First 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency

Pledges

Trump pledged to do the following in his first 100 days:

Inauguration

The first 100 days began with the inauguration on January 20, 2017, at 12:00 pm. This was the third presidential online portal transition and the first to transition social media accounts such as Twitter. As Trump took the oath of office, the official @POTUS Twitter account switched to President Trump with previous tweets archived under @POTUS44. All 13 million followers of the POTUS account during Obama's administration slowly transitioned as well.

Cabinet

During the transition period, Trump named a full slate of Cabinet and Cabinet-level nominees, all of which require Senate confirmation except for White House Chief of Staff and the vice presidency. By February 8, six of Trump's nominations – Defense (James Mattis), Education (Betsy DeVos), Homeland Security (John Kelly), State (Rex Tillerson), Transportation (Elaine Chao), and Justice (Jeff Sessions), who was nominated by Trump in January, was confirmed as United States Attorney General (A.G.), the head of the Justice Department were confirmed by the Senate. By this time in the first 100 Days of Obama's Presidency in 2009, all but one had been confirmed, and in 2001 in George W. Bush's all had been confirmed. Trump's nominees for the departments of Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, and Veterans Affairs had not yet been confirmed on February 7. By February 8, 2017, President Trump had fewer cabinet nominees confirmed than any other president except George Washington by the same length of time into his presidency.

Former Governor Nikki Haley won the backing of the Senate by a vote of 96 to 4 on January 24, 2017, for the office of Ambassador to the United Nations.

On February 8, 2017, President Trump formally announced his cabinet structure. There will be 24 members, the most by any president. The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers added by President Obama in 2009 was removed. The Director of National Intelligence and Director of the CIA was elevated to cabinet-level.

Secretary of Defense

On January 20, the first day of Trump's inauguration, James Mattis was confirmed as Secretary of Defense by a vote of 98–1. Mattis had previously received a waiver of the National Security Act of 1947, which requires a seven-year waiting period before retired military personnel can assume the role of Secretary of Defense.

Secretary of Homeland Security

John Kelly was also confirmed as United States Secretary of Homeland Security on the First Day by a vote of 88–11.

Secretary of State

Former ExxonMobil CEO, a Texas native, 64-year-old Rex Tillerson was sworn in as Secretary of State by Vice-President Mike Pence on February 1. Trump nominated for the position as top U.S. diplomat, the equivalent of a foreign minister, on December 13, 2016. He was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 23, 2017, and by the full Senate in a 56–43 vote.

On January 26, 2017, when Tillerson visited the United States State Department, Undersecretaries Joyce Anne Barr, Patrick F. Kennedy, Michele Bond, and Gentry O. Smith all simultaneously resigned from the department. Former State Department chief of staff David Wade called the resignations "the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember." The Trump administration told CNN the officials had been fired and the Chicago Tribune reported that several senior state department career diplomats left the State Department, claiming they "had been willing to remain at their posts but had no expectation of staying."

Attorney General

On February 8, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who was nominated by Trump in January, was confirmed as United States Attorney General (A.G.), the head of the Justice Department per 28 U.S.C. § 503. He is the United States government's chief law enforcement officer and lawyer with 113,000 employees working under his leadership. The nomination battle was described by The New York Times, as "a bitter and racially charged". On January 30, Trump had appointed Dana J. Boente, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as acting Attorney General until Session's Senate Confirmation. Boente replaced Sally Yates who was fired by Trump for ordering the Justice Department to not defend Trump's Executive Order 13769 which restricted entry to the United States. Yates claimed that, "At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities [of the Department of Justice], nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful".

The confirmation process for Trump's nominee Senator Jeff Sessions was described as " strikingly contentious" by The New York Times; with Fox News calling it a "wild night", and CNN calling the "rare rebuke" a "stunning moment" as Senator Mitch McConnell invoked Rule XIX to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren for the rest of the hearing. McConnell interrupted Warren as she read several pages by Coretta Scott King and Senator Ted Kennedy regarding Session's alleged racial bias from the 500-plus page transcript submitted in 1986, that contributed to the decision by the then-Republican-led Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination to a federal judgeship. Warren immediately live-streamed her reading of the letter, critical of Sessions, that the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. had written to Senator Strom Thurmond in 1986. and numerous media outlets made the full-text available.

According to The Washington Post Sessions' "conservative, populist views have shaped many" of Trump's "early policies, including on immigration".

Secretary of Health and Human Services

On February 10, Tom Price was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), a "$1 trillion government department". HHS includes National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Price, who is a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, will oversee its repeal and replacement. He has published articles in the "small, conservative medical association", the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, to which he belongs, that opposes mandatory vaccination and continue to argue that the vaccines causes autism, a "discredited conspiracy theory that Trump has long espoused". In response to questions from Senators at the hearing as to whether he believes autism is caused by vaccines, he responded, "I think the science in that instance is that it does not".

Secretary of the Treasury

Steve Mnuchin, who was nominated by Trump in November 2016, was finally confirmed on February 13, 2017, as Secretary of the Treasury department after lengthy confirmation hearings

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

On February 16, the Senate voted 54 to 46 to advance Scott Pruitt's nomination as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. On February 16, a District Court Judge in Oklahoma, Aletia Timmons, ordered Pruitt to "turn over thousands of emails related to his communication with the oil, gas and coal industry" in a case brought to court by the Center for Media and Democracy. Lawmakers had criticized Pruitt who sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of the State of Oklahoma.

Secretary of Labor

When Andy Puzder withdrew his nomination to be Secretary of Labor on February 15, he was the first of Trump's cabinet choices "to fail to secure a nomination." Puzder, who was under fire for having employed an illegal immigrant as a former housekeeper, for his "remarks on women and employees at his restaurants" and for his "rancorous 1980s divorce", stepped down on the eve of his confirmation hearing.

Notable non-Cabinet positions

Prior to taking office, Trump named several important White House advisers to positions that do not require Senate confirmation, including Steve Bannon as his "senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist" and Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff, with a mission "as equal partners to transform the federal government." Other important advisers outside of the Cabinet include Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, Senior Advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro.

National Security Advisor

Michael T. Flynn served as Trump's National Security Advisor from January 20 until his resignation on February 13, 2017. He set a record for the shortest tenure as National Security Advisor in American history. The Justice Department warned the Trump administration that Flynn, who had a "well-established history with Russia" may have been "vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow." Flynn had "mischaracterized his communications" with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence regarding U.S. sanctions on Russia. Flynn's phone calls had been "recorded by a government wiretap" and several days after Flynn was named as Trump's Advisor, Sally Yates, who was then acting attorney general, warned the White House that "Flynn was susceptible to blackmail by the Russians because he had misled Mr. Pence and other officials". According to a February 14 article by The New York Times, it was unclear why the White did not react to Yates' warning in early January. There were also questions about how much was known in early January by Bannon, Pence, Spicer, and Trump. Yates was fired on January 30, in an unrelated incident.

On February 20, 2017, Trump named "warrior-scholar deemed an expert in counter insurgency", Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, to replace Flynn as National Security Advisor.

White House Chief Strategist

On January 28, in his eleventh Presidential Memoranda, "Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council", Steve Bannon was designated as a regular attendee to the National Security Council (NSC)′s Principals Committee, a Cabinet-level senior interagency forum for considering national security issues, in a departure from the previous format in which this role is usually held for generals. While at first there was some confusion over meeting attendees, Priebus clarified on January 30, that defense officials could attend the meetings.

On February 2, Time published an article about Bannon as potentially, the second most powerful man in the world, illustrated with a cover labeling him as the "Great Manipulator." After only a fortnight into Trump's presidency, NPR described Bannon as "the power behind the throne" and the "gray eminence behind much of what Trump was prioritizing", rivalling Kushner's and Priebus' roles. Mike Pence affirmed in a PBS NewsHour report that only Trump was "in charge".

Bannon and Steve Miller have been called the "architects" of the inaugural address, executive orders, including the controversial travel and refugees EO, and presidential memoranda.

In an often-cited October 8, 2015, lengthy profile entitled "This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America" by Joshua Green, a senior national correspondent for Bloomberg News, Green described how Breitbart News with Bannon at its helm, had "championed Trump’s presidential candidacy" and helped "coalesce a splinter faction of conservatives" who were irate over the way in which Fox News had treated Trump. Green quoted then-Senator Jeff Sessions as an admirer of Breitbart which was "extraordinarily influential" with many radio hosts "reading Breitbart every day". Trump cited Breitbart News to vindicate his claims.

Senior Advisor to the President

Stephen Miller, Trump's Senior Advisor, was Jeff Sessions' communications director when he served as Senator for Alabama. Thirty-one-year old Miller, Bannon, and Andrew Bremberg sent over 200 executive orders to federal agencies for review before January 20. Miller has been an architect behind the inaugural address and the most "contentious executive orders" including Executive Order 13769.

In a February 12 interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopolous, when asked to provide evidence "for Trump's "unfounded allegations" where former Senator Kelly Ayotte lost his bid for election, and Trump narrowly lost to Clinton in 2016, Miller suggested Stephanopolous interview Kansas Senator, Kris Kobach who relied upon a 2012 Pew Research Center study in his voter fraud claims. The day before the interview a Federal Election Commission Commissioner called on Trump to provide evidence of what would "constitute thousands of felony criminal offenses under New Hampshire law."

Director of the National Economic Council

Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs investment banker and executive, took office on January 20, as Trump's Director of the National Economic Council, (NEC), a position which did not require Congressional confirmation, By February 11, 2017, The Wall Street Journal described Cohn as an "economic-policy powerhouse" in Trump's administration and The New York Times called him Trump's "go-to figure on matters related to jobs, business and growth.". While the confirmation of Trump's December 12, 2016, nominee for Secretary of Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, was delayed until February 13 by Congressional hearings, Cohn filled in the "personnel vacuum" and pushed "ahead on taxes, infrastructure, financial regulation and replacing health-care law." In November, Trump considered commented offering Cohn the position as Secretary of Treasury. If Cohn had stayed at Goldman Sachs, some believed he would have become CEO when Lloyd Blankfein vacated that office and his $285 million severance package "raised eyebrows" according to CNN. Bannon and Cohn disagree on the border-adjustment tax, the centerpiece of Paul Ryan’s controversial tax reforms presented on February 17, which includes a 20% import tax, export subsidies and a 15% reduction in corporate tax rates that would, among other things, pay for the $15 billion Mexican wall.

Immediate regulatory freeze pending review

Reince Priebus signed a Presidential Memorandum under the subject "Regulatory Freeze Pending Review" to all Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies ordering agencies to immediately suspend all pending regulations and to "send no regulation" to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OFR) until the Trump administration can review them except for "emergency situations" or "urgent circumstances" allowed by the Director or Acting Director, Mark Sandy, of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 30 final regulations pending in the Federal Register were "temporarily delayed until March 21, 2017". Employees in the EPA's Office of Acquisition Management, received an email "within hours of President Trump's swearing in", from the new EPA administration, asking "that all contract and grant awards be temporarily suspended, effective immediately" which included "task orders and work assignments" until "further clarification." At a January 23 meeting with leaders of the United State's largest corporations, including Ford's Mark Fields, Dell Technologies' Michael Dell, Lockheed Martin's Marillyn Hewson, Under Armour's Kevin Plank, Arconic's Klaus Kleinfeld, Whirlpool's Jeff Fettig, Johnson & Johnson's Alex Gorsky, Dow Chemical's Andrew Liveris, U.S. Steel's Mario Longhi, SpaceX's Elon Musk, International Paper's Mark Sutton, and Corning's Wendell Weeks promised to reward the companies who stay in the United States with aggressive cuts on U.S. federal regulations governing their companies by "75 percent or more."

On February 1, the Trump administration published a Statement of Administration Policy to allow coal companies to dump mining waste in streams by nullifying the Stream Protection Rule. Congress approved the nullification on February 1 and the Senate also approved it on February 2. The Statement nullified the Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation which limited venting, flaring, and leaks during oil and natural gas production. Additionally, the statement nullified the rule on Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers, a Securities and Exchange Commission regulation which required resource extraction issuers to report payments "to governments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas or minerals." It would also nullify the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 which would have "prevent some Americans with disabilities from purchasing or possessing firearms. This was enacted following the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting in which Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others armed with two semi-automatic pistols. It also nullified Obama's Executive Order, Fair Pay and Safe Workspaces, which required contractors seeking federal contracts to disclose all recent employee-related violations.

Hiring freeze and media blackout at several government agencies

On January 23, President Trump signed an executive order that froze all federal hiring except for the military. The order specified that no new positions can be created and no currectly vacant positions may be filled unless an agency head believes that the position is "necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities". The order is due to expire once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, creates a "long-term plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government's workforce through attrition."

On January 24, the Associated Press reported on emails from the Administration to some government agencies sent shortly after the inauguration, which "detailed specific prohibitions" banning certain government agencies, such as the Agricultural Research Service Agriculture Department from issuing "press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency's social media accounts." In what the Associated Press described as a "broader communications clampdown within the executive branch," the Administration "instituted a media blackout." In his January 25 press briefing, White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, claimed that the emails did not come from the Administration: "They haven’t been directed by us to do anything...That directive did not come from here."

Suspended reduction of Federal Housing Mortgage Insurance Premium rates

Within the first hours of Trump's presidency, he "suspended indefinitely" the reduced "Mortgage Insurance Premiums for loans with Closing/Disbursement date on or after January 27, 2017", known as the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) Annual Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) Rates managed under the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It is "effective immediately". Obama's rate cut would have lowered borrowing costs for first time and low income house buyers.

Withdrawal of Affordable Care Act

Within the first hours of Trump's presidency, Trump signed his first executive order Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal (EO 13765) to fulfill part of his pledge to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was part of a series of steps taken prior to 2017 to repeal and defund the ACA, including most recently, the FY2017 budget resolution, S.Con.Res. 3, that contained language allowing the repeal of ACA through the budget reconciliation process. The order states what Mr. Trump made clear during his campaign: that it is his administration’s policy to seek the “prompt repeal” of the law, which has come to be known as Obamacare. During his Fox News interview with Bill O'Reilly airing before the Super Bowl, Trump announced that the timeline for replacing Obamacare had to be extended and that a replacement would probably not be ready until 2018. Republicans are limited as to how much of ACA they can undo as they do not have a 60-vote majority in the Senate. They also "must balance the interests of insurers and medical providers".

Withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership

On January 23, Trump signed the executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a trade agreement between the United States and eleven Pacific Rim nations—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam that would have created a "free-trade zone for about 40 percent of the world's economy."

Reinstatement of Mexico City Policy

On January 23, Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum on the Mexico City Policy regarding federal funding to foreign NGOs. This is a key point in the abortion debate as foreign NGOs will no longer be able to offer, promote or perform abortion services as part of family planning in their own countries using non-U.S. government funds. Forbes claimed this could "potentially affect $9.5 billion" in programs that reach "225 million women globally".

Government-wide hiring freeze

On January 23, in a Presidential Memorandum, the president ordered a temporary government-wide hiring freeze of the civilian work force in the executive branch, which is managed by the Office of Personnel Management. This will prevent federal agencies, except for the offices of the new presidential appointees, national security, the military and public safety, from filling vacant positions. The Brookings Institution questioned whether this freeze would include financial regulators who exercise independence from the executive branch – such as the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Fed), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) among others. In a Fox News report, based on statistics from the Office of Personnel Management, the number of executive branch employees "hasn't been this low since 1965" and has been "more or less steady" since 2001.

American Pipelines: Dakota Access and the Keystone XL pipelines

On January 24, Trump signed three Presidential Memoranda regarding construction of pipelines; "Regarding Construction of American Pipelines" was his fifth memoranda, "Regarding Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline" was his sixth and the seventh was "Regarding Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline." These were intended to "will clear the way to government approval" of the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL pipelines. In a meeting with small business leaders on January 30, Trump clarified that one of the reasons for approving the pipelines was to insist that pipeline makers implement a made-in-America approach. He revealed how the federal government could exercise eminent domain strategically in the appropriation of private land, to pressure pipeline makers to use American raw steel, for example.

High-priority infrastructure

On January 24, Trump signed his second Executive Order entitled Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure Projects (EO 13766) which is part of a series of five executive orders to date. This Order was part of a series "designed to speed environmental permitting and reviews" as " major infrastructure projects trigger an array of overlapping environmental and natural resource laws and requirements".

Mexican border wall

While visiting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on January 25, President Trump signed his third executive order Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements (EO 13767) under the (INA), the Secure Fence Act, and the (IIRIRA) for the construction of a Mexican border wall to deter illegal migration and smuggling of illegal products. The existing Mexico–United States barrier is not one continuous structure, but a series of physical walls and physical and "virtual" fences monitored by the United States Border Patrol. The proposed wall which would be a "a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier" along the entire length of the border, which Trump estimated in 2016 would cost $10 billion to $12 billion, and by January 27 was estimated to be $20 billion, to be initially paid by Congress. Trump plans on eventually negotiating a reimbursement from the Mexican government. While the Executive Order entitled "Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements", contains no information of payment, it requests federal agency reports by late March 2017 which "identify and quantify all sources of direct and indirect Federal aid or assistance to the Government of Mexico on an annual basis over the past five years, including all bilateral and multilateral development aid, economic assistance, humanitarian aid, and military aid."

On January 27, Forbes cautioned that the 20% Mexican Import Tariff on all imported goods announced by Spicer to pay for the 1,933-mile (3,111 km) frontier wall would be "paid by Americans". GOP donors, Brothers Charles and David Koch, and their advocacy group, Americans For Prosperity, oppose Paul Ryan's 'Buy American' Tax Plan, which they claim would add a "whopping tax hike of more than $1 trillion on American families and small businesses over 10 years." The import tariff would raise prices at Wal-mart, for example, directly impacting lower income families.

"Sanctuary cities" executive order and deportations

On January 25, Trump signed an executive order, "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States", to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General and their departments and agencies to increase the enforcement of immigration laws which included the hiring of 10,000 "additional immigration officers." His order requires the cooperation of state and local authorities. The order states "sanctuary jurisdictions" including "sanctuary cities" who refuse to comply will not be "eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary". Some officials claim that the "U.S. Constitution bars the federal government from commandeering state officials or using federal funds to "coerce" states into doing the bidding of Washington." Mayors of New York, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle have expressed concerns about the Order and do not want to "change the way their cities treat immigrants." Jeff Sessions is considered to be an "inspiration" for Trump's anti-immigration policies. On August 31, 2016, Trump laid out a 10-step plan as part of his immigration policy where he reiterated that all illegal immigrants are "subject to deportation" with priority given to illegal immigrants who have committed significant crimes and those who have overstayed visas. He noted that all those seeking legalization would have to go home and re-enter the country legally.

On February 8, 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 35-year-old Guadalupe García de Rayos, when she attended her required annual review at the ICE office in Phoenix, and deported her to Mexico the next day based on a removal order issued in 2013 by the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Immigrant advocates believe that she is one of the first to be deported after the EO was signed and that her deportation "reflects the severity" of the "crackdown" on illegal immigration. ICE officials said that her case went through multiple reviews in the immigration court system and that the "judges held she did not have a legal basis to remain in the US". In 2008, she was working at an amusement park in Mesa, Arizona when then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio ordered a raid that resulted in her arrest and felony identity theft conviction for possessing a false Social Security number. Arpaio was a subject of several controversies during his tenure as sheriff. In 2015 the U.S. Department of Justice partially settled a lawsuit filed against Arpaio for unlawful discriminatory police conduct, alleging that Arpaio had overseen the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history. ICE officials in Los Angeles released a report on February 10, 2017, that about 160 foreign nationals were arrested in a five-day operation. Of those, 150 had criminal histories, and of the remaining arrests, five had final orders of removal or were previously deported. Ninety-five percent were male. Under Trump's EO, the definition of criminal is much more "sweeping" than Obama's, which "prioritized expulsion of undocumented immigrants who threatened public safety or national security, had ties to criminal gang activity, committed serious felony offenses or were habitual misdemeanor criminal offenders" and a single immigration officer decides. On the morning of February 14, ICE officials entered the Des Moines, Washington family home of 23-year-old Daniel Ramirez Medina on an arrest warrant for Ramirez' father, who was taken into custody. Ramirez, who has no criminal record, entered the United States illegally as a child, and was later able to get a legal work permit through the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, was placed in detention in the Northwest Detention Center, Tacoma, Washington. According to ICE, Ramirez was detained based on "his admitted gang affiliation and risk to public safety". According to Ramirez's lawyer, Ramirez "unequivocally denies" these allegations and claimed ICE agents "repeatedly pressured" Ramirez to "falsely admit" gang "affiliation." "The case raises questions about what it could mean for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children."

Refugees and immigrants

On January 27 at 4:42 p.m, Trump signed Executive Order 13769, entitled "Protecting the Nation From Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals" which temporarily suspends the U. S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days and denies entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. The suspension for Syrian refugees is for an indefinite period of time. The Economist described the order as "drafted in secret, enacted in haste and unlikely to fulfil its declared aim of sparing America from terrorism" with "Republican allies" lamenting that a "fine, popular policy was marred by its execution." Notably Saudi Arabia was not on the list though most of the 9/11 hijackers were from there. See Provisions of Order 13769.

On February 4, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Department suspended all actions to implement the week-old EO in response to the February 3 ruling by federal judge James Robart which blocked the EO. According to CNN and the Los Angeles Times, the architects behind the order, were Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. White House officials deny that it was written without input from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). It was argued that these 7 countries ranked among the lowest 15 out of the 104 countries evaluated by the Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index in 2016 based on the "number of countries that their citizens can travel to visa-free." For example, Germany ranks the highest at 177 points, Afghanistan the lowest of all 104 at 25. The order also calls for an expedited completion and implementation of the Biometric Entry-Exit Tracking System for all travelers coming into the United States. The first legal challenge against the EO was filed on January 28, and within two days there were dozens of ongoing lawsuits in the United States federal courts. By February 3, federal judge, James Robart temporarily blocked the week-old EO which opened American airports to visa holders from the seven targeted countries. At the international level legal concerns have been raised by the UN, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, who claimed that "discrimination on nationality alone is forbidden under human rights law." On January 30, in a telephone call to Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel explained that his EO "ran counter to the duties of all signatory states" to the Geneva Refugee Convention "to take in war refugees on humanitarian grounds".

Thousands protested at airports and other locations throughout the United States. Critics of the ban include most Democrats and several top Republican Congressmen, former President Obama, the Council on American–Islamic Relations, over a dozen state attorneys general, thousands of academics, Nobel laureates, technology companies Iran, France, Germany, and 800,000 petitioners in Britain. Supporters of the ban include 82% of GOP voters, Paul Ryan, Bob Goodlatte, Czech President Miloš Zeman, and members of the European far right. According to an IPSOS online poll conducted on January 31, in response to the question, "Do you agree or disagree with the Executive Order that President Trump signed blocking refugees and banning people from seven Muslim majority countries from entering the U.S.?", 48% of the 1,201 Americans polled agreed with the statement (23% of the 453 Democrats, 82% of the 478 Republicans, and 44% of the Independents polled).

On the evening of January 30, Trump replaced acting Attorney General Sally Yates with Dana Boente. Spicer's statement described Yates as an "Obama administration appointee" who had "betrayed the Department of Justice" by "refusing to enforce a legal order." In the Senate, Chuck Schumer, called her firing a Monday Night Massacre in reference to Nixon's firing of his attorney general, referred to as the Saturday Night Massacre during Watergate. Trump also replaced DHS's ICE Chief Daniel Ragsdale with Thomas Homan as Acting Director in the evening of January 30.

In a live interview with Chris Wallace on January 29, Fox News Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, justified the list of 7 countries by claiming that the countries were originally identified as a threat in the Terrorist Prevention Act passed by Congress in 2015. HUD's Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, was extended amid some controversy in February 2016, when it revoked the privilege of traveling to the States without a visa to people who "had recently traveled to Iraq, Syria, Iran or Sudan," as they were considered to be high-risk. A spokesman for former president Obama issued a statement stating, “The president [Obama] fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion,” In his final press statement as president, Obama stated, “There’s a difference between [the] normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” and stated his intention to speak out if a situation is serious enough. Obama encouraged Americans to protest the issue.

In response to a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued in the case of State of Washington v. Trump, the Department of Homeland Security said on February 4 that it had stopped enforcing the portions of the executive order affected by the judgment, while the State Department activated visas that had been previously suspended. The restraining order was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on February 9, 2017.

Organization of the NSC and Homeland Security Council

On January 28, 2017, Trump signed a Memorandum, the Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council which restructured the Principals Committee of the National Security Council, assigning a permanent invitation to Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist, while at the same time withdrawing the permanent invitations of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence.

Limitations on executive agency members lobbying

On January 28, Trump signed an Executive Order to fulfilling his campaign pledge to limit lobbying of executive agency members.

Limiting regulations

On January 30, Trump signed his seventh Executive Order "Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs."

Changes to Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

On February 3, after a meeting with his strategic and policy forum, which included Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO JPMorgan Chase, Trump issued an Executive Order, Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System, which directed the "Treasury secretary to submit a report on recommended changes to bank regulations in 120 days." Trump wants to get "banks to lend money more aggressively" and wants to make changes to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) which was enacted in response to the Great Recession, bringing significant changes to U. S. financial regulation.

We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank... Frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine, that have nice businesses that can't borrow money. They just can't get any money because the banks won't let them borrow because of rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.

In an interview on February 3, with The Wall Street Journal, Trump's National Economic Council Director, Gary Cohn, announced the planned rollback of the fiduciary rule, which stated that brokers and advisers who work with tax-advantaged retirement savings "must work in the best interest of their clients" even at the expense of their own profits.

Changes in the line of succession for DOJ

On February 9, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13775. Most notably it re-added the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to the fourth position in the line.

First military operation on Al-Qaeda under Trump

On January 29, Trump authorized a raid by US commandos on Al-Qaeda in Yakla, Baida in Yemen. At least 14 jihadists were killed in the raid, as well as 10 civilians, including children. The raid also resulted in the death of Chief Petty Officer William Owens a 36-year-old Virginia-based Navy SEAL, the first U.S. combat casualty in Trump's presidency.

According to the New York Times, Owen's death "came after a chain of mishaps and misjudgments that plunged the elite commandos into a ferocious 50-minute firefight that also left three others wounded and a $75 million aircraft deliberately destroyed."

Trump meets with CEOs of pharmaceutical companies

On January 31, Trump met with CEOs of pharmaceutical firms, including Novartis's Joseph Jimenez who also represented the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America - the pharmaceutical industry's powerful lobbying group, Merck & Co.'s Kenneth Frazier, Johnson & Johnson, Celgene's Robert Hugin, Eli Lilly, Amgen's Robert Bradway. Trump called for lower prices, "We have no choice. For Medicare, for Medicaid. We have to get the prices way down." In return, he promised to boost the pharmaceutical companies competitiveness by curbing regulations "from 9,000 pages" to "100 pages," and by lowering pharmaceutical companies' tax rates. Trump noted that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals "force pharmaceutical companies to spend years and billions of dollars developing drugs." He promised his nomination for FDA Commissioner would oversee an FDA overhaul. In the listening session with pharmaceutical industry leaders, Trump noted that, "it costs sometimes $2.5 billion on average, actually, to come up with a new product. ...15 years, $2.5 billion to come up with a product where there's not even a safety problem. So it's crazy. I’m surprised you can't get them to move faster than that."

Trump had promised in March 2016, to reform the pharmaceutical industry, including the removal of existing free market barriers to allow imported, dependable, safe, reliable, and cheaper drugs from overseas, bringing more options to American consumers. Following Trump's press conference on January 11, Fortune claimed that the largest pharmaceutical companies had lost over $20 billion in 20 minutes. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (2003) expressly prohibited Medicare from negotiating bulk prescription drug prices and Trump had pledged to revert this. Following the morning meeting with CEOs on January 31, Trump abandoned his pledge to allow "Medicare negotiate bulk discounts in the price it pays for prescription drugs."

Supreme Court nomination

On the evening of January 30, Trump announced his nomination of U.S. Appeals Court Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court fulfilling his campaign pledge that he would choose someone 'in the mold' of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Following the February 3 ruling by federal judge James Robart, that temporarily blocked Trump’s travel ban on people from seven Muslim countries, Trump has been openly critical of the judiciary. According to CNN and Washington Post, on February 8, Gorsuch expressed concern that Trump's remarks on the judiciary were 'demoralizing' and 'disheartening' to the independence of the judiciary.

Voter fraud claims

Since November 2016, Trump has repeated voter fraud allegations that thousands of voters were illegally bused from Massachusetts into New Hampshire where former Senator Kelly Ayotte lost his bid for election, and Trump narrowly lost to Clinton in 2016. Trump had announced on January 25 that he was conducting an investigation into voter fraud. He repeated unsubstantiated claims about the number of fraudulent voters and referred to VoteStand founder Gregg Phillips, who could not produce any evidence of voter fraud. In January, US News reported that members of Trump's cabinet and family were registered to vote in multiple states. On February 10, Federal Election Commission (FEC) Commissioner, Ellen L. Weintraub, issued a statement calling on Trump, to provide the evidence of what would "constitute thousands of felony criminal offenses under New Hampshire law." By February 12, Steve Miller was still unable to provide concrete evidence to support claims of voter fraud in an interview with Stephanopolous, but he seemed to direct Stephanopolous to the often-cited 2012 Pew Research Center study. In fact, the 2012 PEW report entitled "Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient Evidence That America’s Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade," that was based on 2008 data, was about "outdated voter rolls, not fraudulent votes" and "makes no mention of noncitizens voting or registering to vote". The report showed that because of inefficiencies in the voter system, 24 percent of eligible citizens were not able to be registered, representing "51 million citizens." Problems related to voter registration often affected "military personnel— especially those deployed overseas and their families—who were almost twice as likely to report registration problems as was the general public in 2008." In November, "the former director of Pew’s election program" explained that, "We found millions of out of date registration records due to people moving or dying, but found no evidence that voter fraud resulted." On January 25, Spicer confirmed in a press briefing that Trump continued to believe that "millions voted illegally in the election" based on "studies and evidence that people have presented him." This included an often-cited and contested 2014 Old Dominion University study entitled, "Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections?". Using Cooperative Congressional Election Study data from 2008 and 2010, the researchers had argued that more than 14% of non-citizens "indicated that they were registered to vote".

Speech to joint session of Congress

The 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, gave his first public address before a joint session of the United States Congress on February 28, 2017. Trump announced the creation of the Office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE).

Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met Trump in Washington DC in February 2017. Trudeau said that "The last thing Canadians expect is for me to come down and lecture another country on how they choose to govern", referring to Trump's "refugee ban" - Executive Order 13769. The two leaders emphasised the importance of the two countries' ongoing relationship, with Trudeau adding that "there are times when we have differed in our approaches. And that's always been done firmly and respectfully,".

China

By February 9, US-Chinese relations—the most important bilateral relationship—remained strained, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping and Trump had not spoken and this had "drawn increasing scrutiny." Xi was concerned by the December 2, 2016, phone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to Trump and Trump's questioning of the One China policy. On February 10, Trump and Xi Jinpin spoke on the phone for the first time since Donald Trump took office, during which Donald Trump committed to honoring the One China policy at Xi's request.

During the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on January 17–20, China's President Xi Jinping, as keynote speaker, "vigorously" defended globalization in a speech that the Financial Times described as "one would have expected to come from a US president". Mr. Xi observed that "blaming economic globalisation for the world's problems is inconsistent with reality... globalisation has powered global growth and facilitated movement of goods and capital, advances in science, technology and civilisation, and interactions among people In 2015, China became the United States' largest trade partner, placing Canada second. The Times 2017 article, citing an analysis by Peterson Institute for International Economics, noted that "China and Mexico together account for a quarter of US trade". Concerns have been raised about Trump's proposed imposition of a 45 percent tariff on imports from China. On January 23, The U.S. Commerce Department announced new countervailing duties (CVDs) ranging from 38.61 to 65.46 percent on Chinese vehicles in the antidumping case. In 2015, over 8.9 million Chinese truck and bus tires worth $1.07 billion were imported to the United States.

At his Senate confirmation hearing as Secretary of State, in mid-January, Rex Tillerson's statements about the South China Sea, "set the stage for a possible crisis between the world's two biggest economies should his comments become official American policy" and "put further strains on one of the world's most important bilateral relationships." According to an article on January 28, in the South China Morning Post, an official from China's Central Military Commission's Defence Mobilisation Department, ranking Chinese military official considers war between China and the United States a real possibility during Trump's term as president. An article in The Guardian claims, "The bad news is that if in the coming months or years Trump faces an ignominious end to his presidency through scandal or mismanagement, a national crisis – involving China, or ISIS or another foreign actor – could allow him to cling to power."

European Union

In a 60-minute interview at Trump Tower in mid-January, with Michael Gove of the Times of London and Kai Diekmann of Bild, Trump praised Brexit, criticized NATO as "obsolete", and the European Union as "basically a vehicle for Germany." He said it was a "very catastrophic mistake" on Angela Merkel's part to admit a million refugees - whom he refers to as "illegals". These "worrying declarations", among others, compelled the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to raise concerns in a letter to 27 European leaders, that the Trump administration seemed to "question the last 70 years of American foreign policy," placing the European Union in a "difficult situation."

Mexico

Since early in Trump's presidency, Mexico and United States faced a diplomatic crisis. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto opposes Trump's approach to the renegotiation of NAFTA and the implications of Trump's Executive Order 13767. After decades of cooperation between the two nations relations between the US and Mexico are seriously weakened.

United Kingdom

In January 2017, the Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to a state visit to the UK when she met Trump in Washington DC. The visit was planned to occur in June, although it may be delayed to July to coincide with the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg. Some sources have suggested that the UK government may delay the visit until after the House of Commons is in recess for the summer to avoid criticm from MPs. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, stated on February 6, 2017, that Trump wouldn't be welcome to address parliament during any future state visit, drawing applause and cheering from some Members of Parliament.

More than 1,850,000 people have signed a petition to prevent Trump from making an official state visit, which states that such a visit "would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen". The FCO responded to this petition by stating that HM Government recognises the strong views expressed by the many signatories of this petition, but does not support this petition." Lord Ricketts, former Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, said that the unprecedented speed of May's invitation has put the Queen in a "very difficult situation". He questioned whether Trump was "specially deserving of this exceptional honour", given that US presidents are usually only invited to such visits after at least a year in office. Writing to May, the opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn stated that the "invite should be withdrawn until the executive orders are gone".

It has been suggested that Trump's visit would have to take place outside London, after Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the chief of the Metropolitan Police, said that he had concerns about the visit given the amount of protests expected. One suggestion being considered is for Trump to address a rally at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, a city where 50.4% of voters voted to leave the EU, rather than London, which saw 59.9% voting to remain. Local politicians and activists in Birmingham promised to stage protests if the visit is moved, with Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for the Birmingham Ladywood constituency saying that “President Trump with his hateful and divisive rhetoric, policies and Muslim ban is not welcome here.”

Australia

A February 2 report by The Washington Post claimed that US President Donald Trump berated the Australian, Prime Minister Turnbull during one of Trump's first phone calls made to foreign officials. Trump stated that the 2016 asylum deal was an attempt to export the next Boston bombers to the United States. The contentious deal involves a 2016 agreement between the Obama administration and Australia whereby the U.S. would resettle 1,250 refugees held in controversial offshore immigration detention facilities—Manus and Naura islands. In return, Australia would 'resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras." Later that day, Trump explained that while he respected Australia, they, along with many other countries, were "terribly taking advantage" of the United States. The following day, Australian Ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey was sent to the White House and held meetings with White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Preibus. Spicer described the phone call as "very cordial". The 25-minute phone call on January 28, was described as "acrimonious" by Reuters and Trump's "worst call by far" with a foreign leader by the Washington Post.

Russia

According to a Reuters report on February 9, 2017, in his first 60-minute telephone call with Putin, Putin inquired about extending New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russia signed in 2010, which was expected to last until 2021. and, after ratification, Trump denounced the treaty claiming that it favored Russia and was "one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration". The New York Times reported that on February 14, Russia deployed a new type of fully operational ground-launched intermediate-range cruise missile that "violates a landmark arms control treaty". The Americans have changed its name from SSC-X-8 to SSC-8, reflecting its status as "operational" not "X" referring to "in development".

On February 16, 2017, President Trump's Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, declared that the United States was not currently prepared to collaborate with Russia on military matters - including future anti-ISIL US operations.

On February 24, Trump "risked triggering a new Cold War-style arms race between Washington and Moscow. In an interview with Reuters, Trump said that the "treaty limiting Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals was a bad deal for Washington" and he "would put the U.S. nuclear arsenal "at the top of the pack." In response, Russia's Konstantin Kosachev wrote on his his Facebook page, "arguably Trump's most alarming statement on the subject of relations with Russia".

Trump's campaign slogan 'Make America great again', if that means nuclear supremacy, will return the world to the worst times of the arms race in the '50s and '60s."

Trump had "promised one of the 'greatest military buildups in American history' in a feisty, campaign-style speech extolling robust nationalism" at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24 at National Harbor.

Iran

There are no formal diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States. Iranian citizens were banned from entering the United States by the executive order "Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States."

Israel

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump held their first official visit at the White House on February 15. At the press conference, Trump urged Netanyahu to "'hold back' on building Jewish settlements on territories occupied by Israel in 1967 'for a little bit'." According to The Economist, Trump appeared to step back from the "long-standing, bipartisan American insistence that peace can be reached only through the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside the Jewish one", the two-state solution. Trump's priority of destroying the Muslim radicals of Islamic State (IS)" differs from Netanyahu's. Israel is more concerned about "containing Iran, the largest power in the Shia Muslim world. Given that Iran is itself fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, the two goals could even be in conflict." In a marked change from his visit to the White House under the Obama administration, Netanyahu blurred the distinction by "denouncing both IS and Iran in the same attack on 'militant Islam' and hailing Mr Trump’s 'great courage' in tackling 'radical Islamic terror'".

North Korea

On February 12, North Korea tested a ballistic solid-fuel missile, the Pukguksong-2, which is part of a series of missile tests that have largely defined the hostile North Korea–United States relations over recent years. According to The Economist, on February 13, while Trump promised "to deal with the 'big, big' problem of North Korea 'very strongly'", he has few options. Trump received the news of the launch during the first official visit of Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe. They were dining at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida resort.

Protests

Protests against Donald Trump have occurred both in the United States and worldwide following Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, his electoral win, and through his inauguration.

On January 21, there were large demonstrations protesting Trump worldwide in 673 cities, with estimates for the global total at ~5 million people. About half a million demonstrated in the Women's March on Washington (in Washington, D.C.).

Day Without Immigrants 2017 and Not My Presidents Day were held on February 16 and February 20, respectively. Upcoming protests include the Tax Day March (April 15), March for Science (April 22), and People's Climate Mobilization (April 29).

Rallies

March 4 Trump rallies, organized by Trump supporters, were held throughout the United States on March 4.

Media coverage

On February 16, Trump held an hour and a quarter-long press conference to "update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration." CNN described it as an "animated and unorthodox" intervention in which Trump appeared to be "deeply frustrated" by the way he was being portrayed by the media. The media has often described the administration as chaotic, while Trump claimed it was "running like a fine-tuned machine". Trump said that "the stock market has hit record numbers .... there has been a tremendous surge of optimism in the business world, and ...a new Rasmussen Reports' poll which put his "approval rating at 55 percent and going up." Trump dismissed polls that gave lower numbers. When asked by an Associated Press journalist about Trump's performance at the press conference, Trump's supporters said he came across as the "champion of Middle America...taking on the establishment and making good on his campaign promises to put the country first."

NBC News, The Huffington Post/YouGov,Gallup, SurveyMonkey, Rasmussen Reports, Quinnipiac University, The Economist/YouGov, Reuters/Ipsos, Washington Post, are among those who are undertaking opinion polls on Trump's approval ratings.

Sean Spicer

Sean Spicer, was named as Trump's White House Press Secretary On December 22, 2016 and his Communications Director on December 24. after the resignation of Jason Miller. At his first official press conference, on January 21, Spicer criticized the media for underestimating the size of the crowds at the inauguration under Trump's direct orders.

On February 1, Spicer held his sixth press briefing which for the first time included a number of Skype Seats as Chuck Todd had suggested on January 23. Spicer fielded questions from Kim Kalunian (WPRI) in Rhode Island, Natalie Herbick (Fox 8) in Cleveland, Ohio, Lars Larson of the Lars Larson Show and Jeff Jobe of Jeff Jobe Publishing, South Central Kentucky. CBS NEWS reported that some journalists labelled their questions as "softball", others welcomed them. Spicer had also delivered a tense five-minute post-inauguration news conference on January 21. The Skype solution helped resolve a concern about moving to a larger press room. By February 13, Jim Hoft, from Gateway Pundit and the "freshly minted White House correspondent", 28-year-old artist Lucian Wintrich, were granted White House press credentials and attended the press conference with Trump and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

On February 4, Melissa McCarthy lampooned Spicer on Saturday Night Live. On February 7, CNN reported that "President Donald Trump was disappointed with Spicer and with Priebus who had recommended him.

On February 24, journalists from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico, The Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed were barred from Sean Spicer's small, off-camera press briefing or "gaggle" held in his office. Conservative-leaning Breitbart News, One America News Network, and The Washington Times were invited along with Fox News, Reuters, Bloomberg, CBS and Hearst Newspapers. Reporters at the Associated Press and Time walked out of the briefing in protest. Media outlets allowed into the gaggle shared full details of the briefing, including their audio, with the entire press corps. Fox News "joined a complaint by the chair of the five-network television pool", although their journalist was not banned. The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) lodged a complaint. Spicer explained that the White House is fighting against "unfair coverage."

I think we’re going to aggressively push back. We’re just not going to sit back and let false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.

Kellyanne Conway

By February 3, televised interviews by Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, were dominating the news cycle in the First 100 Days, according to the Washington Post claiming it was partly because of "misconstrued facts" and "falsehoods". Examples include the February 2 interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews, where she cited a fictitious incident involving two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky in 2011, who she claimed were the "masterminds behind Bowling Green massacre which she claimed was "brand new information" that had "very little [media] coverage."

Conway promoted Ivanka Trump's business On February 9, on Fox & Friends in response to Nordstrom's decision to drop her products. Organizations filed formal ethics complaints against Conway for violating federal law prohibiting use of a federal position "for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise". Public Citizen asked the Office of Governmental Ethics (OGE) to investigate and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a similar complaint.

Re-election campaign

Trump filed a form with the FEC declaring his eligibility to run for re-election in 2020 within hours of his taking office. The first rally paid for by the campaign took place at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport near Orlando, Florida on February 18, 2017. During the event Trump defended his actions as President and criticized the media. He also claimed that the migrant crisis had made countries like France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium unsafe and he falsely claimed‹See TfD› that the previous day Sweden had suffered a terrorist attack. Some speculated that Trump might have been referring to Tucker Carlson's February 17 interview on Fox News' with Ami Horowitz. Aftonbladet published a satirical blog post detailing mundane events occurring on February 17 in Sweden. Carl Bildt, Sweden's former Prime Minister, tweeted "Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound" The Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC requested clarification from the U.S. State Department. On February 19, Trump explained on Twitter that his statement was based on a February 17 televised Fox News show about immigration in Sweden.

The campaign rally was the earliest such event by any incumbent U.S. President in history.