Nothing will stand in our way. With these words, United States President Donald Trump described how his second term in the White House would be different from his first. As the New York Times points out, in his 29-minute inaugural address, he wasted no time in invoking lofty American ideals, but instead warned domestic and foreign audiences that America under the more experienced Trump would not take no for an answer.
Trump's series of executive orders aims to send a message that this time the chaotic disruptions that marked his first term will be combined with faster and more disciplined implementation, the Times estimates.
Freedom for the Capitol attackers
As a result of one of his orders, supporters who stormed the Capitol four years ago began to leave prison yesterday. The pardons of 1.500 defendants approved by the Republican president on Monday night, just hours after he was sworn in, have angered lawmakers who were threatened, as well as some of the 140 police officers injured during the attack on January 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory.
“I was betrayed by my own country,” Michael Fannon, a former Washington police officer who was seriously injured during the riots, told CNN. “Tonight, the six people who attacked me while I, along with hundreds of other police officers, were doing my job on January 6th, will be free.”
Trump's pardons included people who had committed only minor offenses, such as trespassing, but also those who had attacked police officers, as well as a much smaller group who had planned an attack on democracy, according to Reuters.
White House spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt defended Trump's pardons, claiming, without evidence, that many of the convictions were politically motivated. "President Trump campaigned on this promise," she told Fox News. "It should come as no surprise that he delivered on that promise on day one."
Among those to be released are leaders of the right-wing Proud Boys organization, including some convicted of conspiracy to commit sedition.
Trump's pardon was just one of a series of decrees he signed after his inauguration ceremony in the Rotunda of the United States, which his supporters demolished four years ago.
He said he would end an era in which the world exploited American generosity, empowering the “Foreign Revenue Service” to “impose tariffs and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”
After falsely claiming that China controlled the Panama Canal, he promised to "give it back," prompting a sharp reaction from the Panamanian president, who told him he would not give up the canal.
Exiting the WHO and the climate agreement
He has launched a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, signaled his intention to challenge the constitutional principle of birthright citizenship, cut support for wind power and electric vehicles, and cleared the way for oil drilling in the Arctic and coastal areas. He has postponed a ban on the popular app TikTok, which was scheduled to be shut down in the United States on Sunday. He has also withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization.
"The World Health Organization has ripped us off, everyone is taking advantage of the United States. That will no longer be the case," Trump said when signing the executive order to withdraw.
The WHO said yesterday it regretted the decision by its largest donor country. “We hope that the US will reconsider this decision and we really hope for a constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, both Americans and people around the world,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
The decision leaves a 12-month deadline for the US to withdraw from the UN health agency and stop all financial contributions to its work. The US is by far the largest funder of the WHO, accounting for 18% of the organization's total budget. The WHO's latest two-year budget for 2024-2025 is $6,8 billion.
The US withdrawal is likely to jeopardize programs across the organization, according to several experts inside and outside the WHO, especially those dealing with the fight against tuberculosis, the world's biggest killer among infectious diseases, as well as HIV/AIDS and other health emergencies.
The US president also immediately declared on Monday that the global minimum corporate tax agreement “has no force or effect” in the US, effectively withdrawing America from the key 2021 deal, which the Biden administration negotiated with nearly 140 countries.
In the presidential memorandum, Trump also directed the US Treasury Department to prepare options for "safeguard measures" against countries that have introduced - or are likely to introduce - tax regulations that disproportionately affect US companies.
The European Union, Britain and other countries have adopted a global minimum corporate tax of 15%, but the US Congress has never approved measures to bring the US into line with that agreement. The US currently has a global minimum tax of about 10%, part of Trump's significant 2017 tax cut package approved by Republicans.
However, countries that have adopted a global minimum tax of 15% may be in a position to levy additional taxes on American companies that pay a lower rate. Trump's executive order calls such actions "retaliation."
Power through domination and fear
On foreign policy, Trump has clearly announced the return of a powerful America that does not focus on maintaining a rules-based international order or carefully nurturing a network of allies, which most of his predecessors considered one of America's most valuable resources. Instead, he described a renewed country that achieves its power through economic dominance and fear, the Times points out. During a press conference in the Oval Office, Trump improvised foreign policy announcements. He confirmed the demand that NATO members more than double their promised defense spending to 5% of GDP. That is impossible for allies facing economic difficulties and trying to finance huge social protection systems. CNN states that this is probably a negotiating tactic since the United States does not spend that much either, but it is certain that Europe has once again found itself in Trump's focus.
Trump also tried to launch an "auction" for his first foreign visit, saying that Saudi Arabia or any other country that spends $500 million on American goods could be at the top of the list.
After his campaign promise to resolve the conflict in Ukraine on his first day in the White House, Trump said he was planning to meet with the Russian president but did not specify a date, saying that "by not agreeing to a deal, Putin is destroying Russia."
According to the Times, there has always been a conflict of sorts between Donald Trump, who wants to expand America's influence and bend the world to his will, and Donald Trump, who claims to want to stay out of unnecessary wars and win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end conflicts around the world.
His administration will be made up of both camps. Former neoconservatives, such as Marco Rubio, the Florida senator Trump picked to lead the State Department, are calling for America to stand up to China and do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Commenting on the conflict in Ukraine, Rubio said it would be “complicated ... because each side will have to make some concessions.”
“The only way conflicts like this end is not through public statements,” Rubio said. “They end through the hard, dynamic diplomacy that the United States is trying to engage in, with the goal of ending this conflict in a sustainable way, in a way that ensures the security of Ukraine and our partners in the region, but also stops the killing, the dying, and the destruction that we have been witnessing for some time.” Speaking at the White House after being sworn in, Rubio pledged to implement Trump’s foreign policy of “promoting the national interest of this country.” He added that another foreign policy goal under the Trump administration would be “promoting peace. Of course, peace through strength, peace, but always without giving up on our values.”
Skeptics on the Ukraine issue, such as Vice President J.D. Vance, argue that America has other priorities besides resolving the conflict between Russia and the former Soviet republics.
Confronting the “deep state”
Trump has sent clear warning signals to those he has long considered the “deep state” that opposes his agenda. Hours after he was sworn in, a portrait of General Mark A. Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was removed from the wall outside his former office at the Pentagon. It was General Milley who had stood up to Trump, refusing to use the military to suppress Black Lives Matter protests and reminding his soldiers that they are sworn to the Constitution, not, as he put it at a farewell ceremony, “a dictator in the making.” Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Milley on Monday morning in an effort to protect him from possible prosecution.
This was a reminder to everyone left in the building, whether at the State Department, the Justice Department or the intelligence agencies, that the rules had changed. At the State Department and the FBI, key career officials had surrendered their credentials in recent days, rather than waiting to be fired.
The establishment figures Trump tapped eight years ago for his cabinet, believing they would lend legitimacy and competence to his new administration, have all but disappeared. Instead, he is relying on outsiders like Elon Musk, as well as his picks to lead the Pentagon and the FBI — Pete Hegsett and Kash Patel, both of whom have promised to fundamentally reform those institutions.
Not all of Trump's opponents have remained silent. Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman who Trump has said should face a military tribunal for her role in the House investigation into the January 6 attack, has hit back after he called her a "crybaby lunatic" in his post-inaugural speech.
His comments, in which he falsely accused the board of destroying evidence, were, she wrote, “a reminder that neither lies, nor the liar who tells them, get better with age.”
"Don't forget Trump's character," added Cheney, who was also preemptively pardoned by Biden on Monday. "He sat in his dining room and watched on television as his supporters stormed our Capitol and brutally attacked police officers. For hours he refused to call on the crowd to retreat. The truth will never change."
Legal battle against decree begins
Democratic states and civil rights groups have filed the first lawsuits against executive orders signed by Trump after taking office, including one that seeks to end the right to birthright citizenship in the United States.
A coalition of 18 Democratic-led states, along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Tuesday, arguing that Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship is a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit follows two similar lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an immigrant and pregnancy rights organization, just hours after Trump signed the executive order, marking the first major legal challenge to parts of his agenda.
"State prosecutors have been preparing for illegal moves like this, and today's emergency lawsuit sends a clear message to the Donald Trump administration that we will fight for our citizens and their basic constitutional rights," said New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
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