On his first full day in office Tuesday President Donald Trump continued sweeping actions, including ordering the shuttering of all executive branch diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and ordered all employees working in such offices to be placed on leave.
In addition, Trump revoked Secret Service protection for former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who previously served as his national security adviser during his first term. He also announced private sector investments of up to $500 million to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Keep up with the USA TODAY news team for updates.
President Donald Trump signed a document Tuesday evening that directed the Federal Aviation Administration to cease its use of diversity, equity and inclusion hiring authorities. He singled out disability hiring authorities in particular.
“During the prior administration … the FAA betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence,” the president argued. He further decried the recruitment of “individuals with serious infirmities,” in a rebuke of disability hiring efforts.
The country’s aviation watchdog used expedited disability hiring authorities for at least a decade, including during Trump’s first administration. Such programs permitted hiring managers to bypass the competitive hiring process to appoint professionally qualified candidates with disabilities.
In the document, Trump argued pro-diversity hiring practices “[penalize] hard-working Americans who want to serve in the FAA but are unable to do so, as they lack a requisite disability or skin color.”
The agency, however, struggles with large shortages of air traffic controllers, who must meet stringent medical requirements that disability hiring authorities could not circumvent.
The move is one of many executive actions focused on the federal workforce enacted since Trump took office Monday afternoon. His other actions addressed DEI hiring more broadly, froze hiring in most executive agencies and directed a return to in-person work for many federal employees, among other directives.
– Davis Winkie
President Donald Trump revoked a 1965 civil rights executive order Tuesday, rolling back authorities long used to prevent employment discrimination by federal contractors, subcontractors and grant recipients. He also ordered agencies to plan potential civil rights investigations against private sector entities who embrace diversity hiring.
In his own executive order, Trump attacked such policies as “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’”
Trump’s order flips the script, arguing that affirmative action provisions are illegally discriminatory. Federal agencies instead must now “enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”
—Davis Winkie
Trump will sit down today for an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity for the first interview from the Oval Office, according to Politico. The interview will air at 9 p.m.
The president is also expected to meet a group of “centrist Republicans” at the White House, the outlet also reported.
The White House has not yet released a public schedule for the president. The in-town press pool (the rotation of the small group of reporters who shadow the president) has been asked to report at 9 a.m.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Justice Department officials were swiftly reassigned in the wake of President Donald Trump‘s Monday inauguration in order to help align the department with the new administration’s priorities – particularly on immigration, a department official familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
In a speech to supporters Monday, Trump described immigration as his “number one issue.”
The swift moves at the Justice Department, which were in place by Tuesday, show the administration moving to enact his immigration agenda at the department level.
–Aysha Bagchi
President Trump said Tuesday night that he had given a “full and unconditional” pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an online black market which enabled users to buy and sell illegal drugs.
The president announced his decision on Truth Social.
–Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
President Trump announced on Tuesday a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology.
Trump said the joint venture, called Stargate, will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected over the next four years.
And CEOs Masayoshi Son of SoftBank and Sam Altman of OpenAI CEO along with Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.
–Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
