Sigh. It’s been a crazy few weeks in American politics.

Only months after pardoning his son Hunter, Biden granted a wave of pardons to family members to preemptively protect them from the “retribution” Donald Trump and his cronies in the Justice Department promised. Of course, many of us can empathize with a father defending his family, but this move closely echoes Trump’s previous abuse of the pardon power and normalizes problematic pardons in his second term. After all, how can we criticize Trump for pardoning the father of his son-in-law before naming him the ambassador to France when Biden effectively did the same thing? How can we condemn the release of the January 6th insurrectionists now, even though the circumstances could not be more different?

Trump has been busy at work signing presidential orders. Though I am writing about them in a satirical manner, please do not think that I am unconcerned.

First, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization (for the second time). Why? I guess he’s willing to end international discussions over health and pandemics to save…0.015% of what we spend every year on defense?

Then, he enacted a wave of climate-related orders. He pulled out of the Paris Climate agreement (for the second time!) and re-authorized oil/gas leases in federal waters—all in the name of his favorite slogan, drill baby drill.

He renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, because God Bless America, and he reverted the Native American name of Mt. Denali in Alaska to Mt. McKinley (a president who never visited the state). As promised, he’s found the time to change the names of two major landmarks, but he still can’t figure out how to bring down egg prices. I

ronically, one of his executive orders is called “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” at the same time as he is seeking to hold the Biden administration responsible for airing his dirty laundry to the whole country. Americans didn’t seem to care that he was a felon when they elected him, so I don’t get why he’s getting so worked up.

Trump also hilariousy declared that no one in America is male or female anymore, as his new definition of a woman is someone who “produces the large reproductive cell (eggs) at conception” and a male is someone who “produces the small reproductive cell (sperm) at conception.” Just so you know, Trump, fetuses don’t produce any reproductive cells at conception—that process only begins seven weeks into gestation.

He also decided that people who use pronouns that match their gender identity become physically incapable of serving in the military. Apparently different pronouns somehow harm the military’s “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”

But most controversially, Donald Trump has initiated mass deportations and effectively repealed part of the 14th Amendment by changing the definition of birthright citizenship. While this order has been blocked by a U.S. district judge in Seattle, it is likely that the the conservative Supreme Court will uphold it

. As a second-generation immigrant who became a U.S. citizen through birthright citizenship, this blatant disregard of our Constitution and the foundational values by the president frightens me.

I am an American. I am proudly an American. And while I see much wrong with the U.S., the promise of the American dream for everyone is the backbone of our country. While I still would have received citizenship under Trump’s new definition, I sympathize with the families that no longer have the option to create a better life for their children and with those who are having their identities questioned and erased.

At the end of the day, none of this is surprising to me at all. Half of Trump’s actions come directly out of Project 2025, despite his claims he didn’t know anything about it. The other half were actions he promised on his campaign, and the Trump voters who hoped he didn’t really mean these promises are definitely disappointed.

I feel heartbreakingly proud of the predictions I made before the election— or, at the very least, of their accuracy. Trump has indeed taken a horribly selective approach to implementing his campaign promises: he’s only breaking the ones that would actually result in good for America.