Trump sweeps away Biden era with an avalanche of decrees against immigration, the green agenda and diversity

Donald Trump decided not to wait until he was installed in the White House to begin governing. The president had a desk set up on the stage of the Capital One Arena, the indoor sports stadium where his followers followed the inauguration on screens, to sign his first decrees there, fresh from the Capitol. The crowd had been waiting for him for hours and cheered him on his arrival with cries of “U-S-A” and “fight, fight, fight,” the words he uttered after surviving an assassination attempt. In the stands, together with members of his family and his team, he witnessed a parade of troops that lasted almost an hour, led by the helmet and uniform of the firefighter who died on the day of that attack. Then, after a speech in which he took the credit for the ceasefire in the Middle East and repeated some of his standard falsehoods, he sat in a red seat where there were a pile of folders stacked up and began signing decrees.

The first was the repeal of 78 executive orders issued by Joe Biden. The second, a regulatory freeze so that federal agencies cannot issue more regulations. The third, freezing the hiring of public officials. With the fourth, he eliminated teleworking for federal employees. The fifth asked government agencies to work to combat inflation, without much specificity. The sixth and seventh, the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on emissions. The eighth, one to supposedly restore freedom of expression. The ninth, to end the persecution of political adversaries. Trump then planned to sign more in the White House.

He had already announced a “tide of change” in his speech, announcing the beginning of a “golden age” in the United States. His delivery was much more specific than is usual in inauguration speeches, and he decided to approve an avalanche of executive orders on the first day against immigration, the green agenda, diversity, and other matters to draw the curtain on the era of his predecessor, Biden. “Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense,” Trump said.

Trump declared a national emergency on the border with Mexico to crack down on illegal immigration, although he did not sign that decree in the first batch. His electoral campaign revolved largely around xenophobia and attacks against immigrants, who were singled out as scapegoats. In his inaugural speech he insisted on the idea that many come from prisons and mental institutions, when the vast majority are families in search of opportunities fleeing poverty or political repression.

“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy [which requires asylum seekers to remain on the other side of the border while their claims are processed]. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,” Trump said. As soon as he took office, his administration suppressed the CBP One application that allowed asylum seekers to make an appointment to legally enter the United States.

Declaring an emergency will allow Trump to involve the military in border security, although that move can be challenged in court because the law places strict limits on how the Armed Forces can operate on U.S. soil. “The Armed Forces, including the National Guard, will engage in border security, which is national security, and will be deployed to the border to assist existing law enforcement personnel,” Trump’s transition team announced.

The same source said that the Justice Department will seek the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for crimes in which law enforcement officers are killed, and for those committed by “illegal immigrants who maim and murder Americans.” “I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” Trump said.

Border emergency

The declaration of a border emergency, despite the fact that the number of immigrants arriving has fallen dramatically in recent months, will also give Trump the power to use funds to build the wall on the Mexican border without the need for congressional approval.

As had been anticipated, the president designated drug cartels as “terrorist organizations,” which will allow for tougher prosecution and sanctions. He will also rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Geographic designations are a power he can exercise by executive order, although administration geographers advise against name changes without compelling reasons. Whether the designation will take hold beyond the United States is another matter.

On energy, Trump also decided to declare an emergency, even though crude production is at an all-time high and there is no perceived shortage. He will “unleash” American energy, putting an end to what his team calls “Biden’s climate extremism policies.” When Trump said he would be a “dictator” on day one, one of the reasons was to “drill, drill, drill” for oil, a phrase he repeated in his inaugural address. The president will expedite permits and review for repeal all regulations that impose what he considers undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.

Trump also decided to eliminate regulatory and emissions limits on products such as vehicles, relaxing pollution limits on cars and fuel economy standards. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice,” he said, despite it being possible to do so now.

He also agreed to scrap environmental regulations on showerheads — a particular obsession of the president — toilets, washing machines, light bulbs, and dishwashers. His transition team said Trump will again withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, as he did during his first term. In his crackdown on renewables, he resolved to end “the leasing of massive wind farms that degrade natural landscapes and do not serve American energy consumers.”

Although Trump has proclaimed that the principle of “America First” will apply to trade policy and despite tariffs being one of his signature promises, he will not impose them just yet. He will, however, order federal agencies to launch an investigation into unfair trade and monetary practices, focusing on countries with which the United States has a trade deficit. He will also launch an immediate crackdown on counterfeit products and review a special exemption that allows low-value products to enter the country tariff-free, a route used by Chinese companies such as Temu and Alibaba. In his speech, he downgraded “tariffs” from the position he had given it as the most beautiful word in the world and replaced it with “God,” “religion,” and “love.”

“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service [a parallel tax agency to the Internal Revenue Service] to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources,” Trump said.

The president will also examine China’s compliance with a trade agreement it signed during his first term, as well as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020, also under Trump’s presidency.

Attack on diversity

The new president has decided to end remote work policies for public employees and will order them back to the office for four to five days a week. Trump plans to freeze the hiring of civil servants, except in essential areas, “to end the flood of useless and overpaid diversity, equality, and inclusion activists buried in the federal workforce,” according to his team. Trump intends to end such inclusive and diversity policies throughout the administration.

As part of this cultural war, the new president “will establish the existence of the masculine and feminine as a biological reality and protect women from radical gender ideology,” according to his team. Trump announced this in his speech: “This week I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he proclaimed.

That includes establishing biological sex definitions for federal workers by executive order and as part of school guidelines. His team also announced an end to protections for trans people in federal prisons (a pillar of the Republican campaign, which tens of millions of dollars were spent attacking) and for transgender immigrants in U.S. custody.

Some of the executive orders signed on day one were designed to roll back what Republicans call “burdensome and sweeping regulations” that Biden approved that have yet to take effect. Others are more symbolic than effective. Free speech is constitutionally protected. Still, Trump said in his speech: “I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.”

“This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate, with full back pay. And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately,” Trump added.

The Republican promised on Sunday to issue an executive order to give the social network TikTok more time to leave its position under Chinese control. He also promised on the eve of his inauguration (and on many previous occasions) to pardon those convicted of the assault on the Capitol, although in his inaugural speech, on the same stage, he preferred not to address the issue.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition