Since Donald Trump took over the White House for the second time, we, the people of the United States and across the globe, have suffered a virtual whiplash compared to the policy initiatives during Joe Biden’s first week in office and throughout his presidency.

During his campaign, Trump threatened to be “a dictator on day one.” Well, if the dozens of executive orders he signed in his first few days in office are any indication, he is certainly following through on that promise.

On oligarchy

In his farewell speech to the nation before leaving office, President Biden warned of a developing “oligarchy” in the United States: “I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And this is a dangerous concern. And that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people.”

He added, “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.” He alerted the public that the media and other means of communication are being taken over by the very rich to propagate their points of view to a greater degree than ever.  

The oligarchical takeover was on clear and unapologetic display under the Capitol dome during Trump’s second inaugural ceremony on January 20, 2025.

Seated directly behind Trump and his family, and in front of Trump’s proposed cabinet officials, was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (worth approximately $211.8 billion), U.S. news anchor Lauren Sánchez (worth $30 million), Washington Post owner and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (worth $239.4 billion), SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (worth $433.9 billion), Apple CEO Tim Cook (worth $2.2 billion), Open AI CEO Sam Altman (worth $1.1 billion), Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (worth $12.8 billion), casino owner and mega-donor Miriam Adelson (worth $31.9 billion), media mogul Rupert Murdoch (worth $22.2 billion), and luxury products magnate Bernard Arnault (worth $179.6 billion). Seated with the Trump family was, of course, Jared Kushner (almost a billionaire).

The combined estimated fortune of Joe Biden’s cabinet was approximately $120 million, while the worth of Trump’s proposed cabinet in his second term is about $20 billion – the wealthiest cabinet in the history of the United States. This sum does not include Elon Musk, who will not be part of the cabinet.

Trump has recently launched his own “meme coin” or cryptocurrency in honor of his inauguration. The “currency” has reached an estimated $58 billion. And the grifting marches on.

Undoing America

Trump signed a total of 220 executive orders during his first term, and Biden signed some 162 over his four years in office. The orders, however, between the two consecutive presidents took a very different focus, as did their agendas for their first 100 days.

Joe Biden had inherited a bad economy and a raging pandemic. During his first 100 days, he succeeded in providing 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, utilizing the Defense Production Act to produce personal protective equipment, raising the refugee cap set by Donald Trump from 15,000 to 125,000, revoking the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, stopping construction on the Mexico–United States border wall, ending travel restrictions from Muslim countries (Trump’s “Muslim Ban”), rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, ending United States involvement in the War in Afghanistan and the Yemeni Civil War, and halting new oil drilling on federal lands.

Donald Trump’s first-week actions, on the other hand, rescinded many of Biden’s previous orders. Here are only some of the executive orders Trump signed in his erratic Sharpie script: 

He has withdrawn (again) from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization just as bird flu has broken out across the U.S. 

He has paused the funding of medical research and attempted to end and eventually privatize the Veterans Administration (though he pulled back from the latter due to public backlash).

He placed a freeze on hiring federal workers and fired most inspectors general, who are responsible for investigating incidents of ethical and efficiency violations in government. (Trump, though, has founded the so-called Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk as its head, even though there are serious conflicts of interest as Musk has received several U.S. government contracts).

He restricted fact-checking on social media in an ironic order titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech & Ending Federal Censorship.” 

He reversed Biden’s foreign policy initiative and reinstated Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror.

He reversed sanctions on Israeli “settlers” on Palestinian land.

He invalidated Biden’s Executive Order 14110, titled “Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” (sometimes referred to as “Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence”).

He reversed the Family Reunification Task Force, which has worked to reunite families separated during Trump’s first term.

Probably the most controversial of all of Trump’s executive orders was his pardoning of all January 6 rioters, with 1500 unconditional pardons and clemency to dozens more. Many of these rioters were tried and convicted of attacking police officers in their attempts to overturn the results of the free and fair 2020 election of Joe Biden. 

Trump has also declared a national emergency on the southern border. Using fear as justification, he has triggered the deployment of the U.S. military to the southern border and has ordered the use of military aircraft to deport immigrants.

The 1878 Posse Comitatus law makes it illegal to use the military to enforce domestic laws in the United States. The federal military can only be deployed on U.S. territory to maintain “sovereignty and territorial integrity” by invasion from another nation.

Hopeful immigrants coming to our borders do not risk our sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is not an invasion. This is not a national emergency. But members of the National Guard are not covered by the provisions of Posse Comitatus, since they are controlled and deployed by the states.

In addition, Trump suspended all refugee services, even for Afghan refugees who helped U.S. service members during the war. He has also cut off aid to improve conditions in the countries from which the people are fleeing for the U.S. in the first place.

Also, he designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Possibly explaining why Trump failed to place his hand on the two Bibles Melania held at the swearing-in ceremony, Trump also signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. A federal judge, however, placed a temporary stay on this order since it was “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Other significant orders include delaying the US government’s ban of TikTok by 75 days because Trump realized that the app served him well in the recent election. He also cut government incentives for people to purchase clean energy vehicles.

Trump indicated that he might eliminate FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and may condition aid for California fires to force the state to institute a voter photo ID program and change its water distribution policies (which would not have mitigated the results of recent wind-blown wildfires).

He also declassified official records in the investigations of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump eliminated the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department and ended all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government. He declared that all employment be based on “merit” and not on social identities.

The continuing and perennial need for DEI programs in schools and industry lays bare the lie that the United States stands as a meritocratic nation built on the dream and practice that hard work, talent, and ambition alone is the ticket to success, regardless of one’s social identity.

While, of course, we are all accountable and liable for our actions, this concept of meritocracy fails to consider the long legacy of differentials of power and privilege based on race, socioeconomic class, gender and gender identity, sexual identity, ability, and age.

No mercy for LGBTQ+ people

Trump signed an order declaring that there are only two genders, and with that came a series of specific policy changes. The order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” describes biological sex as being determined by the size of one’s reproductive cells: small for men and large for women. Government documents, including passports, visas, and employee records, can only show “male” or “female.” The government will no longer pay for trans-related health care for government employees, military personnel, or federal prisoners.

In addition, all transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons will now be thrown into male prison facilities.

In another of Trump’s orders, the federal government will no longer even recognize the existence of trans people and will prevent federal funds from being spent on any programs that do.

The order states, “Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology,” and it directs the Bureau of Prisons to revise its policies to ensure that federal inmates do not receive “any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

Trump has also banned trans service members from the military. 

Aligning with his ridiculous order declaring there are only two sexes, Trump’s newly confirmed Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, froze all applications for passports with “X” gender markers, which was an option formerly given to people who do not identify within the gender binary of male and female.

In an internal cable Rubio sent to State Department employees, he wrote that the country’s policy is now “that an individual’s sex is not changeable,” which is as reasonable as Trump declaring he is currently a fit 35-year-old weighing 180 pounds. Rubio has also banned rainbow flags from flying in U.S. embassies.

The Trump administration also scrubbed all federal websites of LGBTQ+ content, a repeat of an action taken in the first Trump term.

The day following Trump’s inauguration, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their families attended a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, led by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. Toward the end of her sermon, while looking directly into Trump’s eyes as he sat in the front row, Budde asked him to “find compassion” and “have mercy” on LGBTQ+ people and on immigrants.

Trump shot back in a tantrum on Truth Social, calling the Rt. Rev. Budde’s remarks “nasty” and not smart. “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart,” he said.

“She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people,” Trump continued. “Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one.”

Trump claimed in his inaugural address, “I was saved by God to make America great again.” But it seems that he did not simply forget to place his hand on the two Bibles held by Melania at his swearing-in ceremony to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States, considering one of his executive orders was to end “birthright citizenship,” which is enshrined in the 14th Amendment.   

Like any good dictatorial autocrat, Republican Rep. Mike Colling of Georgia said Budde “should be added to the deportation list” (even though she is from New Jersey), and he accused her of “theological malpractice.”

The term “mercy” appears nearly 300 times in the King James version of the Bible.

So, Trump has already violated his commitment to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Could this be considered him committing perjury under oath since he wrote this order before raising his right hand?

Approximately two-thirds of the executive orders signed by Trump during his first few days of office are directly connected with the recommendations of Project 2025, the far-right democracy-busting Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for Trump’s second term.

In the Trump/MAGA agenda, cruelty is the point, as is turning the United States into a dystopian society.