It has been three weeks since Donald Trump was inaugurated president, as of February 13, 2017, and he has already gotten off to a fast start of enacting policies. Many of these policies have not taken immediate action while some have. The outcomes are both good and bad depending on one’s perspective. Some policies are unknown by a lot of people; however, some of these policies have been controversial and have spiked debates about President Trump and his orders.

The most controversial policy has been the travel ban. The travel ban entails the ban of the refugee programme for 120 days, the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, a cap of 50,000 refugees, and the most important, the ban on anyone arriving from seven Muslim-majority countries. The ban on those seven Muslim countries is controversial because of the amount of people that are stuck in those countries. There have been many stories of athletes, celebrities, and other people visiting those countries and who have not been able to return to the U.S. This ban has created more of a shock than expected, as the whole world has been affected by it. People at airports boarding for U.S. bound planes were stopped and held by the officers due to their race. Although it was one of the first policies enacted, the policy has been under major fire and has been brought to a halt by the federal judges. This is great displeasure to the president and will most likely be fought for. This is something to keep an eye on during these early months of his presidency.

Another big topic is that President Trump and his administration are trying to repeal The Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare. Mr.Trump has written a directive to the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies stating “that angriest must ‘waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay’ any portions of the Affordable Care Act that cates financial burden on states, individuals, or healthcare providers”. This means that they will be trying their hardest to get rid of any regulations resulting from Obamacare. Unless the new Health Secretary is lenient about the directive, there isn’t much that will be done, but this will influence Congress’ process with some of the repeal efforts.

One topic that many do not know about, but stills plays a big factor, is the freeze on hiring federal government agents. On Mr. Trump’s first workday he issued the policy to halt hiring government agents, excluding the broad categories of military and public safety officers. This halt was another effort to help reduce the government debt and decrease the workforce of some federal agencies. This was a small topic but still has brought debate nonetheless.

The final big directive that President Trump has signed off on has been his orders on the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota pipeline. He signed off to continue the construction of these two controversial pipelines, which has created uproar among many people. The Keystone pipeline is a pipeline that runs from Canada to the U.S and was halted by President Obama in 2015 after concerns were brought up about the effect it will have on climate change. The pipeline is to be continued soon, but will likely attract some legal battles. The other pipeline, the Dakota pipeline, was stopped last year due to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe protesting the building of it in their North Dakota site. Right now, the army has been looking for another route around the tribe site but the order will most likely speed up the process and finalize the pipeline.

It has been an eventful three weeks since President Trump has been inaugurated. Some of these policies are bound to change, so keep an eye out for the news about them.