Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders on January 20, just hours after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Some of the most important ones are to halt the work-from-home culture, withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, and assert authority over the government workforce. Trump declared in his inaugural address that “The golden age of America begins right now” and unveiled the comprehensive executive orders for the first day of his second administration. In front of an enthusiastic audience, he flourished as he signed some of the important orders.
Trump signed up to 80 executive orders to undo the Joe Biden administration’s actions after seeing the presidential parade. “We will sign executive orders first to revoke nearly 80 ‘destructive’ and ‘radical’ executive actions of the previous administration,” he said.
The prohibition of federal employees working from home was one of the first executive orders signed by the US president. Trump’s promise to eradicate the work-from-home (WFH) culture that spread during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the action. At a press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida last month, Trump announced his intention to fire government workers who fail to show up for work in order to comply with the directive. “Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements,” the White House said immediately after the president signed the order. The order requires employees “to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”
Like he did at the beginning of his first term, Trump issued a federal hiring freeze on his first day back in office in an attempt to cut back on the size of government. Signing the executive order instituting a temporary hiring freeze, Trump said, it is “to ensure that we’re only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public.”
Hiring for numerous open positions as well as new ones is suspended by the order. Posts in the military and those pertaining to public safety and national security are exempt.
Donald Trump signed an order on January 20 to remove the United States, a leading carbon polluter, from the Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to global efforts to tackle global warming. In addition, the US president wrote a letter to the UN declaring his decision to back out of the 2015 deal. It takes a year to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Countries can set goals to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil, and natural gas under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In an attempt to combat apparent government censorship, Donald Trump signed orders to make sure federal agencies could not suppress free speech. He asserts that these steps are required to restore public trust in institutions. “Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, de-platform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve,” the White House said.
In the name of fighting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the federal government violated the constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression of Americans nationwide. The ruling stated that speech suppression by the government is unacceptable in a free society.
A ‘national emergency’ was declared at the southern border with Mexico, among other immigration-related executive actions signed by the US president. “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,” Trump said, adding that he would order the deployment of troops along the border with immediate effect.
Trump 2.0 will defend the American people against invasion, according to one of the new authorities. “This is about national security. This is about public safety. And this is about the victims of some of the most violent, abusive criminals we’ve seen enter our country in our lifetime. And it ends today,” he added.
President Trump declared on January 20 that the United States would leave the World Health Organization (WHO), citing the organization’s poor management of the Covid-19 outbreak and other global health emergencies. “The WHO demanded “unfairly onerous contributions” from the US that are out of proportion to the amounts given by other, bigger nations, such China, and failed to operate independently from the improper political influence of WHO member states. Everyone rips off the United States, even World Health. At the signing, Trump said that it would no longer occur.
