The avalanche of Donald Trump’s first-week executive orders was intended to traumatize Americans as much as to implement new policies, according to Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman.
In those first days, the president signed more than 35 directives on everything from securing the nation’s borders and detaining immigrants for mass deportation to eliminating government diversity programs and declaring the existence of only two genders.
Beyond implementation, this “unprecedented flood” of orders was designed to “terrorize and intimidate” the administration’s opponents and to keep the nation “in this constant state of shock and awe,” Perryman said during a recent episode of “The State of Belief” podcast hosted by Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush.
Skye Perryman (Photo by Shannon Finney)
Perryman, a Baylor University graduate, co-founded Democracy Forward in 2017 as a national legal organization to defend democracy from extremists and challenge corruption in the executive branch. She left the group for a time before returning as its leader after the January 6 insurrection.
The onslaught of presidential actions will not deter litigation against the Trump administration which, she added, is currently being sued by civil rights groups and more than 20 states over Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship, a practice enshrined in the 14th Amendment.
“I think this president thinks he has more power than the Constitution actually affords him,” she explained. “You can’t, with the stroke of the pen, rip up the Constitution. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the Capital One Arena, the Capitol Rotunda or the top of Trump Tower, there are guardrails in this society for people and communities.”
Another disturbing order signed by the president replaces certain career civil servants in federal agencies with Trump loyalists, which could affect the way government interacts with all Americans, Perryman said.
“There are 2.2 million federal employees who live and work in every state and location across the country to do the work of the people every day. These are people who are deciding and helping figure out if medicine and food is safe. They’re protecting our national security, our domestic security. They’re delivering essential services all throughout the country.”
Political fealty should not be the qualifying trait for employees with such great responsibilities, she said. “You don’t want somebody who is deciding or helping implement medication safety or food safety policies who is just there because they happen to be loyal to somebody on a social media platform. That is not how the government functions. And over 95% of Americans believe that people in the government should be promoted on their merit and not on their loyalty.”
Paul Raushenbush (Photo by Shannon Finney)
Raushenbush said the hiring policy is the logical culmination of years of Republican attacks on the morality and competency of government. “It’s not just millions of lives, it’s the quality of government and how government does its work,” he said. “And part of this has been an effort to demean and undermine the legitimacy of government and how government can provide services.”
In anticipation of the move, Democracy Forward launched Civil Service Strong, a website with resources for civil servants including how to file appeals, a “Civil Service 101” feature and a roster of 10 pro-democracy and pro-labor organizations lining up to support federal workers.
Legal and civil rights groups also are watching the administration for actions preferencing one brand of Christianity by “obscuring the separation of church and state to weaponize both our own government against people and to weaponize religion and faith-based communities against people.”
The trend was evident in evangelist Franklin Graham’s prayer for Trump on Inauguration Day, when he thanked God for saving Trump’s life and raising “him up with strength and power by your mighty hand” said Perryman, who is a Baptist.
“That’s not just a concern about Inauguration Day. This has been going on for many decades now. It is a real attempt to elevate certain religious traditions. But I think all people, especially those of us who come from faith traditions, must speak out that it’s one thing to have a faith tradition, and it is another thing to weaponize the federal government or the state government in the name of that tradition.”
Contrast that, Raushenbush added, with the sermon by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington, D.C., who pleaded with Trump directly during the Jan. 21 inaugural prayer service: “Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Trump demanded an apology from the bishop for challenging him and she faced vehement condemnation from right-wing Christians — a stark contrast between conservative and progressive Christianity, Raushenbush said.
“What was so striking to me about that moment was how shocked Trump looked as someone was actually preaching the gospel to him.”
“What was so striking to me about that moment was how shocked Trump looked as someone was actually preaching the gospel to him. He had been around so many saints talking about how God had anointed him for this hour, that maybe he didn’t realize that there’s a whole Christianity out there that actually is inviting a different kind of vision than the one from Christian nationalists who are about exerting power over others.”
But if Trump’s executive orders and the continuing rise of Christian nationalism are to be challenged, it must be done not only with litigation but also through collaboration, Perryman said.
“Part of our work now is to come together to create community, going across the street or the apartment complex, or down the way to a coffee shop with a neighbor, or walking someone around the block or helping someone out of a car. That is not now just a personal choice, but a broader, principled choice to come together and to be together at a time where there are forces trying to move us apart.”
To aid in the process, Democracy Forward launched its Democracy 2025 website where a coalition of 350 organizations have created a united legal front to show executive power is not unlimited.
“There’s no way out of this but through it,” she said. “My advice is community and connection. We’re going to get through it together. Remember our history. Remember how many people have done hard work against great odds and at great risks to themselves to create a future that we have inherited. It is now our job to be good stewards of that future.”
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