Incoming US President and convicted felon Donald Trump delivered on his promise to be a dictator on day one of his second presidency, defying his own country’s laws and rejecting the institutions of international allies as he sought to ‘Make America Great Again’.
Most of the criminals involved with the 7 January 2021 insurrection are being released, including the leader of the far-right Proud Boys group Enrique Tarrio, who was previously sentenced to 22 years in prison.
The family of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died from injuries sustained in that attack, which was filmed, said the move was a ‘betrayal of decency’.
Trump’s first moves in the Oval Office followed an inauguration ceremony in which tech billionaires dominated proceedings, including what appeared to be two Nazi style salutes from Elon Musk from behind the seal of the United States President.
Among a flurry of announcements following his inauguration, Trump immediately withdrew from the World Health Organisation (which experts say will undermine America’s standing in the global health community), withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, delayed a federal ban on TikTok (the US was seeking to get 50 per cent control of the social media app), brought in a federal hiring freeze, destroyed racial equity policies and protections for transgender people, and promised tariffs against Canada and Mexico.
As outlined in Project 2025, before the election, Trump has also begun removing more than 1,000 public servants appointed under the previous administration for not being aligned with the MAGA ‘vision’.
He has since begun a crackdown on immigration, with raids expected to begin across the country shortly, beginning with the Democrat-controlled city of Chicago.
While many of the Executive Orders President Trump signed on day one require the support of Congress, are being challenged in court, or both, the exact limits of his control over the various branches of government in the United States, if any, are yet to be seen.
The Diet Coke button has already been reinstalled in the Oval Office, along with a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson.
Trump’s newly created cryptocurrency $Trump, which allows anyone in the world to transfer any amount of money directly to him without any official scrutiny, had a 24 hour trading volume in access of $21 billion.
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