(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and directives on Monday, seeking to give his new administration the stamp of approval on issues ranging from energy to criminal pardons to immigration.
Executive orders signed so far on Monday include:
pardon
President Trump pardoned approximately 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, offering full support to those who attacked police as they tried to prevent lawmakers from certifying defeat in the 2020 election. expressed.
“Frankly, I expect them to come out tonight,” Trump said. “We expect that.”
He said six defendants would receive reduced sentences.
immigration
President Trump has declared illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency, designated criminal cartels as terrorist organizations, and aims to automatically grant citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. signed an order to do so.
President Trump also signed an order expected to suspend the U.S. refugee resettlement program for four months, but the text of the order was not immediately available.
rescind Biden's action
At a rally at a sports arena, President Trump rescinded 78 executive actions taken by the previous administration.
President Trump said he would “undo nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration.”
Trump also said he would sign an order directing agencies to preserve all records related to “political persecution” under the Biden administration.
The revocation applies to former President Joe Biden's executive orders from his first day in office in 2021 until last week, which covered topics ranging from coronavirus relief to equal opportunity for Hispanic and Black Americans to promoting clean energy industries. It was included.
Regulatory hiring freeze
In addition to an order freezing government hiring and new federal regulations, President Trump also signed an order requiring federal employees to immediately return to full-time, in-person work.
“I will immediately implement a regulatory freeze that will prevent the Biden bureaucracy from continuing to regulate,” Trump said, adding, “I will ensure that we only hire talented people who are loyal to the American people.” Therefore, we will also issue a temporary hiring freeze.” . ”
The move would force large numbers of white-collar government workers to abandon remote working arrangements, reversing a trend that began in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of President Trump's allies said the return-to-work mandate was intended to facilitate the evisceration of the civil service and make it easier for Trump to replace long-serving government employees with allies.
inflation
President Trump has ordered the heads of all executive departments to provide emergency price relief to Americans and increase prosperity for American workers. Measures include cutting cost-increasing regulations and climate policies, and prescribing measures to lower housing costs and expand housing supply.
“Over the past four years, the Biden Administration's destructive policies have brought Americans a historic inflation crisis,” the executive order said.
climate
President Trump also signed the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and submitted a letter to the United Nations explaining the withdrawal.
The announcement, widely anticipated since Trump won the Nov. 5 presidential election, further threatens the agreement's central goal of avoiding a 1.5-degree rise in global temperatures, which The situation is expected to be even tougher than last year. Hottest on record on Earth.
“It is the policy of the administration to put the interests of the United States and its people first,” the executive order reads.
He withdrew Biden's 2023 memo that banned oil drilling in about 16 million acres of the Arctic Circle.
freedom of speech
The president signed a document “ending the weaponization” of the government against political opponents. The order directs the attorney general to investigate the activities of the federal government over the past four years, including the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission during the previous administration.
The administration said it would “take appropriate steps to identify and correct past misconduct by the federal government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of intelligence agencies.”
energy
President Trump has declared a national energy emergency, vowed to reclaim the Strategic Oil Reserve and export American energy around the world.
“We will be a rich country again, and it will be helped by liquid gold under our feet,” he said.
President Trump, who promised “drill, baby, drill” during the campaign, will also sign an executive order focused on Alaska, an incoming administration official said, adding that the state is critical to U.S. national security. It added that it was important and could allow the export of liquefied fuels. to the rest of the United States and its allies.
The United States also plans to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement and end leases to wind farms, according to the White House website. President Trump also said he would repeal what he called an electric vehicle mandate.
Members of his team recommended sweeping changes that would cut support for electric vehicles and charging stations and tighten measures to block imports of cars, parts and battery materials from China, according to documents seen by Reuters. I am doing it.
customs duty
Trump did not mention specific tariff plans in his inaugural address, but he and his Cabinet members said a new agency called the Foreign Revenue Service would come to collect them.
His first-day suspension signals a more cautious approach to imposing tariffs, an issue that is rattling policymakers and investors around the world, with global equities and the dollar trading weaker. This triggered a sense of relief in major foreign currencies.
In a wide-ranging draft presidential trade memo seen by Reuters, Trump also highlighted China's performance under the “Phase 1” trade deal he signed with Beijing in 2020 to end a nearly two-year tariff war. directed federal agencies to evaluate the
The agreement called for China to increase its purchases of U.S. exports by $200 billion over two years, but due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), The Chinese government failed to achieve its goal.
Diversity and transgender rights
President Trump will issue executive orders cutting diversity, equity and inclusion programs and declare that the U.S. government recognizes only two genders (male and female) that cannot be changed, an incoming White House official said on Monday. Ta.
The official added that further action regarding the DEI program is expected in the near future.
President Trump also vowed to sign an executive order abolishing transgender rights in the U.S. military and U.S. schools.
