President Donald Trump has stirred up controversy in the first weeks of his second term, having signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a move that has been met with widespread criticism and outright mockery. Although this act has been chalked up to be nothing more than another one of the President’s crazy policies, we believe that there may be more hidden underneath the official paperwork. While all the media outlets focus on the more outlandish policy, such as the renaming of the Gulf, it gives the new administration plenty of room to pass more controversial legislation and executive orders right under the media’s noses, potentially masking them from criticism.
On January 31st, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, and 6 ex-Tesla employees as part of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency essentially seized control the Treasury Department’s internal systems. These systems control virtually all government transactions. However, they are now in the hands of unelected, Trump-appointed “special government employees”. These actions are not only unconstitutional but are also extremely damaging to the very fabric of American democracy. As many scholars, even conservatives, are saying, if the executive can process transactions without approval from the House, what is the point of Congress?
Elon’s very actions are causing a constitutional crisis, in which the executive is expanding their powers through illegal and unconstitutional methods. This should be covered on the news daily, anchors sounding the alarm about the very implications this seizure has for our democracy.
Instead, we’re seeing article after article about the next sensational thing Donald J. Trump has said and done. Leaving the World Health Organization, declaring there are only two genders, rooting out “DEI” from government positions and society. However, these grandiose stories and comments are meant to obfuscate the more unsavory and downright illegal actions of the 2nd Trump Administration. Events such as the banning of gender-affirming care, the banning of trans people from sports, the elimination of many EPA regulations, the mass deployment of ICE in major cities, the planning of the construction of migrant detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and so many more slip under the radar due to this reporting frenzy. Instead of being educated on the state of the country, people are being fed fantastical story after fantastical story, distraction after distraction, while Trump and his cronies run rampant, flipping the rule of law on its head for their own personal gain.
All in all, we at Paw Print believe that although the fiasco of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America is obviously idiotic, there is very clearly a further intent behind the stunt, as it’s been effectively used as a mask by the Trump Administration to hide actions that they know is going to cause uproar amongst even their voter base. They make more silly, unbelievable actions with less consequences to draw the media’s attention away, all while they take further and further control of the country.
We’ve seen things like this happen before, such as Congress opening hearing about the existence of aliens, while they “coincidentally” are also approving bombing strikes in the Middle East at the same time. This isn’t the first time that the government has attempted to draw the media away from their real agenda, but this is the first time it’s been so blatant, and the first where it could have such potentially disastrous consequences for not only those persecuted by the new executive orders, but for the stability and security of our government as a whole.
We believe that this Gulf of America order is nothing more than a mask to hide more sinister and outright corrupt actions from the people’s eye, and Paw Print urges its readers to keep themselves informed on what our government is doing, so they can be up to date for what the Trump Administration does next.
