Live By The Sharpie, Die By The Ballpoint ― Much Of Trump’s Legacy Undone In Days

WASHINGTON ― Live by the Sharpie. Die by the ballpoint.

From the border wall with Mexico to the ban on transgender people in the military to travel prohibitions on majority-Muslim countries to the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, many of former President Donald Trump’s proudest accomplishments have been undone in just the first days of successor Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump’s failure to codify his preferred policies through legislation, relying instead on a black Sharpie marker to scrawl his signature onto executive actions and then show them off for the cameras, left them vulnerable to Biden’s signature on countermanding orders. And so far, the new president has signed dozens of them ― albeit with a ballpoint pen and less flourish, but every bit as effective ― wiping out much of Trump’s “legacy” in a matter of days.

“Elections have consequences,” said a former Trump adviser on condition of anonymity.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Aug. 8, 2020.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Aug. 8, 2020.

Biden took office at noon last Wednesday and did not arrive at the White House until nearly 4 p.m. Yet within two hours, he had signed 17 executive actions, including orders reentering the United States into the Paris agreement to combat climate change, ending the “national emergency” that Trump had declared to let him raid money for his border wall from the military construction budget, suspending Trump’s ban on travel from a group of majority-Muslim nations, revoking Trump’s order blocking the counting of undocumented immigrants in the 2020 census, and reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that halts deportation of many immigrants who came into the country illegally as young children.

In the following days, Biden restored collective bargaining power for federal employees and ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to find ways to keep workers across a range of industries safe from COVID-19.

And on Monday, the new president rescinded the ban that Trump had imposed on transgender...

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