with it many peaceful sister protests in cities around the country and the world. Moderates, liberals and progressives could not help but smile at the throngs of people in the streets on the day after inauguration. Some crowd experts later said the Washington march alone numbered three times the people who braved what Trump himself called a drizzle to watch the inaugural.

"The constitution does not begin with 'I the president.' It begins with 'We the people,'" Gloria Steinem told a crowd in Washington, D.C.

But not in Trump World.

"Why didn't these people vote?" was one of his responses.

Trump seemed to forget that he lost the popular vote by more than 3 million ballots, and only a squeaker of electoral votes took him to the White House. When he was reminded, he pulled out a completely unsubstantiated and debunked claim that 3 million to 5 million "illegals" cast votes for Hillary Clinton in the November election. He said he will ask for "a major investigation."

Fake news is out. Alternative facts are in. And no, there will be no Trump tax returns released - despite broken promise after broken promise.

Less amusing, however is the carnage Trump already is flinging down in the form of executive orders.

You know, like those "lawless" executive orders and rules that the "imperial" former President Obama used to rely on to push through policies that had no chance in the Republican majority Congress. If you close your eyes, you can still hear Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan say in 2014, "We have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of Congress, writing new policies and laws without going through Congress."

Funny how times change. Republican leaders called Obama a dictator who abused his power and disregarded the Constitution. They took him to court.

Now they smile at Trump as he aggressively flexes his executive order muscle that allows him to claim immediate progress on campaign promises rather than waiting for a lengthy legislative process to play out. Perhaps Congress smiles because it prefers not to really - really - back much of Trump's controversial proposals - building a border wall, hiring more border and immigration officers, creating a new office for victims of crimes committed by immigrants in the country illegally.

Despite Trump's vague promise that "Mexico will pay for it," these plans presumably require funding by Congress, and Congress members have no desire to burn their hands on what already promises to be a swiftly growing budget, deficit and national debt. Mexico says no way, and the Mexican president canceled his planned trip to Washington.

Perhaps to toss Congress and his base a bone, Trump on Thursday began talking about a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports. But that would actually be a 20 percent tax on all imports to the United States, an idea congressional Republicans have proposed as part of a broader overhaul of corporate taxation.

Gee, how might that affect our pocketbooks at the stores that sell those imports that soon will cost 20 percent more?

But still more costly to America's lowly consumers will be the health care executive order issued by Trump. The order directs federal officials to find ways to minimize the financial burden of the Affordable Health Care Act on governments, health care providers and others. That would be a backdoor attempt by Trump to undermine Obamacare while Republicans - after seven years of promising they would repeal and replace it - try to figure out a way to replace it. The repeal is the easy part. Replace? Not so much.

Trump's jobs and manufacturing talk - linked to trade - is also up in the air. It may sound good to Americans who are under-skilled and underemployed. But the proof will be in the pudding.

No, it hasn't been a good week. One down, 207 to go.