Following the official inauguration of the 47th US President Donald Trump and the swearing-in of Vice President JD Vance, the White House released a programme of domestic policy priorities.
The Trump administration plans to scrap former President Joe Biden’s policy of releasing captured migrants. Instead, the government will reinstate the Remain in Mexico programme introduced by Trump in 2019.
Trump also plans to bring in the Armed Forces and National Guard to secure the borders and combat asylum for criminals. Additionally, cartels, including Tren de Aragua, will be recognised as foreign terrorist organisations.
Among other orders issued on Monday, the president signed a comprehensive executive order on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure sufficient lethal injection drugs are available for executions. After Biden recently commuted 37 death sentences to life in prison, only three defendants remain on death row.
The Government’s most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens.
Climate and industry
Trump also signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement, an international climate change treaty in which nearly 200 countries agreed to work together to limit global warming. However, despite the efforts of the signatory countries, scientists have recorded a warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2024.
In addition to abandoning climate goals, the administration laid out a sweeping plan to maximise oil and gas production, including declaring an energy emergency to expedite permits, repealing environmental protections and withdrawing the US from the international climate change pact.
America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth.
He also signed orders aimed at promoting oil and gas development in Alaska, cancelling Biden’s efforts to protect US Arctic lands and coastal waters from drilling, reversing Biden’s goal to adopt electric vehicles (EVs), suspending wind farm lease sales, and lifting a freeze on LNG export permits.
Censorship and gender
Another executive order signed by Trump ensures that no federal official will facilitate conduct that unconstitutionally restricts the free speech of any American citizen, including online censorship by the government.
After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.
Over the past 4 years, the Biden administration has encroached on free expression by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often putting significant coercive pressure on third parties such as social media companies to moderate, remove from the platform, or otherwise suppress speech that the federal government did not approve of.
Trump also signed executive orders declaring that the US government would recognise only two genders, male and female. The president will thus end “radical and wasteful” diversity, equality and inclusion programmes in federal agencies.
The administrative sphere will see a hiring freeze, except for important positions. Trump promised to “terminate federal staffers implementing DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] policies.”
This week I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.
According to a December 2024 report, the federal government has spent more than $1 billion on DEI grants since 2021.
