President Donald Trump is returning to the White House with an ambitious agenda, which he outlined in a brazen inaugural address after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.
It lays the foundation for a flurry of actions and executive orders meant to change the course of the country and usher in a “golden age” for his second term.
“All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly,” Trump said as he rattled off a dizzying number of changes his administration expects to make, from immigration and the economy to energy and gender issues.
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said.
Those plans include cracking down on immigration by doubling down on border security and deportations; opening up energy development, saying “we will drill baby drill”; walking back protections for transgender students; and making sweeping changes in the military.
His remarks signal an aggressive Day One agenda. Trump is reportedly planning to issue some 100 executive orders, making good on his campaign promises, with some 25 of those expected on his first day alone, per Reuters. While the President has said he will issues them “within hours of taking office,” it is unclear if he will sign them all Monday or in the coming days.
Here’s a look at some of the key issues President Trump outlined during his inaugural address, some of which are already live on the revised Donald Trump’s White House website.
“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” 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 also said he plans to reinstate his “Remain in Mexico” policy and end the process of catch and release, adding, “I will send troops to the southern border.”
However, according to the New York Times, this could bring immediate legal challenges “because of the strict limits in American law for how the armed forces can be deployed inside the country.”
And as NBC News noted, Trump previously used his emergency authority to use military funds to build a border wall in his first term, which were frozen by federal courts.
But that’s not all.
Trump also said, “Under the orders I signed today,” his administration would designate Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and would be working with federal and state officials to try and eliminate gangs from our inner cities.
The economy and inflation
Next, Trump spoke about his plans to rapidly bring down costs and address inflation.
“I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices,” Trump explained.
One way he plans to do this, according to administration officials cited by the Times, is by signing executive orders to open up oil and gas drilling in Alaska and end electric-vehicles incentives passed by the Biden administration.
“We will drill, baby drill,” Trump said on Monday. “I am keeping my pledge to our great auto workers . . . In other words, we will build automobiles at a rate never seen before.”
Gender roles: “Male and female” only
In his inaugural speech, Trump said the federal government going forward would only recognize two sexes—male and female, thus reversing protections for transgender people enacted under the Biden administration. (This, incidentally, is a personal pet project of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who helped reelect Trump and stood by him on the podium of the Capitol Rotunda as Trump made the remarks.)
If enforced, this action could affect how Americans are able to identify on passports, visas, and other government documents, according to USA Today, which spoke with a Trump White House official.
Changes to the military
Trump said this week that he will reinstate any military personnel “with full back pay” who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine and was forced from service.
“It’s going to end immediately,” Trump said. “Our armed forces will be able to focus on their sole mission: defeating America’s enemies.”
Trump explained in his second term, he wanted to “be known as a peacemaker and a unifier,” and for America to be known for the “wars it didn’t enter.”
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico
While it may seem beyond random, among the first executive orders set to be signed by Trump will be an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
“A short time from now, we are changing the name from Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
According to ABC News, presidents do have the authority to rename geographic regions and features. However, other countries don’t have to recognize such a move. And unlike then-President Barack Obama’s order to rename Alaska’s Mount McKinley to Denali (a move that Trump has also said he wants to reverse), the body of water isn’t fully located within U.S. boundaries.
TikTok
While he did not name TikTok (which is now back online) in his speech on Monday, Trump has said he would sign an executive order Monday to delay the ban that took effect Sunday and give the app’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, time to broker a deal with new U.S.-based investors, possibly in a joint venture. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended Monday’s inauguration.
