There have been a lot of different reactions to President Trump’s first two weeks in office. He’s been issuing executive orders almost daily.
Among them, a repeal of President Obama’s signature health care plan and a temporary ban on immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim countries.
William Welch is eating breakfast at the El Greco diner on Milwaukee’s north side. The retired bus driver calls the first ten days of Trump’s tenure, terrible and believes the president has abused his executive power.
“I’m talking about the immigration and the separation of families. There is no thought involved in making these decisions, they’re being made way too quickly and it’s not healthy for the United States,” Welch says.
Welch says he wants Trump to slow down and re-evaluate some of his decisions. Another diner has mixed feelings about the new president. Betty Jones says she doesn’t like Trump’s stated intention to build a wall at the Mexican border.
“He can leave that wall alone. He said if they don’t pay for the wall, they’re going to take it out of our taxes and I don’t think that’s fair,” Jones says.
But Jones says she wants to give the president a chance. “I’m not going to say nothing bad about him, I’m just going to wait and see what he’s going to do,” Jones says.
“What he’s doing is everything he said he was going to do and that’s it.” That’s Bob, who didn’t want to give his last name. He says he likes everything the president has done so far and has high expectations.
“Bring jobs back, get the place back into security, we need security because of 9-11 and other things that happened,” Bob says.
Bob says he’s a machine operator at a local plant and it has gone through hard times. He hopes Trump’s recent withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership will lead to more jobs in the U.S. While Bob is pleased, Eva Szczepanski says she’s disappointed in what she’s seen in such a short time.
“He’s stepping on all the Muslim people and that’s totally unfair. We can’t be doing that kind of stuff, this country is based on all the immigrants that come into it, always has been and I don’t think we should change that,” Szczepanski says.
Szczepanski says she worries about younger generations and whether they will be comfortable in retirement. She says she hopes Trump will reject talk from some members of Congress, to privatize Medicare and Social Security.
Eric Raschig says he voted for Trump and admires his commitment to reducing the size and scope of government. “He’s cutting a lot of stuff out that we don’t really need.”
Trump has promised to make deep cuts in a number of federal agencies, including the EPA and the Department of Energy, and to slash regulations. Raschig says he expects the new president to also keep his campaign promise – to cut taxes.
