Hi there, I'm Claire Murphy from Mumama's twice daily news podcast, The Quickie, Well, Ladies and Gentlemen. He's back. Donald Trump
is now officially back in the White House. The building staff the other day having to frantically shift the bidens out and the Trump's back in over a very small five hour window while the inauguration ceremony was underway, and in the meantime, Donald Trump has wasted exactly zero time enacting his presidential powers, signing in multiple executive orders in front of an adoring crowd at a post inauguration rally.
Our US correspondent Emilia lest joins us with what to expect from the first days of the Trump administration two point zero. Donald Trump supporter, financial backer and soon to be member of US Cabinet Elon Musk, has caused concern after giving what appeared to be a Nazi salute during the rally after Trump's inauguration. Musk responded on his social media platform x saying frankly, they need better dirty tricks and that the everyone is Hitler attack is so tiring.
Mumma Me is US correspondent and the editor of Foreign Policy magazine Emelia Lester says the gesture looked deliberate, and it wasn't done just once.
Yeah. Well, by the way he gave that salute, whatever it was, twice, he gave it once to the front of the room and then again turned around to address the back with it. It looked pretty much like a Nazi salute to me. He may well say that he didn't mean it, that he was being ironic. I've seen people kind of not wanting to call it what it is, but I think we can confidently at least call it
a reference to a Nazi salute. It was interesting that The New York trans reported just around the time of the inauguration that originally his office as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency was to be in an administrative building next to the White House. But now The Times has reported that he will actually have an office in the White House. And it's worth mentioning the White House is tiny, so this is a really big deal
and it shows where he falls in Trump's hierarchy. It was fascinating in general to see the various tech oligarchs and how they've been treated and who's up and who's down. So, for instance, at the luncheon that took place at the Capitol after the swearing in. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, and Elon Musk was seated at the front of the room. Poor Mark Zuckerberg and his wife were seated at the
very back of the room. There were also lots of other rich people in attendance, such as inexplicably the richest man in France, Bernard Naut, who, by some estimates is the richest man in the world, depending on whether Tesla stock is up or down. The CEO of TikTok was of course present, and in general it was really striking to me to see all these rich men sitting in front of the elected officials at the actual swearing inn That's a site that you're just not used to seeing in a democracy.
We've also since found out that Mask is going to be running this Department of Government Efficiency solo now, because he was supposed to be kind of co running it with Vivak Ramaswami, who is no longer going to do so.
No, he's announced that he's going to run for governor Ohio, so it's unclear whether he's even going to start work at that department or not. But either way, Trump has already started slashing public services. For instance, one of the very first executive actions that he has signed is that he has announced a hiring freeze on all federal services positions. So he's clearly serious about slashing federal spending, whether or not both heads of the Department of Government Efficiency are in office.
In an historic first day back in office, President Donald Trump has enacted a sweeping series of executive orders that dramatically reshaped federal policy across multiple domains. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, mobilizing Pentagon resources and military personnel for border enforcement. He terminated an app system that allows migrants to schedule asylum appointments, and initiated a
controversial move to redefined birthrights citizenship. The administration also designated major drug cartels as terrorist organizations, potentially opening the door for military intervention on Mexican soil.
I think there's going to be a lot of legal challenges. So, for instance, one of the executive orders that Trump has signed essentially bars people seeking asylum. And by the way, when Trump talks about people from mental institutions coming to the US, I'm pretty sure it's because he thinks that asylum seekers means people coming from mental asylums. But I'm setting that observation aside. I think that that's going to face a lot of legal challenges. The US has certain
treaty obligations internationally. The people who are guaranteed to get a lot of work out of this a lawyers. It's hard to say right now which of these orders are going to actually pass muster legally.
Overnight, Trump granted clemency to approximately fifteen hundred individuals convicted in connection with the January sixth Capital riot. The mass pardon effectively concludes all pending January six cases and includes those convicted of serious crimes, including assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Two of those already released are the former leader of the Proud Boys, On Regtario and the founder of the Oathkeeper, Steuart Rhodes, who were serving twenty two
and eighteen year sentences. Trump with through the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time, describing it as one sided. He declared a National Energy Emergency aimed at streamlining environmental permitting processes. Despite America's current position as the world's leading oil producer.
There's a lot of very powerful interests who are still invested in fossil fuels, and I think that you only have to look at his nomination for the Department of Interior, Doug Bergham, who is himself a fossil fuel executive, to see that Trump is stacking himself and surrounding himself with people who do have these vested interests in continuing to
use and exploit fossil fuels. One somewhat troubling development, as far as I can see, is that he's not only going to continue and expand on oil and gas drilling, including in Alaska, where there's a lot of wilderness that has yet been untouched by that, he also wants to
roll back green energy initiatives. Interestingly, despite his close relationship with Musk, one of his first announced or intended actions on day one as president is to roll back various initiatives that President Biden put in place to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles. So I don't know how that's going to work with his relationship with Musk, but that's just one example of the various ways in which he's not only doubling down on and expanding use of fossil fuels.
He's also trying to make it more difficult to, for instance, manufacture energy efficient washing machines or vehicles, or to use wind energy or other alternative energy sources in place of fossil fuels.
The new Trump administration also rescinded seventy eight executive actions from the Biden presidency. These reversals included the removal of protections against sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the reversal of transgender military service policies. After making this comment during his inauguration speech, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
He also has announced that he's going to roll back an initiative that allowed people to self identify on passport forms, for instance. So at the center of what he's doing here is he wants to dismantle what he calls the DEI complex, which is diversity and equality initiative. And so he says basically that you can't prioritize, for instance, racial equity or affirmative action in either policy making or in
private business. And that's really core to the sales pitch that he made which is that liberal ideology had gone too far in emphasizing race, and that we need to roll back those that greater awareness of race in government.
Trump also extended TikTok's operating deadline, temporarily averting a shutdown for its one hundred and seventy million American users. However, questions remain about the platform's long term future in the United States, particularly regarding potential ownership changes.
I think that we're in for a very tumultuous four years, whatever your politics. The number of rich and powerful people who have now coal est in one administration. I don't think we've ever seen this kind of concentration of wealth and power ever before in American democracy, and i'ne curious to see how these various giant egos navigate each other and how it all plays out.
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