All the executive orders Donald Trump signed during his inauguration parade

All the executive orders Donald Trump signed during his inauguration parade

Executive order directing US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement — again

Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.

Trump’s action, hours after he was sworn in to a second term, echoed his directive in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.

Trump also signed a letter to the United Nations indicating his intention to withdraw from the 2015 agreement, which allows nations to provide targets to cut their own emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Those targets are supposed to become more stringent over time, with countries facing a February 2025 deadline for new individual plans. The outgoing Biden administration last month offered a plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.

Trump’s order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that don’t reflect U.S. values and “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”

Instead of joining a global agreement, “the United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries,” Trump said.

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris accord, called the planned U.S. withdrawal unfortunate but said action to slow climate change “is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies.”

The global context for Trump’s action is “very different to 2017,” Tubiana said Monday, adding that “there is unstoppable economic momentum behind the global transition, which the U.S has gained from and led but now risks forfeiting.”

The International Energy Agency expects the global market for key clean energy technologies to triple to more than $2 trillion by 2035, she said.

“The impacts of the climate crisis are also worsening. The terrible wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest reminder that Americans, like everyone else, are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.

The withdrawal process from the Paris accord takes one year. Trump’s previous withdrawal took effect the day after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden. 

Trump moves to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization – again

Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

It was the second time in less than five years that he’s ordered the country to withdraw from the organization, despite it being a move many scientists fear could roll back decadeslong gains made in fighting infectious diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Experts also warn it could weaken the world’s defenses against dangerous new outbreaks capable of triggering pandemics.

Pardons in the Jan. 6 US Capitol attack

President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including people who assaulted police, using his clemency powers on his first day in office to dismantle the largest investigation and prosecution in Justice Department history.

Among those set to be released from prison are defendants captured on camera committing violent attacks on law enforcement as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups convicted of seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department will also be freed from prison after having their sentences commuted.

Trump is directing the attorney general to seek the dismissal of about 450 pending Jan. 6 cases.

The pardons were expected after Trump’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack that left more than 100 police officers injured and threatened the peaceful transfer of power. Yet the scope of the clemency still comes as a massive blow to the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in American history.

Trump executive order keeps TikTok online for now

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to keep TikTok operating for 90 days, a relief to the social media platform’s users even as national security questions persist.

TikTok’s China-based parent was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned on the previous Sunday. Trump’s order would give them more time to find a buyer.

“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,” Trump says.

Former President Joe Biden declined to enforce the bipartisan measure that he signed into law, while Trump has pledged to keep TikTok open after crediting it for helping his 2024 election victory. Trump’s legal authority to preserve TikTok is unclear under the terms of the law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump says the United States as a country should own half of TikTok, which he estimated could be worth $1 trillion.

“I think the US should be entitled to get half of TikTok and, congratulations, TikTok has a good partner and that would be worth, you know, could be $500 billion,” Trump says.

The president was speaking about the social media platform with a China-based owner as he was signing an order to keep TikTok open so that it can find a potential buyer and avoid being shut down on national security grounds.

Executive action freezing Biden’s action on Cuba

Trump reversed an executive order issued by Biden that moved to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Biden formally notified Congress just last week of his decision to lift the designation as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.

The day after the announcement, Cuba began releasing people who were convicted of various crimes, including some who were arrested after taking part in the historic 2021 protests, according to Cuban civil groups following the cases of detainees on the island.Biden moves to lift state sponsor of terrorism designation for Cuba, part of deal to free prisoners

Executive action freezing many new orders by Biden

Trump issued an order freezing many new or pending federal regulations, effectively blocking last-minute protections issued by the Biden administration.

Such an order is fairly common when a new administration takes over, but it could be the first in a series of moves designed to tamp down what the new president and other top Republicans have consistently decried as “federal overreach.”

The move recalled the first day of Trump’s first administration in 2017. Then, he froze all pending federal regulations, effectively suspending Obama-era actions that were new or closer to implementation.

That “immediate regulatory freeze” did not apply to some regulations being implemented for emergency situations relating to health, safety, financial or national security. Implementation of the new administration’s order is likely to include similar language allowing for key exceptions

Executive action ordering federal employees back to work 5 days a week

Among the executive orders Trump signed with a flourish in front of a cheering crowd was one mandating that federal workers return to their offices five days a week.

The move followed the new president’s pledge to end the work-from-home culture that became common during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump said he planned to dismiss federal employees who don’t return to the office to comply with the order.

Executive order on the federal hiring freeze

Trump has ordered a federal hiring freeze on his first day back in office, mirroring an action he took at the start of his first term to try to reduce the size of government.

The order suspends hiring for new positions and many open ones. It includes exceptions for posts related to national security and public safety, as well as the military.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to dismantle a federal bureaucracy that he derided as the “deep state.”

The order eight years ago was intended as a temporary, 90-day measure until federal budget officials, as well as those in charge of the government’s personnel office, could devise a longer-term strategy for reducing the size of the federal government — and it was effectively lifted that April.

How long the latest freeze may last is less clear. It is a drastic step away from the Biden administration, which took steps to increase the federal workforce and give pay raises to many in its ranks.

Trump rescinds 2021 Title IX order

Trump rescinded a 2021 order signaling the Education Department would use Title IX to protect against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Biden administration later went further to cement that interpretation into federal regulation, but it was overturned after Republican-led states challenged the rule in federal court.

Rescinding the 2021 order won’t have much effect on schools and colleges, but it clears the slate for other action by the Trump administration.

Trump also rescinded a COVID-19-era executive order directing federal officials to give schools guidance on reopening during the pandemic. That order, issued on Biden’s second day in office, also required the Education Department to explore the pandemic’s “disparate impacts” on students of color and students with disabilities.

Trump immigration order restores 2017 deportation criteria

One of Trump’s more impactful orders on immigration simply restores what was in place when he took office in 2017.

Trump wants to end federal grants to “sanctuary” jurisdictions, or state and local governments that limit cooperation with immigration authorities. The White House maintains that sanctuaries are breaking a law that forbids interfering with federal law enforcement officers.

He also wants negotiations with state and local governments to deputize local police to enforce immigration laws, known as 287(g) agreements after a section of a 1996 immigration law.

The order restores deportation criteria to pursue everyone in the country illegally, not just those with serious criminal records, those deemed national security or public safety threats, and those who recently crossed the border.

Trump directs attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs

Trump has signed a sweeping execution order on the death penalty, directing the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.

Trump wrote that “politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country.”

A moratorium on federal executions had been in place since 2021, and only three defendants remain on federal death row after Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.

The Associated Press has contributed to this report.