Eight months into the job, how’s President Trump doing?

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Dahlia Cruz, Staff Writer

Recently, President Donald Trump made good on a campaign promise to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after a six month phase-out plan.

DACA was an executive action by President Barack Obama that halted the deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children. DACA allows the immigrants to apply for and receive work permits.

Graphic courtesy ABC News

Almost 800,000 immigrants, also known as Dreamers, are currently registered in the program. Congress has until May 5, 2018, to pass legislation addressing legalization for the now young adults who entered the U.S before mid-2007, or those young people will be deportable.

And that’s not the only issue where big changes are in the works or at least being planned.

Despite the “lowest early approval ratings of any President in modern history,” according to Time magazine, a Gallup poll reports that 80% of Republicans approve of President Trump.

Despite his inability so far to make progress on his promised tax reform, border wall, and repeal and

Gallup Poll graphic courtesy Business Insider.

replace of the Affordable Care Act, Trump’s administration is still, to a large extent, sticking to the conservative agenda.

For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, has overseen the deregulation of businesses and relaxation of rules and regulations to keep our water, air and land clean.

The EPA “has moved to undo, delay or otherwise block more than 30 environmental rules, a regulatory rollback larger in scope than any other over so short a time in the agency’s 47-year history,” The New York Times reported in June.

This falls in line with Trump’s withdrawal of the Paris Climate agreement which all countries, but two, were a part of. The agreement was based on the global consensus that carbon emissions needed to be limited. However, pulling out of the agreement was one of the promises Trump made to his main supporters.

Trump’s decision on Dakota Pipeline was yet another example of Trump’s administration putting economic interests ahead of community and environmental interests.

As reported in The Yellow Jacket last November, Obama’s administration had halted construction on the pipeline due to protests. Trump reversed that action and allowed construction to resume. He also allowed another controversial project, the Keystone XL Pipeline, to continue.

According to SightlineInstitute.org, an independent research organization, the EPA under the current administration decided not to ban the pesticide Chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to brain damage in children. Sightline believes this choice was to set “precedents that might be applied to other pesticides.” Such a decision would benefit the pesticide industry.

Trump’s promises also included a tougher stance on ISIS and border control.

On August 4, Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Coalition to Counter Isis, said that 30 percent of all of ISIS’ territorial losses came in the last six months alone – on Trump’s watch.

Also in August, CNN reported that border patrol apprehensions have raised by 37% since last year.

Other successes include Trump’s nominee for the seat in Supreme Court. Conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was appointed in April.

Also, one of his first campaign promises that became a reality was the withdrawal of the U.S from the Trans- Pacific Partnership, a trade deal.

When it comes to the politics of social and environmental issues: stay tuned and be watchful.