The 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump, marked his return to office on Monday by signing a flurry of executive orders, fulfilling campaign promises and setting the tone for his administration. The executive actions addressed a broad range of topics, including healthcare, climate agreements, immigration, foreign aid, and economic policy. Below is an overview of the key orders signed.
Withdrawal from WHO
Explaining his decision, the president cited what he described as the “inappropriate political influence” of member states on the global body, which receives approximately 20 percent of its funding from the U.S.
Monday’s announcement marks Trump’s second attempt to withdraw from the WHO. In 2022, he initiated steps to pull the country out, criticizing the WHO for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Joe Biden reversed this decision upon assuming the presidency.
A few hours after his inauguration for a second term, Trump reiterated his earlier criticisms of the WHO’s COVID-19 response as a primary reason for the U.S. withdrawal from the Geneva-based organization. In the signed document, he remarked, “Oooh, that’s a big one.”
The executive order stated, “The organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to implement urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states, justify the U.S. withdrawal.”
Withdrawal from Paris climate agreement
Another executive order signed by Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. This marks the second time Trump has pulled the country out of the 2015 accord.
In 2017, Trump first announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris Agreement, a pact aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, at a minimum, keeping temperatures well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels. However, this decision was reversed by Joe Biden during his presidency.
Trump has consistently argued that the Paris Agreement, along with many other international accords, does not align with the values and interests of the United States.
On Monday, Trump reiterated this stance, stating that the agreement “steers American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require or merit financial assistance in the interests of the American people.” Instead of participating in the accord, Trump emphasized that “the United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should serve as a model for other countries.”
Migration policies declaration
Trump has issued an order declaring a national emergency on the US southern border.
He also signed an order suspending the country’s refugee resettlement program for four months.
Additionally, Trump announced the closure of a major immigration pipeline—a sponsorship initiative established under Biden’s administration that allowed up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to fly to the US. This initiative was originally designed to reduce illegal border crossings.
Stoppage of foreign assistance
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order suspending all US foreign assistance programs for three months, pending feedback to determine whether they align with his policy objectives.
The president also mandated that no United States foreign assistance be disbursed in a manner that conflicts with US foreign policy.
The order stated: “The foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and, in many cases, are antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly opposed to harmonious and stable relations within and among nations”.
Gender
President Donald Trump also signed an executive order declaring that the country will only recognise the male and female genders. According to him, the genders are not changeable and are grounded “in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” he said. The order has posed an attack on the LGBTQ community and is soon expected to draw widespread criticism from rights groups globally.
Trump also halted all government activities, policies, statements and communications that promote or support gender ideology. He further ended the US Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes referred to as “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs.”
End birthright citizenship
President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” aimed at ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents. This executive order challenges the prevailing interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The potential implications of ending birthright citizenship are profound. It could create a permanent underclass of individuals born in the U.S. but denied citizenship, leading to significant barriers in accessing education, healthcare, and social services.
For the average person, this change would mean that children born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. would not be recognized as U.S. citizens, despite being born on American soil. These non-citizen children would face limited access to education and healthcare, as they would not qualify for the same benefits available to U.S. citizens.
The proposal has been met with widespread criticism from constitutional scholars, advocacy groups, and lawmakers, who argue that it conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment and raises serious constitutional and humanitarian concerns.
According to Brennan Center, a nonpartisan and policy institute, birthright citizenship can’t be stopped by presidents.
It noted that “Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional, in direct conflict with the plain language of the 14th Amendment and over a century’s worth of Supreme Court case law.”
TikTok
Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app, just one day after it was banned on Sunday, January 19, 2025.
The ban was reverted after the company disclosed that it suggested Trump would block the ban from taking effect.
Trump’s executive order gave ByteDance an extra 90 days to divest from TikTok to avoid a ban on the app.
Renaming The Gulf of Mexico and Other ‘America First’ Priorities
Trump also signed an order changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
In addition, he reverted the name of Mount Denali, the highest mountain in North America, to Mount McKinley.
Former President Barack Obama in 2015 had changed it from Mount McKinley to Denali.
According to the executive order, Trump made these changes to “honour American greatness.”
Creation of ‘DOGE’
The president also signed an executive orders to establish the long-anticipated Department of Government Efficiency by reverting the name of the United States Digital Service which was established by Obama in 2014 to the “United States DOGE Service.”
The DOGE will “oversee a substantial reduction in the size and scope of government.”
Trump announced the establishment of DOGE after his emergence at the 2024 presidential election and will be head by Elon Musk who is also X (formerly Twitter) CEO.
Security Clearances
On Monday, President Trump signed two executive actions related to security clearances. One of them permits White House staff members to obtain top-secret security clearances without undergoing the traditional vetting process. The other revokes the security clearances of 50 individuals who had signed a letter claiming that a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Flags on Inauguration Day
President Trump issued an executive order mandating that all U.S. flags be flown at full-staff on “this and all future Inauguration Days.”
The order came in response to public concerns that flags would be flown at half-staff during his inauguration as a tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on December 29 at his home in Georgia.
Earlier in January 2025, Trump addressed the issue on Truth Social, stating: “In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the flag may, for the first time ever during an inauguration of a future president, be at half-mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it.”
Traditionally, flags in the United States are flown at half-staff for 30 days following the death of a president or former president as a mark of respect.
Tariffs and Taxes
The 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump, has fulfilled his campaign promise to impose steep tariffs on countries such as Canada and Mexico.
Trump announced that starting February 1, a 25 percent tariff would be applied to imports from both nations.
Additionally, he rejected a global minimum corporate tax deal supported by the Biden administration and negotiated with over 100 countries, stating that it has “no force or effect” in the United States without an act of Congress.
Trump also signed a pair of executive orders aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling. One order authorizes drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve. The other reviews policies that “burden the development of domestic energy resources” and eliminates the Biden-era “electric vehicle (EV) mandate.”
By Damilola Olufemi
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