US President Donald Trump has issued his first executive orders from the White House, focusing on domestic issues.
The executive orders signed by Trump at the Oval Office include the following:
- Granting pardons and commuting sentences for people related to the January 6 riots;
- Declaring illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency;
- Designating criminal cartels as terrorist organisations;
- Targeting automatic citizenship for US-born children of illegal immigrants;
- Suspending the US refugee resettlement program for four months (although the text is not immediately available);
- Creating the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (which will be headed up by Elon Musk);
- Tackling the federal law banning TikTok, saying the order will give him the right to “either sell it or close it”;
- Holding former government officials “accountable for election interference”;
- Taking the US out of the World Health Organisation;
- Declaring a national energy emergency to enable additional resource extraction, including drilling in Alaska;
- “Protecting women from radical gender ideology” – though it is not clear what exactly this means yet.
He said that the security of the country would be the main focus of his foreign policy. At the same time, he spoke to reporters about foreign policy.
Trump will try to ensure that the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP. “NATO has to pay more money. NATO has to pay 5%,” Trump told reporters.
The head of the Washington administration complained that the United States spent $200 bln more on military aid to Ukraine than other countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Trump once again stated that the conflict in Ukraine would not have started under his leadership, and assured that he intends to ensure its end.
The US President said he plans to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “I’ll be meeting with President Putin,” Trump said, without giving any specific dates. He suggested that he may be able to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin “very soon”.
At the same time, Trump added that Vladimir Zelensky is ready to make a deal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. “He told me he wants to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House. The US president also expects Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be ready for a deal. “I’ve gotten along with him great and I would hope that he wants to make a deal,” Trump said.
Donald Trump has signed an executive order on the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). The American leader cited data that during his presidency, the US contributions to the WHO, with a population of about 350 mln people, amounted to $500 mln annually, while China, with a population of over 1.4 bln, paid around $39 mln.
At the same time, Trump has once again signed a decree on the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. Trump has repeatedly expressed doubts about the scientific validity of the concept of global warming. In 2017, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. By November 2020, the country had completed the process of withdrawing from the agreement, but in January 2021, then-US President Joe Biden signed an executive order returning Washington to the Paris Agreement.
Donald Trump intends to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico on February 1 and he has threatened European Union countries with trade tariffs unless they start buying more American oil and gas.
Trump also signed an executive order to create a government efficiency agency headed by billionaire loyalist Elon Musk.
The US President pardoned 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol in January 2021. “We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said. “We’re expecting it.”
Trump also signed an executive order to halt a federal ban on TikTok.
Meanhwile, senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi has also released a statement on Mr Trump’s pardons for January 6 rioters.
Ms Pelosi, who was the Speaker of the House most recently between 2019 and 2023, said in a statement: “The president’s actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution.”
Ms Pelosi in Congress earlier this month Pic: Reuters
She added: “It is shameful that the president has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power.
“Despite the President’s decision, we must always remember the extraordinary courage and valour of the law enforcement heroes who stood in the breach and ensured that democracy survived on that dark day.”
Republican Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20. He won the election on November 5, 2024, defeating Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has said the those involved in the January 6 riots should not have been pardoned.
Mr Schumer said in a statement: “The people who invaded the Capitol on January 6, whether they committed violence or not, should not have been pardoned.
“They unlawfully broke into the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. What they did is a serious crime. “
Mr Schumer shaking hands will Bill Clinton at the inauguration Pic: Reuters
He added: “Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government.”
Mr Trump issued pardons for about 1,500 Trump supporters who have been charged over the riots.
The action also cuts short the sentences of 14 members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organisations, including some who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Written with reports from Sky News, TASS
