WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has begun his
promised flurry of executive action on Day 1.
With his opening rounds of memoranda and
executive orders, Trump repealed dozens of former President Joe Biden's
actions, began his immigration crackdown, withdrew the US from the Paris
climate accords and sought to keep TikTok open in the US, among other actions.
He pardoned hundreds of people for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on
the US Capitol.
Here's a look at some of Trump's initial
actions and upcoming plans:
Pardons
in the Jan 6 US Capitol attack
As he promised repeatedly during the
2024 campaign, the president issued pardons late Monday for about 1,500 people
convicted or criminally charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as
Congress convened to certify Biden's 2020 victory over Trump.
Separately, Trump ordered an end to
federal cases against “political opponents” of the Biden administration —
meaning Trump supporters.
The
economy and TikTok
In a made-for-TV display at Capital One
Arena on Monday evening, Trump signed a largely symbolic memorandum that he
described as directing every federal agency to combat consumer inflation. By
repealing Biden actions and adding his own orders, Trump is easing regulatory
burdens on oil and natural gas production, something he promises will bring
down costs of all consumer goods. Trump is specifically targeting Alaska for
expanded fossil fuel production.
On trade, the president said he expects
to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1, but declined to
flesh out his plans for taxing Chinese imports.
Trump also signed an order intended to
pause Congress' TikTok ban for 75 days, a period in which the president says he
will seek a U.S. buyer in a deal that can protect national security interests
while leaving the popular social media platform open to Americans.
America
First
As he did during his first
administration, Trump is pulling the US out of the World Health Organization.
He also ordered a comprehensive review of US foreign aid spending. Both moves
fit into his more isolationist “America First” approach to international
affairs.
In more symbolic moves, Trump planned to
sign an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, making it the Gulf of America. The
highest mountain in North America, now known as Denali, will revert back to
Mount McKinley, its name until President Barack Obama changed it. And Trump
signed an order that flags must be at full height at every future Inauguration
Day. The order came because former President Jimmy Carter's death had prompted
flags to be at half-staff. Trump demanded they be moved up Monday. Another
Trump order calls for promoting “Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture.”
Immigration
and national security
Trump reversed several immigration
orders from Biden's presidency, including one that narrowed deportation
priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security
threats or were stopped at the border. It returns the government to Trump's
first-term policy that everyone in the country illegally is a priority for
deportation.
The president declared a national
emergency at the US-Mexico border, and he plans to send U.S. troops to help
support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum.
Trump is trying end birthright
citizenship. It's unclear, though, whether his order will survive inevitable
legal challenges, since birthright citizenship is enshrined in the U.S.
Constitution.
He temporarily suspended the US Refugee
Admission Programme, pending a review to assess the program's “public safety
and national security” implications. He's also pledged to restart a policy that
forced asylum seekers to wait over the border in Mexico, but officials didn't
say whether Mexico would accept migrants again. And Trump is ending the CBP One
app, a Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly 1 million migrants.
Meanwhile, on national security, the president
revoked any active security clearances from a long list of his perceived
enemies, including former director of national intelligence James Clapper, Leon
Panetta, a former director of the CIA and defense secretary, and his own former
national security adviser, John Bolton.
Climate
and energy
As expected, Trump signed documents he
said will formally withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreements. He made
the same move during his first term but Biden reversed it.
Additionally, Trump declared an energy
emergency as he promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and said he will eliminate
what he calls Biden's electric vehicle mandate.
Overhauling
federal bureaucracy
Trump has halted federal government
hiring, excepting the military and other parts of government that went unnamed.
He added a freeze on new federal regulations while he builds out his second
administration.
He formally empowered the so-called
Department of Government Efficiency, which is being led by Elon Musk, the
world's richest man. Ostensibly an effort to streamline government, DOGE is not
an official agency. But Trump appears poised to give Musk wide latitude to
recommend cuts in government programs and spending.
Diversity,
equity and inclusion and transgender rights
Trump is rolling back protections for
transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes
within the federal government. Both are major shifts for the federal policy and
are in line with Trump's campaign trail promises. One order declares that the
federal government would recognise only two immutable sexes: male and female.
And they're to be defined based on whether people are born with eggs or sperm,
rather than on their chromosomes, according to details of the upcoming order.
Under the order, federal prisons and shelters for migrants and rape victims
would be segregated by sex as defined by the order. And federal taxpayer money
could not be used to fund “transition services.”
A separate order halts DEI programmes,
directing the White House to identify and end them within the government.
