#executive orders signed by trump today

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

This is Trump's plans, he wants to sow confusion and chaos in order to assert control when people are disorganized and unable to mount resistance. Don't lose control and keep a calm head, don't get distracted by a dozen different issues a focus on a core 2 to 3 issues to you can organize with others. Stay strong everyone, we're going through dark times but we can't break not now or give up. Love you all, please don't lose hope.

[leepacey]

i watched the livestream of trump signing executive orders and answering questions from the press. here are some of the big ones + other things mentioned today:

trump declared a national emergency at the southern border + is getting the US military more involved in stopping "invasions including mass migration"

no one can declare asylum in the US

all existing appointments for people wanting to legally become US citizens are canceled

birthright citizenship (aka the 14th amendment) is now gone

ICE sweeps beginning "soon," not specifying when (though there are rumors it's starting tomorrow in sanctuary cities such as chicago)

mexican cartels are now designated "foreign terrorist organizations" and trump is not opposed to US troops entering mexico to eliminate them

he restored the death penalty for "crimes committed by illegal aliens"

biden had signed an executive order attempting to stop cops from using chokeholds or doing no-knock warrants. trump just revoked that order

25% tariffs on canada and mexico begin on feb 1 2025 — expect a lot of produce imported from mexico to get more expensive soon

tariffs on china will begin soon, not specified when

trump said he intends to take back the panama canal, did not specify when or how

january 6 insurrectionists are to be immediately released/pardoned

he pardoned the leader of the proud boys

tiktok has a 90 day extension, during which the US gov will try to buy 50% of tiktok. trump said he no longer cares that china is "spying on our young people," but he wants to buy half of tiktok so the US government "can police it a little bit, or a lot." if tiktok will not sell, it will be banned in the US again.

he claims the people of greenland want to become part of the US

he says the gulf of mexico is now to be called the "gulf of america" + denali is now to be called "mount mckinley"

alaska is to be mined and become the US' main source for fossil fuels

the green new deal and "electric vehicle" (green energy) mandates are over

the US has withdrawn from the paris climate agreement

the US has withdrawn from the world health organization

reproductiverights.gov is already gone

the US now "only recognizes two genders, male and female"

trans women prisoners are to be housed in male prisons; gender affirming care for prisoners is gone

self-identification for gender on passports, government IDs, and social security cards is gone

all federal employees are required to work in the office five days a week, no more working from home

trump said the US is going to "pursue our manifest destiny into the stars" and plant a US flag on mars

sources on what executive orders were signed: one two three

and lastly, some things that happened during the inauguration:

the pastor who blessed the inauguration during the swearing in ceremony has already announced a new meme coin/cryptocurrency

trump did not put his hand on the bible + there are rumors the pope is going to say trump is the antichrist

the wealthiest people on the planet — the CEOs of twitter/tesla, amazon, google, meta, and even the CEO of tiktok — who own almost all communication platforms used by westerners — stood directly behind trump as he was sworn in

elon musk, the wealthiest person alive, who has been given his own vaguely-defined US government agency, did a nazi salute on stage at the presidential podium. neo-nazis are already celebrating

[politicsusa]

One of Trump’s First Moves as POTUS? Raising Drug Prices Again.

Well, we are officially once again in the era of President Donald Trump. After winning the Presidential election in November for the second time and months of preparation and all sorts of implications for what we were in for in the coming years, Trump has wasted no time in leaving his mark as soon as he took office.

Let’s set the stage, shall we?

Read more

[listen-to-my-eyes]

it’s crazy that half the country thinks that it’s becoming a facist hellhole while the other half is expecting a golden age. the political system is at its best dividing us into groups against each other

[lookforanewangle]

The executive orders revoked/rescinded (every single one of them originally signed by Biden during his term) can be seen here in section 2.

[vicetrevni]

UPDATE:

As of 1/31/2025, Trump's efforts to try and freeze funding for any/all benefits (including Medicaid) had been halted. Despite him signing the Executive Order, he does not have the power to halt such funding and as such this (along with a lot of other executive orders he's trying to implement) are being investigated.

I genuinely hope he gets impeached for this, because other countries are signaling the alarms that the US is now in the 'red zone' (i.e. our country is now considered a global *and* internal threat).

(( initial talk about this is under 'keep reading' ))

Trump just froze funding for any/all benefits, including disability and food stamps. And any funding for medicaid.

If you already have benefits, it seems like you may be fine from this (some saying they are getting cut off while others aren't - it's unclear right now). But any new applications after today (January 28th at 5pm) will be automatically DENIED.

And if you have Medicaid, regardless if you already have it or not, say goodbye to getting any/all meds you need unless you are willing to pay out of pocket for them.

So in the coming days/weeks/months if you see someone stealing *anything* while you're out shopping, YOU SAW NOTHING. Just mind your business, and move on with your day.

Trust me, it is not worth a person's life to report them.

[qwsxzzz]

Is the US No Longer the "Boss"? Trump Keeps Withdrawing from International Agreements and Organizations, Showing No Respect to the United Nations

Under the "America First" strategy, successive US presidents have increasingly felt that the United Nations has become something of an obstacle to the US, preventing it from acting according to its own rhythm in many cases. Therefore, after taking office, Trump decided to "cut the Gordian knot".

Trump's Rash Withdrawals and Breaches of Agreements

According to huanqiu.com, Trump has publicly questioned the efficiency of the United Nations on many occasions, even regarding it as a place where people talk more than they get things done. He criticized, "The United Nations has potential, but it really doesn't work well." His sharp words are very much in line with his maverick style, and also reveal his merciless criticism of this international organization.

Therefore, he signed a series of executive orders to lead the US to "withdraw from groups": quitting the Human Rights Council, UNESCO, and cutting off any financial support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. When announcing these decisions, it seemed that the US had lost patience with the United Nations, and Trump intended to force this international institution to reform through his actions.

However, the United Nations did not sit around and wait for doom. Secretary-General Guterres, through his spokesman, made it clear that they have been implementing various reforms to improve the organization's efficiency. It can be inferred from the secretary-general's remarks that despite the pressure from the US, the United Nations still hopes to maintain a constructive relationship with the US.

Russian Foreign Minister Exposes the True Face of the US

Trump's crazy actions have enabled Russia to keenly perceive the opportunities therein. The criticism of this maverick US president by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov seems to be a rebuke on the surface, but in fact it is a clever leveraging in diplomatic games.

Multipolarity is an undeniable trend in today's world, and the status of various countries in international affairs is becoming more and more balanced. However, in this "chorus", the US seems somewhat reluctant to give up its leading role. To some extent, the Trump administration's radical strategy can be said to be a reluctance to face the growing influence of other countries, especially emerging powers like China and Russia.

Lavrov sarcastically said that such unilateral actions by the US are tantamount to "upsetting the table" and breaking the balance in the global governance system. After all, the international system with the United Nations at its core was established after numerous difficult explorations after World War II.

In this regard, Russia obviously doesn't want to miss any opportunity to weaken the influence of the US. By means of sarcasm and refutation, it has shifted the focus to the role played by the US in international cooperation. This can be described as killing two birds with one stone: criticizing the US and trying to gain more say in the trend of multipolarity.

[cleoselene]

from facebook of all places

posted by Jay Michaelson, and sourced by him as well:

Hello! I'm posting in response to the many sincerely anguished claims that not enough is being done to stop Trump. This is not reflected in the facts. - Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and State Democracy Defenders Fund, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) filed suit on Monday against the Treasury Department “for sharing confidential data with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by Elon Musk.” Go to Public Citizen's website to learn all about this lawsuit, which is very likely to prevail. - On USAID, appearing with other Democratic lawmakers outside USAID offices on Monday, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) shouted, “Elon Musk, you didn't create USAID. The United States Congress did for the American people … like Elon Musk did not create USAID, he doesn't have the power to destroy it. And who's going to stop him? We are... This a constitutional crisis that we are in today.” Lawsuits have also been filed in this matter, and are also likely to prevail. - Hakeem Jeffries has announced lawsuits have been filed regarding the firings of inspectors general. - On Jan 21, Democracy Forward, was filed at 12:01 p.m. ET on Monday and accused Elon Musk's DOGE of being a "shadow operation led by unelected billionaires" that flouts federal transparency rules. That should win. - National Security Counselors filed a suit arguing that DOGE meets the requirements to be a federal advisory committee and is therefore legally required to have "fairly balanced" representation, keep regular minutes of meetings and allow public access to meetings. Clearly accurate. - Eighteen state attorneys general and a slew of immigrants' rights groups brought swift legal action against Trump after he signed his executive order seeking to ban birthright citizenship for some children born in the U.S., arguing that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Obviously, clearly unconstitutional. - "Schedule F" has been challenged in court by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees in 37 agencies and departments. - Several immigrant rights groups in the United States, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s ban on asylum claims. - GLAD Law and the National Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR) have sued to stop Trump's ban on trans people in the military. And there are many more - I'll link to a great list of them in the comments. Yes, there are Trump judges in the courts, and if Aileen Cannon types get these cases, Trump may prevail. But most judges are not like her. These actions are clearly illegal and/or unconstitutional, and they WILL be stopped. Just like the tariffs were not meant to prevail -- Trump won that round, "forcing" Canada and Mexico to take "action" on fentanyl -- these actions are not meant to prevail. They're meant to flood the zone with shit, confuse and immobilize us. They said they'd do "Shock and Awe" and that's what they've done. Nothing here should be surprising. Shock and Awe is up to YOU. I am not shocked, I am not in awe. Oh, and the "mainstream media" has reported on all of these. The info above has come from Newsweek, the NY Times, and other mainstream sources. Please stop attacking journalists when we are being threatened by the FBI. Who do you think you're helping by doing that? Stop it with the doomsaying and gloomsaying. Want to make a difference? Give thousands of dollars to Public Citizen, the ACLU, and similar groups. Show up at marches. Put your ass on the line and help protect people from ICE. If you're safe, do simple symbolic things (like changing your social media pictures) to support people who are not safe. Just like we should not obey in advance, we should not panic in advance either. This is not the end of democracy. That is just what the bad guys want you to think. Get over it and fight.

I don't know how many times I've heard "Dems do nothing!" when they are in fact doing a lot of things. You just don't hear about it because the mainstream news doesn't pay attention or you don't see out news beyond your social media feeds.

The other thing is, Dems don't break laws in their fights the way Republicans do. Your desire to turn every Dem POTUS into the Dick Cheney Version of the Executive but then screaming injustice! when the GOP does it -- you see the problem there?

[saywhat-politics]

Today, President Trump rescinded Executive Order 14087 signed by former President Biden in October 2022.

What did Executive Order 14087 do?

It lowered drug costs for Americans on Medicare and Medicaid—working class Americans.

This only benefits big pharma.

[deadpresidents]

President Trump took action to "protect civil rights" today by rescinding Executive Order 11246, which was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in September 1965.

Just to be clear, the Executive Order signed by LBJ -- who did more for Civil Rights than any other President including possibly Abraham Lincoln -- nearly 60 years ago, prohibited government contractors from, and this is an exact quote from the Executive Order: "discriminat[ing] against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin" and ordered that government contractors "will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin". It also ordered that government contractors would be required to "in all solicitations or advertisements for employees placed by or on behalf of the contractor, state that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin."

By rescinding that Executive Order today, Trump -- who was sworn in on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, by the way -- is effectively clearing the way, in 2025, for government contractors to discriminate against people because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. This government, which was elected by a majority of Americans in November, is rolling back the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

Oh, and don't forget that Trump also instructed federal employees today that there would be "adverse consequences" if they did not "inform on colleagues trying to dodge" the Trump Administration's crackdown on diversity. So there's also a culture of fear being built into following these (now legally protected) discriminatory practices.

This has always been the country we live in. People have been looking for permission to be okay with it -- and your fellow Americans gave that permission in November when they re-elected Donald Trump. He never hid what he was going to do this week, and we allowed it to happen. Another disgusting day in America.

[todaysbird]

Not to drag your blog off topic but what are you referencing with the legal name change? I try to search it up but I'm only getting old stuff.

today Trump signed an executive order declaring there are only two sexes, and they are determined at birth, leaving a lot of folks wondering where that will leave them

[tieflingkisser]

I Saw the TV Glow's nonbinary star changes name to Jack Haven

The Atypical actor's public announcement comes one day after President Trump declared that trans people don't exist.

The nonbinary star of I Saw the TV Glow has changed their name. The actor formerly known as Brigette Lundy-Paine has announced that they are changing their name to Jack Haven. As they shared in a social media post, the name is a nod to a relative, Haven Gillespie, who cowrote a popular holiday song. "Haven is after my great great uncle, Haven Gillespie who was a songwriter known for the xmas hit 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town,' which he wrote on the subway in 15 minutes. and first name Jack has stuck," Haven wrote on Instagram. "Two years ago in a workshop led by @saman_arastoo I began using this name. I said I was using it in safe spaces. Saman said use it in dangerous spaces. So I use it in the mens bathroom." Haven's announcement comes one day after President Trump declared, "As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female," in his inauguration speech. Trump also signed an executive order declaring that the federal government will only "recognize two sexes, male and female" and that "these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality." Haven, who is known for starring in the Netflix series Atypical, came out as nonbinary and announced they use they/them pronouns back in 2019.Haven had a breakout year in 2024, starring in the trans horror film I Saw the TV Glow, which earned them nominations for the Gotham Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Dorian Awards, and several other honors.

[batboyblog]

Trump revoked the 1965 Executive Order (EO 11246), signed by President Johnson, that prohibited discriminatory practices in hiring and employment in government contracting. Since the Federal Government employs huge numbers of contractors EOs like this 1965 one are a powerful tool to influence the labor market, President Biden signed EOs (now also revoked) insisting on a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage and prioritizing unionized businesses.

In the 1980s President Reagan also wanted to get rid of EO 11246, but was told by leaders in Congress if he did they'd pass it into law with veto proof majorities. Today Republicans in Congress are much more racist than their 1980s counterparts and support allowing discrimination in federal hiring.

[mariacallous]

Rhetoric has a history. The words democracy and tyranny were debated in ancient Greece; the phrase separation of powers became important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The word vermin, as a political term, dates from the 1930s and ’40s, when both fascists and communists liked to describe their political enemies as vermin, parasites, and blood infections, as well as insects, weeds, dirt, and animals. The term has been revived and reanimated, in an American presidential campaign, with Donald Trump’s description of his opponents as “radical-left thugs” who “live like vermin.”

This language isn’t merely ugly or repellant: These words belong to a particular tradition. Adolf Hitler used these kinds of terms often. In 1938, he praised his compatriots who had helped “cleanse Germany of all those parasites who drank at the well of the despair of the Fatherland and the People.” In occupied Warsaw, a 1941 poster displayed a drawing of a louse with a caricature of a Jewish face. The slogan: “Jews are lice: they cause typhus.” Germans, by contrast, were clean, pure, healthy, and vermin-free. Hitler once described the Nazi flag as “the victorious sign of freedom and the purity of our blood.”

Stalin used the same kind of language at about the same time. He called his opponents the “enemies of the people,” implying that they were not citizens and that they enjoyed no rights. He portrayed them as vermin, pollution, filth that had to be “subjected to ongoing purification,” and he inspired his fellow communists to employ similar rhetoric. In my files, I have the notes from a 1955 meeting of the leaders of the Stasi, the East German secret police, during which one of them called for a struggle against “vermin activities” (there is, inevitably, a German word for this: Schädlingstätigkeiten), by which he meant the purge and arrest of the regime’s critics. In this same era, the Stasi forcibly moved suspicious people away from the border with West Germany, a project nicknamed “Operation Vermin.”

This kind of language was not limited to Europe. Mao Zedong also described his political opponents as “poisonous weeds.” Pol Pot spoke of “cleansing” hundreds of thousands of his compatriots so that Cambodia would be “purified.”

In each of these very different societies, the purpose of this kind of rhetoric was the same. If you connect your opponents with disease, illness, and poisoned blood, if you dehumanize them as insects or animals, if you speak of squashing them or cleansing them as if they were pests or bacteria, then you can much more easily arrest them, deprive them of rights, exclude them, or even kill them. If they are parasites, they aren’t human. If they are vermin, they don’t get to enjoy freedom of speech, or freedoms of any kind. And if you squash them, you won’t be held accountable.

Until recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace’s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” But he did not speak of his political opponents as “vermin” or talk about them poisoning the nation’s blood. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps following the outbreak of World War II, spoke of “alien enemies” but not parasites.

In the 2024 campaign, that line has been crossed. Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants—the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country” and “They’re destroying the blood of our country.” He has claimed that many have “bad genes.” He has also been more explicit: “They’re not humans; they’re animals”; they are “cold-blooded killers.” He refers more broadly to his opponents—American citizens, some of whom are elected officials—as “the enemy from within … sick people, radical-left lunatics.” Not only do they have no rights; they should be “handled by,” he has said, “if necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

In using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes. “I haven’t read Mein Kampf,” he declared, unprovoked, during one rally—an admission that he knows what Hitler’s manifesto contains, whether or not he has actually read it. “If you don’t use certain rhetoric,” he told an interviewer, “if you don’t use certain words, and maybe they’re not very nice words, nothing will happen.”

His talk of mass deportation is equally calculating. When he suggests that he would target both legal and illegal immigrants, or use the military arbitrarily against U.S. citizens, he does so knowing that past dictatorships have used public displays of violence to build popular support. By calling for mass violence, he hints at his admiration for these dictatorships but also demonstrates disdain for the rule of law and prepares his followers to accept the idea that his regime could, like its predecessors, break the law with impunity.

These are not jokes, and Trump is not laughing. Nor are the people around him. Delegates at the Republican National Convention held up prefabricated signs: Mass Deportation Now. Just this week, when Trump was swaying to music at a surreal rally, he did so in front of a huge slogan: Trump Was Right About Everything. This is language borrowed directly from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist. Soon after the rally, the scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted a photograph of a building in Mussolini’s Italy displaying his slogan: Mussolini Is Always Right.

These phrases have not been put on posters and banners at random in the final weeks of an American election season. With less than three weeks left to go, most candidates would be fighting for the middle ground, for the swing voters. Trump is doing the exact opposite. Why? There can be only one answer: because he and his campaign team believe that by using the tactics of the 1930s, they can win. The deliberate dehumanization of whole groups of people; the references to police, to violence, to the “bloodbath” that Trump has said will unfold if he doesn’t win; the cultivation of hatred not only against immigrants but also against political opponents—none of this has been used successfully in modern American politics.

But neither has this rhetoric been tried in modern American politics. Several generations of American politicians have assumed that American voters, most of whom learned to pledge allegiance to the flag in school, grew up with the rule of law, and have never experienced occupation or invasion, would be resistant to this kind of language and imagery. Trump is gambling—knowingly and cynically—that we are not.

[directactionforhope]

"On his first day back in the White House, president Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, including rescinding Biden-era executive actions and withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord.

Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during his campaign that he would be a dictator only on “day one” and use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.

“After that, I’m not a dictator,” he said.

As executive orders rolled in on Monday, the accelerated pace amounted to a shock-and-awe campaign. Trump promised in his inaugural speech that these orders would amount to a “complete restoration of America”.

Here’s what we know so far about themost significant executive orders and actions Trump signed on Monday.

Ending birthright citizenship

The order: Along with a slew of immigration-focused orders, Trump is targeting automatic citizenship for US-born children of immigrants in the country illegally, to begin 30 days from today.

What Trump said: The order specifies that it would limit birthright citizenship if a person’s “mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth”, or “when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary”.

What it means: Birthright citizenship, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on US soil, is protected by the 14th amendment and any attempt to revoke it will likely bring immediate legal challenges. The order attempts to deny documents recognizing US citizenship for individuals who meet that criteria and are born in the US 30 days after the order was signed.

-via The Guardian, January 20, 2025. Article continues below.

Leaving the World Health Organization

The order: Trump signed an order to have the US exit the World Health Organization (WHO).

What Trump said: “World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing. He accused the WHO mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

What it means: The US will leave the WHO in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work. The US is biggest financial backer to the United Nations health agency.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico

The order: Trump ordered two name changes: the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Mount Denali.

What Trump said: “President Trump is bringing common sense to government and renewing the pillars of American Civilization,” the executive order said in part.

What it means: Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the “Gulf of America”, something he promised earlier this month at a press conference. He will rechristen Alaska’s Mount Denali as Mount McKinley, a change first made by former president Barack Obama in 2015 to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives as well as the preference of many Alaska residents.

It will have no bearing on what names are used internationally.

Revoking electric vehicle targets

The order: Trump revoked a non-binding executive order signed by Biden aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric.

What Trump said: “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said on Monday afternoon.

What it means: Part of an effort to repeal Biden’s environmental protections, Trump has also promised to roll back auto pollution standards finalized by Biden’s administration last spring.

Reclassifying federal employees, making them easier to fire

The order: Trump’s executive order reclassified thousands of federal employees as political hires, making it much easier for them to be fired.

What Trump said: Aides to the president have long heralded mass government firings as part of an attack on the so-called “administrative” or “deep” state.

What it means: Trump effectively reinstates “Schedule F”, an executive order he signed in the last year of his first term, seeking to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers. (Biden rescinded the order.)

Key aides to Trump have called for mass government firings. Project 2025 made attacks on the deep or administrative state a core part of Trump’s second term. The rightwing playbook called for civil servants deemed politically unreliable to be fired and replaced by conservatives.

Declaring a national energy emergency

The order: Trump declared a national energy emergency as part of a barrage of pro-fossil fuel actions and efforts to “unleash” already booming US energy production that included also rolling back restrictions in drilling in Alaska and undoing a pause on gas exports.

What Trump said: The order means “you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem and we do have that kind of emergency,” Trump said at the White House late on Monday.

What it means: The declaration would allow his administration to fast-track permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure. It is likely that the order, part of a broader effort to roll back climate policy, will face legal challenges.

Creating a policy recognizing only two genders

The order: Trump signed an order to remove “gender ideology guidance” from federal government communication, policies and forms. The order makes it official policy that there are “only two genders, male and female”.

What Trump said: “Agencies will cease pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination,” the order states.

What it means: The order reverses a Biden-era executive action on the acceptance of gender identity.

Pausing the TikTok ban

The order: Trump signed an executive order temporarily delaying the enforcement of a federal ban on TikTok for at least 75 days.

What Trump said: “I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” Trump said at the White House, as he signed executive orders according to the New York Times.

What it means: Trump ordered his attorney general to not enforce the law requiring TikTok’s sale. Trump says the pause allows for time to chart an “appropriate course forward” to protect national security and not abruptly shut down the popular app. In his first term, Trump favored a TikTok ban, but has since changed his position due to factors including his own popularity on the app.

Rescinding 78 Biden-era executive actions

The order: Trump ordered 78 Biden-era executive actions to be rescinded, including at least a dozen measures supporting racial equity and combating discrimination against gay and transgender people.

What Trump said: “I’ll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration,” Trump told a crowd in Washington after his inaugural speech. He also said he would end policy “trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life” and push for a “color blind and merit-based” society.

What it means: The orders signal a reversal of Biden-era policy that prioritized implementing diversity measures across the federal government. Trump repealed orders signed by Biden advancing racial equity for underserved communities and the aforementioned order combating discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Declaring a national border emergency

The order: Trump signed an order at the White House declaring an emergency at the southern US border, along with several other immigration-related policies.

What Trump said: “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 in his inauguration speech.

What it means: The executive action paves the way to send US troops to the southern border and makes good on campaign promises to implement hardline immigration policies. There are limited details about how the administration planned to execute its sprawling set of immigration actions that were all but certain to face legal and logistical challenges.

Immigrant communities across the country are bracing for Trump’s promise to carry out the “largest deportation program in American history”, beginning as early as Tuesday morning.

Issuing pardons for January 6 defendants

The order: Trump issued pardons for offenders and commutations related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He will direct the Department of Justice to dismiss cases currently in progress.

What Trump said: “I’m going to be signing on the J6 hostages, pardons, to get them out,” Trump said during his rally speech. “We’ll be signing pardons for a lot of people, a lot of people.” Trump said he has pardoned about 1,500 defendants charged in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and issued six commutations.

What it means: Trump made his pledge to issue pardons for those with convictions related to the January 6 Capitol attack a core part of his re-election campaign. On the campaign trail, Trump often featured the national anthem sung by prisoners in a Washington DC jail. There are more than 1,500 people federally charged with associated charges.

With Trump back in the White House, justice department investigations into January 6 crimes are expected to cease.

Withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement

The order: Trump issued executive action withdrawing the US from the 2015 Paris agreement, along with a letter informing the United Nations of the decision.

What Trump said: “I am immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip off” Trump said during a rally at the Capital One Arena. In his inaugural speech, Trump said he would use executive action to “end the Green New Deal”.

What it means: In 2017, Trump exited the Paris agreement. Upon taking office in 2021, Biden rejoined. Monday’s order makes good on a Trump election promise to withdraw from the 2015 global treaty seeking to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

Exiting the Paris agreement is part of Trump’s broader efforts to roll back climate protections and policy. Trump has described Biden’s efforts to grow the US’s clean energy sector as “the green new scam”.

-via The Guardian, January 20, 2025

[contemplatingoutlander]

Many of the so-called "Christians" who support Trump's reign of greed and scapegoating follow the "prosperity gospel." This article by Tara Isabella Burton explains how aspects of three different movements combined to create what is known today as the "prosperity gospel." The three include:

The 19th century New Thought movement, which claimed that if one set one's mind to something, they could manifest it in real life. This aligned with "the quintessentially American idea that the individual was responsible for his or her own happiness, health, and situation in life."

The Calvinist idea of believing that prosperity was a sign from God that one was predestined to be saved, and hard work was a sign of one's virtue, which led to "the valorization of the 'Protestant work ethic.'" According to Burton, this "specifically Protestant approach to labor [was] integral to the development of capitalism and industrialization."

The rise of decentralized "charismatic Pentecostal churches," in the U.S. According to Burton, these Pentecostals held "the idea that God would manifest Himself to the faithful in concrete, miraculous ways in the 'here and now'" through “'spiritual gifts' (or 'charisms,' from which the term 'charismatic' is drawn)." This in turn, combined with the "decentralized" structure of the congregations, led to the peculiar, almost fan-like devotion of congregants to their charismatic Pentecostal leaders, who often engaged in showy displays of their "spiritual gifts."

[See more under the cut.]

According to Burton:

These three strands collided throughout the twentieth century, as the prosperity gospel came into being. It started — like the “work ethic” Max Weber described — as a way to justify why, during the Gilded Age, some people were rich and others poor. (One early prosperity gospel proponent, Baptist preacher Russell H. Conwell, told his mostly-destitute congregation in 1915: “I say you ought to be rich; you have no right to be poor.”) Instead of blaming structural inequality, Conwell and those like him blamed the perceived failures of the individual. [emphasis added]

Burton claims that it is therefore not surprising that today "two of [the prosperity gospel's] major proponents — Paula White and Wayne T. Jackson — were among the six faith leaders invited to pray with Donald Trump at his inauguration."*

Burton points out that although "a 2006 'Times' poll found that 17 percent of American Christians identify explicitly with the movement," that same poll also found that:

31 percent espouse the idea that "if you give your money to God God will bless you with more money.” [Furthermore, a] full 61 percent agree with the more general idea that “God wants people to be prosperous.” [emphasis added]

Still, Burton wonders if it isn't the underlying cultural influences that created the prosperity gospel that contributed to Trump's election:

It’s difficult to say that the prosperity gospel itself led to Donald Trump’s inauguration. Again, only 17 percent of American Christians identify with it explicitly. It’s far more true, however, to say that the same cultural forces that led to the prosperity gospel’s proliferation in America — individualism, an affinity for ostentatious and charismatic leaders, the Protestant work ethic, and a cultural obsession with the power of “positive thinking” — shape how we, as a nation, approach politics. What is our collective approach to health care, after all, if not rooted in a visceral sense that the unlucky are responsible for their own misfortune? What is our willingness to vote a man like Trump into office but a collective cultural reward for those who brand themselves as successful? [emphasis added]

_____________ *It is a noteworthy that when Trump issued an executive order creating a White House Faith Office, it was Paula White, whom Trump named to lead it.