On 20 January 2019, Donald Trump will have been leading the United States for two years. Environment, society, foreign affairs: here is the balance sheet of the first 24 months in office.
On 20 January 2019, United States president Donald Trump will celebrate his first two years in the White House. Years packed with decisions, the majority of which have divided America in two, between supporters of the billionaire's radical choices and those who have instead opposed them firmly.
In the first twelve months at the helm of his nation, Donald Trump had already marked an enormous distance from his predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama.
On 1 June 2017 he had announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate, confirming his resolutely climate-sceptic positions. In reality, withdrawing from the Agreement requires three years plus a further year's notice, which means that the final decision will be made — in effect — by his successor (barring Trump's re-election).
In practice, however, at all the United Nations climate conferences held during the years of the businessman's presidency, the United States has been engaged in slowing down the process of ecological transition needed to save the world from climate change.
Also in his first year in office, Trump obtained from Congress the repeal of the ban on hunting predators that had been introduced by Barack Obama. He then announced the resumption of oil exploration in the Arctic Ocean (with Italian company Eni in the front line). He subsequently reduced the extent of two protected areas in the state of Utah drastically. And he relaunched the major new pipeline projects: Keystone XL and Dakota Access.
Trump also abolished the Clean Power Plan, the regulation that required thermal power stations to reduce their CO2 emissions by 32 per cent by 2030, relative to 2005 levels.
To head the Environmental Protection Agency (Environmental Protection Agency, Epa), a supporter of fossil fuels was chosen: Scott Pruitt. He was replaced on 20 April 2018 by Andrew R. Wheeler, a former pro-coal lobbyist. On 24 August 2017, Trump then signed a recommendation aimed at increasing mineral exploration.
On the subject of migration, he caused controversy by imposing the so-called Muslim ban, a measure that permanently prohibits citizens of seven nations deemed "hostile" from entering United States territory. He also withdrew his country's participation from the Global compact on migration, the United Nations agreement on migration. He then attempted to dismantle his predecessor's "Obamacare" healthcare reform and removed the page dedicated to LGBT rights from the White House website.
On 20 June 2018, however, the American president was forced to backtrack on the issue of the ruthless separation of children from their parents imposed on migrants who had crossed the border with Mexico illegally. The affair had provoked outrage around the world, and in the end Donald Trump was persuaded to take a step back, signing a presidential decree that partly addressed the problem. The measure, however, confirms the separation of adults and does not apply to families (children included) that had already been divided before the decree was signed.
In foreign policy, the disruptive decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel (with the consequent relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City) caused a stir and provoked a violent reaction in Palestine. He also refused to certify the agreement with Iran reached by Obama and withdrew from Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), describing it as "an anti-Israel body".
During his second year as president too, Donald Trump held to his confrontational line. Those who expected a more diplomatic political strategy were left disappointed.
Right at the end of his first year in office, the Senate passed the tax reform which, from the following year onwards, introduced a drastic reduction in taxes for American citizens. A cut of 1.4 trillion dollars spread over ten years, the benefits of which will go primarily to the wealthiest.
It has been calculated that the 1 per cent of citizens with an income above 500,000 dollars will save 60 billion dollars in 2019. Exactly the same sum that the 54 per cent of Americans earning between 20,000 and 100,000 dollars a year will share between them.
During 2018, Donald Trump then chose to play the protectionist card in foreign trade. In January, he imposed a 30 per cent tax on imports of solar panels from Asia. A measure with which he aims — in theory — to safeguard American production.
He proceeded with similar decisions on steel and aluminium, subjecting those raw materials to customs tariffs as well. And provoking the anger not only of Asian producers but also of the European Union. Donald Trump's United States then concluded new trade agreements with Mexico, Canada and South Korea.
He then threatened to follow the same line on the automotive sector. And he eased the standards required of American manufacturers in terms of CO2 emissions. At the beginning of December, the intention to abolish within three years all subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles and systems based on renewable energy was announced. The decision was confirmed by White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.
Furthermore, in September, Washington launched the legal process aimed at amending the regulations on methane emissions. A decision that will allow oil companies to release more gas into the atmosphere during their fossil fuel extraction activities.
As if that were not enough, at the beginning of December the American government proposed repealing another regulation that had been adopted during Obama's terms in office: the one limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new coal-fired power stations.
Trump's plan is to authorise the release into the atmosphere of 1,862 kilograms of CO2 per megawatt-hour produced, compared with the current 635. "These are unjust impositions. We want to level the playing field," Wheeler stated.