West Tennesseans talk about President Trump’s first week in office

JACKSON, Tenn. — With 10 days in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump says he’s fulfilling promises made during his campaign.

His actions have not come without controversy from coast to coast.

“This administration has hit the ground running at a record pace. Everybody is talking about it,” President Trump said Saturday in his first weekly address.

During the dialogue, the president said that whether you agree with his decisions, there’s no denying his administration has been making good on campaign promises.

“I think it’s fantastic and a long time coming, and we’re for him 100 percent,” Trump supporter Linda Burke said.

Voter Cindy Kidder says the newly elected president is holding promises made during his campaign but said he may be moving too fast on some decisions.

During his first week, the billionaire businessman has taken executive actions, much like a CEO would, restarting construction on the controversial Keystone and Dakota pipelines, withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and an order to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“I’m actually just interested in seeing how it does go because I don’t think it’s going to last long,” Shawn Veenable said.

Some Tennesseans say the president’s pace for making decisions is exactly what the country needed. Not everyone agrees.

“I think his first week is going kind of horrible,” Devonte Berry said. “He’s moving a little too fast and with the ban and everything like that. It’s disrespectful and singling out a particular type of culture.”

Perhaps the decision causing the most division among Americans is the travel ban, which in part temporarily bans travel to the U.S. from several Muslim majority countries. Protests erupted across the country this weekend in response to the decision.

Tanveer Aslam is a leader at the Islamic Center of Jackson. Aslam said he and his family have lived in West Tennessee for nearly 20 years.

The family take trips each year to cities around the globe, and now Aslam says he has some concerns but wants to see America continue to welcome immigrants and refugees that were properly screened and vetted.

“We should be excepting them with open arms rather than looking at them as suspects, and as humans we need to be more compassionate,” Aslam said. “Yes, we need to think about safety, but there’s a balance we need to find.”

It’s still unclear what will happen with the executive order, and it could be weeks before there is any resolution.