Donald Trump publicly fires four White House staff members during first day of presidency
Donald Trump is wasting no time getting his new presidential regime underway, and has made the decision to fire four members of White House staff.
The shock move comes just days after the 78-year-old Republican was sworn in as US leader, following his controversial inauguration ceremony on Monday (20 January).
Trump became the 47th president earlier this week, marking his second term in the role following Democratic leader Joe Biden.
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Several major changes have since been made by Trump to the running of the Oval Office, including the father-of-five telling four members of White House staff they'd been let go from their positions.
News of the dismissals was released on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, with the New York Post reporting that the move forms part of Trump's plan to fire over 1,000 employees who were hired as part of the former Biden administration.
The online announcement read: "Our first day in the White House is not over yet!
"My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again."
He added: "Let this serve as Official Notice of Dismissal for these 4 individuals, with many more, coming soon," before listing the names of the people he'd sacked and signing off with the four words famed for being uttered on his self-fronted television series The Apprentice: "YOU'RE FIRED!"
The first of the four people named by Trump was José Andrés, who previously worked on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.
National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Mark Milley was also let go, along with Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars.
The final name released was Keisha Lance Bottoms, who previously worked on the President’s Export Council.
Here is everything else that Trump has done since he returned to the Oval Office...
Immigration issues
One of Trump’s first executive orders designated Mexican drug cartels as a ‘foreign terrorist organisation’.
Border crossings from Mexico have been designated an ‘invasion’, with US military service members set to be sent down to act as immigration and border enforcement officers.
The hope is that this will boost Trump’s promised mass deportation program.
The U.S. Refugee Admission program has been suspended, which will be reviewed every 90 days.
Trump has also ordered for automatic citizenship to no longer be granted to those children of undocumented immigrants born on American soil.
Immigration has long been an issue which galvanized support for Trump and the Republican Party, with their win in 2016 largely credited to Trump’s promise to build a wall along the southern border.
Climate change and the environment
Under Trump, the US has been withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, which had committed nations into pursuing policies that limited carbon emissions.
A Biden era policy intended to encourage production of electric vehicles has also been eliminated.
Limits on fossil fuel extractions on federal lands, introduced under the Biden administration, have also been rolled back.
Leaving the World Health Organisation
Trump also signed an order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He justified this move by claiming they ‘mishandled’ the Covid pandemic.
The order claims that the WHO ‘continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments’.
Of China’s contributions, the order added: “China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO.”
Trump said the World Health Organisation had ‘ripped off’ the US.
TikTok
Trump has paused the US ban on TikTok for 75 days - meaning it was only in effect for a day.
American users had logged into the app, only to be told it 'wasn't available'.
Gender and biological sex
An executive order went out declaring that the US only recognises ‘two sexes, male and female’, indicating they aren’t ‘changeable’ but ‘grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality’.
The order said: “Agencies shall remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages.
"Agency forms that require an individual’s sex shall list male or female, and shall not request gender identity. Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology."
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, News, Jobs
Rhianna Benson