EPA/JIM THE BAREFOOT / POOL
Donald Trump signs executive orders
Trade war with Canada and Mexico, the West Bank, the war in Ukraine, the pardon for the Capitol invaders. Several orders signed.
In the first few hours after, Donald Trump has already signed several executive orders, some of them relevant at an international level.
One of them is the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO)an organization that Trump had harshly criticized for the way it handled the pandemic.
“A WHO defrauded us”, accused the Republican on Monday, when signing the decree, justifying the withdrawal with the difference between the financial contributions of the United States and China to the organization.
In the text, Trump asks federal agencies to “suspend the future transfer of any funds, support or resources from the US government to the WHO” and directs them to “identify trusted US and international partners” capable of “assuming the activities previously carried out by WHO”.
The United States is the main donor and partner of the WHO, a UN organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to the WHO, the USA contributes to the institution’s financing through a contribution indexed to its Gross Domestic Product, but also through voluntary contributions.
A US exit could force the WHO into major restructuring and undermine global public health efforts, including surveillance and outbreak response.
Paris Agreement
The new president also issued an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement – as had happened in his first term.
The measure, which was one of his main promises during the last election campaign, aims to prioritize the national interests of the United States, to the detriment of international agreements, particularly with regard to climate policies that Trump considers harmful to the North American economy. .
The USA is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. But Trump has repeated that will bet on fossil fuels: “Dril baby, dril” (Drill baby, drill), said the president.
China is worried. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stressed: “Climate change is a common challenge for all humanity and no country can act alone for its own benefit.”
Trade war
Donald Trump opened the front of a trade war, confirming his intention to impose rates of 25% about the products of Canada e Mexico, from February 1st.
“We are considering (tariffs) in the order of 25% on Mexico and Canada, because they let a lot of people (…) enter (the United States), and a lot of fentanyl too,” said the new president at the White House, on Monday on Friday, a few hours after his inauguration.
Fentanyl is a highly addictive narcotic.
Trump also added that the surcharges could go into effect on February 1.
The Republican announced during the campaign his intention to quickly introduce 25% customs duties on all products coming from Mexico and Canada, if these countries did not stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants to the United States.
However, the two countries neighboring the United States are theoretically protected by a free trade agreementsigned during Trump’s first term, which he presented at the time as the “best possible”.
West Bank
Ended with US sanctions against West Bank settlers. He revoked an executive order issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, that punished Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the White House announced.
As soon as he took office on Monday, the Republican President annulled the text adopted in February 2024, which had been the precondition for the application of financial sanctions to several settlers, including an individual accused of instigating a riot in the Palestinian city of Huwara, south of Nablus, which led to the death of a Palestinian civilian.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich thanked: “Mr President [Donald Trump]their unwavering and uncompromising support for the State of Israel is a testament to their intense relationship with the Jewish people and our historic right to our land.”
War in Ukraine
The new President of the United States called for the first time Vladimir Putin to find a peace agreement with Ukraine, otherwise Russia risks being destroyed.
Upon returning to the Oval Office to sign a series of executive orders, Donald Trump reaffirmed that “he had to speak to President Putin (…), who will be very happy to end this war.”
For the first time, however, Trump clearly pressured Putin to find a solution to the war, considering that Russia will be heading for disaster if it refuses to negotiate and seal a ceasefire or peace agreement with the Ukrainian president. Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Zelensky wants to make a deal. I don’t know if Putin wants it, maybe he doesn’t. [Mas] should. I think he’s destroying Russia by not finding an agreement,” said Donald Trump.
President between 2017 and 2021, Trump repeatedly denounced throughout his campaign to return to the White House the tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid given to Kiev by Joe Biden’s administration.
“Russia is heading for big problems. Look at the economy, look at inflation,” the new president told journalists in the Oval Office, highlighting that Moscow had predicted, in February 2022, that “the war would end in a week and three years have already passed.”
“I get along very well with him [Putin] and I hope he wants to reach an agreement”, concluded the former businessman, a supporter of transactional diplomacy.
Forgiveness to the invaders
Domestically, the new President of the USA signed a decree forgive the approximately 1,500 people convicted of the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol.
The decree came shortly after the Republican announced that he would exercise his pardon power on his first day in office, as he had promised during his election campaign.
“This is for January 6th, for the hostages, about 1,500 people who will be completely pardoned,” Trump said, as he signed the decree in the Oval Office of the White House, adding that the pardon will include sentence commutations.
The decision came hours after around 50 members of the ultranationalist organization ‘Proud Boys’ marched through the streets of Washington demanding that Trump pardon its members arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol.
The march passed through the streets near the White House as Trump was inaugurated.
The group marched escorted by police, who kept the ‘Proud Boys’ separated from the spontaneous ‘anti-Trump’ protesters, who verbally confronted them.
The ‘Proud Boys’ were one of the groups that instigated the attack on the Capitol in 2021 and several of its members, including its leader Enrique Tarrio, were subsequently arrested.
The list of those eligible for the presidential pardon has not yet been released.
