Jan 6 rioters to roam free, no protection for transpeople: What Trump’s America is going to look like

Donald Trump is now the president of the United States. After taking oath at the US Capitol Rotunda, Potus delivered an inaugural speech – it was fiery and delivered some shockers. Trump signed a series of executive orders, some of which revoked 78 of Joe Biden’s policies.

Trump’s America is going to be starkly different – one with only two genders, where January 6 rioters roam free, where migrants are not welcome, and a lot more. We look at some of the most shocking decisions Trump made during his day in office.

Pardoning Jan 6 rioters

There was a lot of speculation over this. Hours after his inauguration, Trump said he was pardoning about 1,500 US Capitol rioters, who stormed the building in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The president also ordered all pending criminal cases against the Capitol riot defendants to be dropped.

Among those receiving a pardon was Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for directing a military-style assault on the Capitol. Stewart Rhodes, the leader of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, had his 18-year prison sentence commuted to time served. Both Tarrio and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.

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The defendants in the case of Jan 6 are expected to be released from DC jail before midnight (local time).

While Vice President JD Vance suggested only a few days ago that some of the most violent of the January 6 rioters might not get clemency, Trump has pardoned everyone – even those who assaulted policemen and rampaged Congressional offices.

Nancy Pelosi, who at the time of the 6 January Capitol riot was the Democratic House speaker, has called Trump’s decision an “outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution”.

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Only two genders and an anti-DEI policy

As promised during campaigning, Trump has moved to change the US government policies on gender and diversity.

During his inaugural address, Trump said, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

On Monday, he signed executive orders rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes within the federal government. In his speech, he described this move to end efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life."

Both are major shifts from federal policy.

One order declares that the federal government would recognise only two immutable sexes: male and female. The definition will be based on whether people are born with eggs or sperm, rather than on their chromosomes. The change is being pitched as a way to protect women from “gender extremism.”

Under the order, federal prisons and shelters for migrants and rape victims are to be segregated by sex as defined by the order.

Cracking down on immigration: Border emergency, ending birthright citizenship

Trump signed several executive orders and decrees to crack down on immigration. He passed an order tackling the definition of birthright citizenship and declaring illegal immigration at the border a national emergency.

Potus reversed several immigration orders from Joe Biden’s presidency, including one that narrowed deportation priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security threats, or were stopped at the border. It returns the government to Trump’s first-term policy that everyone in the country illegally is a priority for deportation.

Acting on his promise to tighten the US-Mexico border, he has declared a national emergency and plans to send American troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum. He has also pledged to restart a policy that forced asylum seekers to wait over the border in Mexico, but officials didn’t say whether Mexico would accept migrants again.

Trump is also promising to end birthright citizenship, but it is unclear how he’d do it. Since it is enshrined in the US Constitution, he is likely to face steep legal opposition. The president is also is ending the CBP One app, a Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly one million migrants.

Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement… again

Trump signed an executive order on Monday, directing the US to once again withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. In 2017, he abandoned the global pact, aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The decision comes as a big blow to worldwide efforts to fight global warming, distancing the US from its closest allies.

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 emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

The Republican leader also declared a “national energy emergency” to expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer and said he would scrap vehicle emissions standards that amount to an “electric vehicle mandate”. He also vowed to curb wind farms, a frequent target of his scorn.

Withdrawing from WHO

Fulfilling yet another pledge he made during campaigning, Trump has pulled the US out from the World Health Organization (WHO). He started the process of withdrawing from the United Nations health agency during his first term, as he believed WHO failed in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and had not demonstrated independence from China. However, when President Biden took over, he reversed the decision on its first day.

Now Trump has signed an executive order stating that the US issued a notice about its withdrawal in 2020 “due to the organisation’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic … and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”

The US is the WHO’s top donor. A report in Axios points out that the US contributes about $130 million per year to help cover the agency’s global health preparedness and response, along with efforts to address HIV, tuberculosis, and childhood vaccination, per Devex.

No WFH for federal employees

Trump signed an executive order Monday requiring federal workers to return to the office full-time.

“Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements,” the White House said in a statement confirming the executive order.

The measure also requires employees “to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary”.

“This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law,” it added.

The language in the statement underscores the challenges the new Trump administration is likely to face in enforcing the executive order, given the strong opposition to ending remote work by unions representing public sector workers.

Work-from-home allowances flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic when millions of white-collar workers moved online as their employers looked to reduce the spread of the virus. The measures proved popular with employees, who voiced support for the new-found flexibility it afforded them in their personal lives.

Many of President Trump’s most ardent supporters, including his billionaire ally and mega-donor Elon Musk, have said work-from-home policies were inefficient, and have called for federal workers to return to the office full-time.

With inputs from agencies