Trump was inaugurated as President on Monday (20 January) as the US said goodbye to its outgoing leader, Joe Biden, who has now retired from frontline politics.
Sitting next to wife Melania Trump and son Barron Trump, other people present included Elon Musk as well as Hillary Clinton, who Trump beat to be president back in 2016.
After taking the presidential oath, he found himself back in the White House signing a number of documents known as executive orders. These are instantaneous laws relating to the rules of the US. Essentially written orders, they don’t require Congress to approve them.
Trump declared the situation at the US – Mexico border is now a ‘national emergency’. As a result, it has paved the way for sending American armed forces to the border to police it.
The order also declared Mexican drug cartels as ‘foreign terrorist organisations’.
Alongside this, Trump said that a new order will limit automatic citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants that are born in the US, with the executive order calling American citizenship ‘a priceless and profound gift’.
It states that US citizenship doesn’t pass onto a person if their ‘mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth’, or ‘when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary’.
This act is in direct opposition to the US Constitution, with civil rights groups saying it will end up in court due to this.
Another executive order has suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program ‘until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States’.
Donald Trump and wife Melania at the inauguration (Saul Loeb-Pool / Getty Images)
It reads: “The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit aliens to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the entry of such aliens as refugees is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.”
Pardoning 1,500 US Capitol rioters
Trump has moved to pardon a staggering 1,500 people convicted, or facing conviction, for their roles in the US Capitol riots back in January 2021.
This was a protest on Congress that turned in to a riot, with the Capitol Building stormed by those taking part.
Some were convicted in court for their role in the violence. That included Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys organisation, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
According to The Guardian, this means justice department investigations into the incident will cease.
The Capitol Building riot in January 2021 (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
Creating a policy that recognises only ‘two genders’
Trump has ruled that there are now only two genders in the US – male and female.
He said the move was to ‘defend women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth’.
The order also stresses that a person’s gender is not ‘changeable’ in what is a huge blow to trans rights in the States.
Issues regarding gender ideology will get no more federal funding, and gender identity will no longer be requested in official communications and forms from government agencies.
Instead, it will just ask if a person is male or female.
TikTok has been banned and now un-banned in the US (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
TikTok ban is stopped in its tracks
Days before Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, TikTok was banned in the US following a decision made by the Supreme Court.
But he’s temporarily reversed it, with the app restored in the country after briefly going offline.
The White House website states: “To fulfil those responsibilities, I intend to consult with my advisors, including the heads of relevant departments and agencies on the national security concerns posed by TikTok, and to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.
“My Administration must also review sensitive intelligence related to those concerns and evaluate the sufficiency of mitigation measures TikTok has taken to date.”
Trump’s administration will now spend the next ’75 days’ looking at how the app can continue in the US – if indeed, it can.
Trump got to work right away (Melina Mara / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The death penalty ‘restored’
One executive order is titled ‘restoring the death penalty’ in an extreme change to law and order.
“Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens,” the order says.
Trump’s executive order on the death penalty says his administration ‘will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorise capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens’.
As a result, Trump has said that ‘the Attorney General shall pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use’.
Back in power (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Goodbye World Health Organization (WHO) and Paris climate agreement
Trump has taken the US out of the World Health Organization (WHO) over issues relating to payment. He’s also criticised its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The executive order says: “The WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.
“China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO.”
On the issue of global relations, Trump has also stopped the US’ commitment to the Paris climate agreement again, claiming the States is involved in ‘international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect the country’s values or its contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives’.
Trump and Musk (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE Agenda’
Trump has officially created the Department of Government Efficiency; known online as the ‘DOGE Agenda’.
Led by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, the department will reportedly ‘modernise Federal technology and software to maximise governmental efficiency and productivity’, according to the order.
The department has also had one lawsuit filed against it by public interest law firm called National Security Counselors, saying it violates transparency rules relating to federal government, CBS reports.
Trump is POTUS again (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
‘Punishing’ election interference
One executive order has accused ’51 former intelligence officials’ of working with the Joe Biden election campaign to ‘issue a letter discrediting the reporting that President Joseph R. Biden’s son had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business’.
The order revokes ‘any current or active clearances’ of these people.
Anyone who holds ‘government-issued security clearances should not use their clearance status to influence US elections’, it says.
Alaska’s potential
Trump is focusing on unlocking Alaska’s ‘extraordinary resource potential’.
“The State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood. Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our Nation’s economic and national security for generations to come,” his executive order says.
