On the eve of his return to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump promised to sign a blitz of executive orders on his first day as president, telling supporters that he would move with “historic speed and strength” in the hours after taking the oath of office.
Addressing a racuous crowd of thousands in a Washington DC arena for a “Victory Rally”, Trump offered a preview of the next four years and celebrated his November election victory over the Democrats.
The Republican promised to act unilaterally on a wide array of issues, using his presidential powers to launch mass deportation operations, slash environmental regulations and end diversity programmes.
Trump is expected to sign more than 200 executive actions on Monday. This would include executive orders, which are legally-binding, and other presidential directives like proclamations, which are usually not.
“Every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office,” the incoming president said.
Trump promised executives orders that would ramp up artificial intelligence programmes, form the Department of Government Efficiency make records available related to the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963, direct the military to create an Iron Dome missile defence shield and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies from the military. He also told supporters he would stop transgender women from competing in female sports categories and hand back control of education to America’s states.
