WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is spending his first full day at the White House meeting with congressional leaders, making an infrastructure announcement and demonstrating one of his favorite expressions of power: firing people .
The new president announced Tuesday on his Truth social network that he would fire more than 1,000 presidential appointees “who are not aligned with our vision,” including some high-profile names.
Trump fired chef and humanitarian Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, retired Gen. Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, former State Department official Brian Hook from the council of directors of the Wilson Center and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. of the Presidential Export Council.
“YOU ARE FIRED!” ” Trump said in his message – his catchphrase from his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”
Former President Joe Biden also removed numerous Trump appointees during his first days in office, including former press secretary Sean Spicer from the board overseeing the U.S. Naval Academy.
Trump planned to continue building on his barrage of announcements on Inauguration Day, with the White House promising a “massive announcement” on infrastructure. Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, declined to detail the announcement in advance, but she said in an interview on Fox News that it would send a message to the world.
“You won’t want to miss it,” she said.
“Infrastructure Week” has become a punchline from the first Trump administration as White House officials have repeatedly promised – over the years – to focus on major public works projects, only for Trump himself to quickly shift his attention elsewhere while major infrastructure legislation never came to fruition.
It was a common enough pattern that Biden joked about his predecessor failing to focus for even a week on infrastructure while his the administration oversaw the passage of billions of dollars for bridges, tunnels, roads and other projects for the next 10 years.
“He didn’t build anything,” Biden often said of Trump, adding that his own administration had implemented an “infrastructure decade.”
Trump wants to ban Chinese companies from owning vital US infrastructure in sectors such as energy, technology and agriculture, and he says he will force Chinese owners to sell all their stakes “that jeopardize security nationality of America.
Trump also attended a national prayer service Tuesday morning at the Washington National Cathedral, a customary visit for new presidents and one that will cap his four days of inauguration-related events.
Later in the day, the president was scheduled to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republican lawmakers. This is the first formal meeting of GOP leadership teams, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Republican Senate Whip John Barrasso and the new president, as they set priorities for the use of Republican power in Washington.
Despite an ambitious 100-day agenda, the Republican-led Congress is not on the same page on some ideas and strategies as it rushes to propose tax cuts for the rich, mass evictions and other Trump goals.
Trump used the first hours of his presidency Monday to sign a series of executive orders and memorandums, moving quickly to show that his new grip on the U.S. government would be a sea change from his predecessor.
He pardoned hundreds of people for their roles in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accords and the World Health Organization, began his crackdown on immigration by declaring a national emergency over the U.S.-Mexico deal. border and sought to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in America, which is expected to face constitutional challenges.
He also signed an order to suspend the ban on TikTok for 75 days to give its China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer.
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Darlene Superville and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
