Last Monday, on Martin Luther King Day, Donald J Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States in an indoor inauguration event in Washington DC. Within minutes of taking the oath of office, the new president announced a swath of Executive Orders, many of which now face legal challenges. The Executive Orders appear to mirror the designs in Project 2025 including an immediate closure of the Southern Border of the US, automatic denials for all amnesty and refugee requests and sweeping cancellations of long-held appointments and information services for those seeking entrance into the US.
The list of orders is truly baffling and include measures to restrict public protest, unravel critical climate protections and violate civil liberties to whole groups of people residing in the United States.
The Orders comprise only one strand in attempts to make many sweeping changes at the Federal level, in stark contrast to the Biden Administration’s priorities and with a hard right leaning that some describe as a path to authoritarian capitalism as the rule of law in the United States. One example includes the immediate creation of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to be run by Elon Musk, the richest person in the world. The aim of the new department will be to trim budgets through the shrinking of Federal agencies and cancellation of programs. Other Orders included the cancellation of all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and placement of all staff on paid Administrative Leave. This is an addition to the absolving of gender affirming policies for incarcerated people, narrow gender definitions echoing far right, anti-LBGTQ values.
The chilling, bomb-like effect of Trump’s Executive Orders and radical agenda could be felt around the world, especially with the reversal of policies barring supplies of weapons to known perpetrators of genocide in Israel and the withdrawal of US membership in the World Health Organization. Now, as Trump presents his agenda at the World Economic Forum, making promises to end nuclear engagement between the US, China, and Russia and a swift end to the War in Ukraine, his America-First priorities will be revealed on a global stage.
Already, a huge wave of legal challenges have hit the courts, one of which has already blocked Trumps illegal and rash order to remove birthright citizenship.
