WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Just hours into his second term, President Donald Trump signed some of his first executive orders as an arena crowd of thousands cheered a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and a mandate for federal workers to return to the office full-time.
Trump scrawled his signature on nearly 10 portfolio-bound documents at a desk on the floor of the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., following an indoor inauguration parade at the 20,000-seat venue. Monday’s ceremonies were moved indoors because of cold temperatures.
The orders included rescinding 78 Biden administration actions, freezing federal hiring and new regulations, and “restoring freedom of speech,” among others that the White House press office dubbed “America First Priorities.”
“Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so,” Trump said to the crowd.
Trump threw his ceremonial pens into the seats after signing the orders.
In an Oval Office ceremony shortly afterward, Trump signed a slew of other orders ranging from declaring a national emergency at the southern border to throwing TikTok a 75-day lifeline to find a new owner.
Earlier Monday, surrounded by lawmakers from both parties who bantered with him in the President’s Room at the U.S. Capitol, Trump signed an order mandating all U.S. flags fly at full height during future presidential inaugurations. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, ordered flags at full staff for Trump’s inauguration despite the recent death of the late President Jimmy Carter.
The first blitz
During his first blitz, Trump erased Biden executive orders on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation” and “Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals.”
Trump’s team signaled hours before inauguration that the incoming president planned to sign an order mandating the use of the word “sex” instead of “gender” in federal policy language and documents, including passports and visas.
White House administration officials said on a call with reporters early Monday, speaking on background, that one of their first executive orders will focus on “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
Roughly 2 million transgender people live in the United States, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, which condemned Trump’s order Monday.
Kelley Robinson, the organization’s president, criticized Trump in a statement for “taking aim at the LGBTQ+ community instead of uniting our country and prioritizing the pressing issues the American people are facing.”
Among the dozens of previous Biden administration orders, Trump reversed Biden actions titled “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis” and “Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.”
Environmental advocates denounced Trump’s executive orders. The Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement that Trump’s order for withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement “shows how threatened Trump is by the recent global compact to transition away from fossil fuels.”
“While Trump buries his head in the sand, it’s going to be up to state leaders to lock eyes on the climate crisis and lead us toward a livable future,” the statement said.
Incoming White House officials also teased orders taking down Biden-era environmental initiatives, including declaring an energy emergency, opening the Alaska wilderness for energy development and nixing energy standards for household appliances. They had not yet been released Monday night.
TikTok
Later Monday evening in the Oval Office, Trump signed an order giving TikTok an extra 75 days to find a new owner. The order instructs the Department of Justice to ignore enforcing a federal law that required TikTok to separate from its China ties by Jan. 19.
“The unfortunate timing of (the law) — one day before I took office as the 47th President of the United States — interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications of the Act’s prohibitions before they take effect,” Trump’s order stated.
The popular video sharing app used by approximately 170 million Americans briefly went dark overnight Saturday into Sunday. A message to users read, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
A federal law mandated that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance divest from the video sharing platform by the deadline when it became illegal for U.S. companies to distribute or maintain the app. Companies that don’t comply face fines up $5,000 per user.
Trump’s position is a reversal of his support for a ban in 2020.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I guess I didn’t have originally,” he told reporters in the Oval Office Monday night.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was among the attendees at Trump’s inauguration, and the company sponsored an inauguration eve party in downtown D.C., Reuters reported.
Some lawmakers want to see the law enforced now. In a statement Sunday, Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska warned that companies who ignore the deadline could “face ruinous bankruptcy.”
“Now that the law has taken effect there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension,’ of its effective date” they wrote.
A long campaign of promises
Trump told a packed arena in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the inauguration that they were “going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy, lots of them.”
Trump said he would “act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country.”
As a candidate and Republican presidential nominee, Trump promised his supporters that on day one he would launch a mass deportation of immigrants, end Russia’s war on Ukraine, and pardon those convicted and who pleaded guilty to crimes committed during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
In one of his last actions in office, Biden issued preemptive pardons for lawmakers and staff who served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as the police officers who testified before the panel.
