manipulator. No more federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Sure, folks are going to sue us, let’s see what the courts say. Yes, we are a little behind in filling some lower level positions, plus the Senate is working through confirmation hearings. The Progressives are not helping anyone get things done.
Yes the President has directed the departments to identify countries violating existing trade agreements. The State Department will be identifying those countries supporting terrorists, and there will be consequences for being on that list. Our trade folks are beginning to work on renegotiations of NAFTA and if the Pacific countries are interested, TPP Expanded. Everyone should start using E-Verify; it will soon be required by everyone. You will have to talk to the Pentagon about any changes they have going on overseas. We understand that they had some soldiers put in for Medal of Honor awards, but they have a process, it takes some time. We are real proud of the cavalry soldiers’ accomplishments. We are sorry for the loss of those sixteen soldiers, plus the men and women who were wounded. Yes, we are going to close down the EPA, plus the Departments of Education and Labor, those all need to be done by the states, not the federal government. We have the departments planning to implement the President’s policies and plans, which we will be announcing in the coming weeks.
The President left the White House late that Friday afternoon (January 29th) for his Tennessee winter home to stay for the weekend. Vice President Mitchell and the White House staff continued to process several items, including working vetting issues of potential appointments, talking with Congressional leaders on potential legislation, talking to heads of the Cabinet-level departments on their rapidly approaching deadlines, etc. President Powers attended the AFC Conference Championship in Nashville (it was rescheduled due to last week’s winter storms), watching the Steelers beat the Titans. The President returned from Tennessee by first stopping in at Powers Tower in Boston on Monday to discuss his TAP Infrastructure Corporation business operations, then attending the memorial service at Dover Air Force Base for the return of the soldiers killed in Ukraine on Tuesday morning, finally returning to the White House that afternoon (February 3rd).
During the month of February 2033, many of the Cabinet departments had deadlines to complete tasks directed by the January 20th signed Executive Orders. Some activities we clearly know when they happened, while other events occurred over several days and weeks, and the presidential papers are unclear what exactly happened when.
The President attended the Super Bowl on February 7th and watched the Steelers beat his beloved Bears for their tenth title. He spent most of the month monitoring the activities about the Powers Border Wall, including attending the shovel ceremony on February 12th south of San Diego. Powers also met and started to become personally involved with a group from the Department of Transportation with his construction project managers from the TAP Infrastructure Corporation on his proposed infrastructure plan. Powers also spent the last two weeks at what was now being called the Nashville White House, as he became disgusted with the Washington weather.
Mexico announced on February 15th that they would make no payments for the Powers Border Wall. The Secretaries of the Treasury and State responded that the rules prohibiting wire transfers by illegal immigrants would go into effect on February 28th. Western Union reported an upsurge in wire transfers to Mexico before then. Mexican media predicted this will cause severe economic problems in Mexico.
Presidential Chief Policy Officer Stephen Schmidt provided Presidential Powers with an Executive Order that he signed on February 17th that provided presidential clemency (pardons or commutations) of 318 individuals, all of whom were declared nationalists. This list was not vetted with the Department of Justice or approved by the Attorney General. These were initially classified, but when petitions for release of convicted criminals were processed, this led to several organizations filing a Freedom of Information request being made in late March 2033, and the public release of this Executive Order (#14114) in May 2033.
On February 17th, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff presented a detailed SJMC war plan to the President and Vice President. Powers rejected the plan and asked for the resignation of the Chairman, who refused, and was fired immediately. The four service chiefs also resigned in protest, but the reason why was not revealed to the public. Powers and Edward worked on their own war plan over the weekend, and issued it to United States Central Command to commence 72 hours after Congress declared war on the Salafi Jihadist Military Caliphate (SJMC). The Commanding General of the Central Command sent a back channel message to all four and three star commanders about his reason for resigning from his position and retired. On February 22nd, President Powers, in a televised speech to the nation, asked Congress to declare war on Islamic Terrorists. Congress continued to debate this request, without resolution, through February. These activities also delayed the development of a new strategy on Afghanistan.
During February, ICE and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies began to arrest illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds and started deportation proceedings. ICE had to expand or have built several detention facilities to handle them. ICE also began to put detainers on known illegal immigrants in jails or prisons. ICE requested the Department of Defense to call us reserve military police units to assist them in this effort. No actual deportations occurred, as the process bogged down due to limited detention facilities and the limited resources of the immigration courts. ICE secretly sent about fifty illegal immigrants with violent criminal pasts to Guantanamo Bay without any media or public notice.
The media began to investigate reports of Muslims being denied entrance to the United States with visas or legal immigration documentation – most of these were occurring at European airports rather than when they arrived in the United States. The ACLU made a couple legal filings about specific individuals, intellectuals, or students denied entrance into the United States for conferences or studies. There were also reports of Syrians, Iraqis, and others from the Middle East being denied entry, even though they were Christians or Jews. A small outcry occurred in February, but this would grow in the coming months.
The State Department efforts to develop plans on India and the United Nations got bogged down in its bureaucracy. There were major arguments on what the approach should be tried to achieve a new peace between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. China rebuffed quiet approaches from the American Embassy to put pressure on North Korea, and these actions put an end to any talks to hold meetings between Powers and the North Korean leader.
Because of the number of agencies needing to be involved, the efforts to identify countries supporting terrorism, violating trade agreements, and being anti-American (intense debates on what that means), who and what to negotiate what with, confusing approaches to what to do about existing trade or defense agreements, identifying how much it is costing to defend each country, and even trying to determine how to gain “respect” got bogged down and produced conflicting and confusing efforts during February.
On February 25th around midnight, there was an unsuccessful attempt to kill Edward Snowden at his Moscow apartment by criminals, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian media reports. They claimed that these criminals were backed by the CIA and the Powers Administration. The White House Press Secretary denied any American involvement.
During late February, Native American tribes and environmental agencies protested the proposal filed in the Federal Register to authorize Keystone XL Plus pipeline. TransExxon Corporation, who had planned and then canceled the pipeline after Presidents Obama and Trump denied the permits, reported in its quarterly earnings that it had no plans to resume this effort. The Department of Energy said that if TransExxon did not build it, that American energy companies would be offered to bid to build it.
The Powers Administration made more progress on its proposed 28th Amendment. At first, White Hous
e Staff felt that there was a need to have separate amendments to define marriage between a man and a woman, make pro-life the law of the land, eliminate birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens, and eliminate gun controls. However, they felt that one amendment covering all of these would be one that 38 state legislative bodies and Congress could all unite behind, rather than battling each issue in separate efforts. On February 25th, the proposed language was approved by President Powers, submitted to Congress, and announced by his Press Secretary, receiving much outcry across the media and many Progressives. Lincoln and Thomas announced that this would be assigned immediately to the appropriate committees to have a quick hearing, hoping to clear Congress by the end of March.
State and Commerce Department talks with the signing countries of the Iranian Nuclear Agreement met with a negative reaction for all, with an unwillingness to pursue any re-negotiations with Iran. A cross-agency group began looking at legal justifications to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement and impose economic sanctions.
The ending of federal funding of