Trump "is obsessed" with erasing Obama's legacy in America. Are you doing it?
Of all the goals that can occupy a president of the United States, there is one that seems to reveal Donald Trump peculiarly: to undo the legacy of his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Since assuming the presidency on January 20, Trump has sought to eliminate or substantially modify emblematic decisions of Obama on issues ranging from environmental policy to public health, through agreements with other countries.
One of the clearest examples of this occurred last week, when the president hardened US policy towards Cuba, following Obama's historic decision to normalize bilateral relations and end half a century of hostilities.
This race of Trump against the footprint of his predecessor is considered atypical by specialists.
"He is obsessed with erasing Obama's policies," says Joshua Sandman, a professor of political science at the University of New Haven and an expert on presidential behavior, in dialogue with BBC Mundo.
"It's extraordinary. Most presidents who take over after someone from a different party or ideology are more subtle, they work with Congress more carefully to try to reverse policies," Sandman adds.
"Trump is doing it in a very aggressive and crude way, and so he is not building the level of support that he needs to make the changes like (former President Ronald) Reagan did."
"Bit strange"
Prior to last Friday's announcement on Cuba, Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement to combat global warming, which Obama had joined along with the vast majority of the world's countries.
Trump's determination to eliminate international pacts signed by Obama was clear from the electoral campaign, in which he accused the former Democratic president of having made "bad agreements" with other countries.
Already in his first full day of work in the White House, Trump signed an executive order to remove the United States from the Trans-Pacific Agreement of Economic Cooperation (TPP, for its acronym in English) that Obama had promoted and signed with 11 other nations , which together account for 40% of the world economy.
n domestic politics, Trump is urging senators from his Republican Party to pass a bill to replace his predecessor's signature health care reform, known as Obamacare.
The current president also succeeded in getting his allies in Congress to reverse various rules approved by the Obama administration on issues such as abortion, gun control, internet privacy or environmental and financial regulations.
For this, they resorted like no one before to an instrument called the Congressional Review Law, which allowed them in the first months of government to repeal provisions of the previous president.
The current president has even received a recommendation from the Secretary of the Interior to reduce the limits of Bears Ears Park in the state of Utah, which was designated a national monument by Obama.
Trump "constantly seems to make comparisons between himself and President Obama, which is a little strange," says Lynn Ross, who worked for years in the US federal government and teaches executive branch policymaking at the University of California. Georgetown.
"I have not seen previous presidents doing that," Ross tells BBC Mundo.
Words vs. acts
However, specialists rule out that Trump has even managed to eliminate some milestones from Obama's legacy.
One example that stands out is the change in policy towards Cuba, which in practice has less scope than what Trump said in his speech on Friday.
"I'm canceling the completely unbalanced agreement of the previous government with Cuba," Trump said in Miami. "I am announcing a new policy."
But his measures are far from annulling the diplomatic relations that Obama reestablished with the island, or from prohibiting air or maritime ties between the two countries.
What Trump did was to review some specific points of the bilateral relationship, to reduce payments by Americans to companies controlled by the Cuban military or to increase restrictions on individual travel to the island.
"He is not reversing Obama's entire initiative in Cuba, and he maintains an open embassy," Sandman warns. "He is doing enough to satisfy the conservative electorate that he has to satisfy."
Something similar happens with climate change: despite Trump's decision to exit the Paris agreement, there are experts who believe that it will be difficult for him to reverse the momentum acquired by the fight against global warming or recent advances in the creation of clean energy.
Even on immigration policy, Trump gave federal agents more freedom to detain and remove undocumented foreigners from the US, but it is quite debatable that he has already taken away the nickname of "deporter in chief" that Obama received when he expelled from the country 2.5 million immigrants.
Despite Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, his administration announced last week that it will maintain, at least for now, a program implemented by Obama to allow foreigners who came to the country without papers as children, the so-called dreamers.
To change the course of a country's public policies, it is necessary to build firm support in Congress and pass laws, as for example former President Ronald Reagan did, something that for analysts is a pending matter for Trump.
Just look at the difficulties the president has had for Republicans to agree on how to replace Obamacare, despite having a majority in both houses.
Ross recalls that Obama's mandate also coincided with social changes that are still in force, such as the legalization of marijuana in various states or a Supreme Court ruling protecting the right to marriage of same-sex couples.
And he argues that tools like the executive orders that Trump has used have limitations that prevent him from completely dismantling Obama policies, while writing new regulations takes time.
"I wouldn't even say (Obama's legacy) is half undone," says Ross. "There are many things from that legacy that remain intact."
