On Tuesday, on his first full day in office, President Donald Trump continued his sweeping actions, including ordering the closure of all executive branch diversity, equity and inclusion offices and ordering that all employees working in these offices are placed on leave.
Additionally, Trump revoked Secret Service protection given to 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.
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President Donald Trump signed a document Tuesday evening ordering the Federal Aviation Administration to stop using diversity, equity and inclusion hiring authorities. He particularly pointed the finger at the authorities responsible for recruiting people with disabilities.
“Under the previous administration…the FAA betrayed its mission by prioritizing dangerous discrimination over excellence,” the president argued. He further denounced the recruitment of “individuals with serious disabilities,” rebuking efforts to recruit people with disabilities.
The nation’s aviation watchdog has used expedited hiring authorities for people with disabilities for at least a decade, including during the first Trump administration. Such programs allowed hiring managers to bypass the competitive recruiting process to appoint professionally qualified candidates with disabilities.
In the document, Trump argues that pro-diversity hiring practices “penalize hard-working Americans who want to serve in the FAA but are unable to do so because they do not have the disability or disability.” skin color required.”
The agency, however, is grappling with a serious shortage of air traffic controllers, who must meet strict medical requirements that authorities responsible for recruiting people with disabilities cannot circumvent.
The move is one of several executive actions focused on the federal workforce enacted since Trump took office Monday afternoon. His other actions addressed DEI recruiting more broadly, freezing hiring at most executive branch agencies and ordering 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 possible civil rights investigations against private sector entities that promote diverse hiring.
In his own executive order, Trump attacked these policies as “dangerous, demeaning and immoral race- and gender-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’
Trump’s order flips the script, arguing that affirmative action provisions are unlawfully discriminatory. Federal agencies must now “enforce our longstanding civil rights laws and combat illegal private sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”
—Davis Winkie
Trump will sit down for an interview today 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 with 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 city’s press pool (the rotation of the small group of journalists who follow the president) was asked to report at 9 a.m.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Justice Department officials were quickly reassigned following President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday to help align the department with the new administration’s priorities – particularly on immigration, said at USA TODAY a ministry official close to the matter.
In a speech to supporters Monday, Trump described immigration as his “number one issue.”
The rapid actions taken at the Justice Department, which were in place Tuesday, show that the administration is moving to implement its immigration agenda at the department level.
-Aysha Bagchi
President Trump said Tuesday evening that he had granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an online black market that allowed users to buy and sell illegal drugs.
The president announced his decision on Truth Social.
-Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
President Trump on Tuesday announced private sector investment of up to $500 billion to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, aiming to outpace rival countries in this business-critical technology.
Trump said the joint venture, called Stargate, would build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle, along with other Stargate backers, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remainder expected over the next four years.
And CEOs Masayoshi Son of SoftBank and Sam Altman of OpenAI CEO as well as Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.
-Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
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