Joe Biden to enact series of executive orders today to undo Trump legacy
Joe Biden will today action a series of executive orders that will undo some of Donald Trump’s most controversial policies on immigration, climate change and Covid.
Biden’s team laid out a list of day-one executive orders for the President-elect, including re-joining the Paris climate agreement, re-connecting with the World Health Organisation and immediately ceasing construction of Trump’s border wall with Mexico.
Other executive orders include scrapping Trump’s so-called “Muslim travel ban” levelled against a series of Middle Eastern and African countries, enacting a mandate that face masks must be worn on all federal government property and revoking a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
Biden will also sign a presidential memorandum to call on Congress to “enact legislation providing permanent status and a path to citizenship for people who came to this country as children”, which will be targeted toward providing protections for so-called “dreamers” – children who entered the country illegally with their parents.
The President-elect also announced he will launch a “racial equity” review led by Barack Obama’s former national security adviser Susan Rice.
A spokesperson for the former Vice President said: “President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward.
“These actions are bold, begin the work of following through on President-elect Biden’s promises to the American people, and, importantly, fall within the constitutional role for the president.”
Biden will be sworn in as the 46th US President in Washington, DC at 5pm London time today.
The Democrat will take the reins in a moment of profound unease in US politics, with outgoing Donald Trump becoming the first President in 152 years not to attend the welcome ceremony for his successor.
With officials looking to ward off any copycat attacks on the Capitol following the insurrection just two weeks ago, and with the pandemic still rife on American soil, inauguration events have now shifted online.
The crowd will mostly be limited to members of the US Congress, Supreme Court, and former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. And while Trump will flee the White House this morning, soon-to-be-former vice president Mike Pence will stick around for a national anthem sung by Lady Gaga.