US President Donald Trump’s executive orders: Exit from Paris treaty and WHO, hiring freeze, undoing Biden orders

US President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders, including the country’s exit from the Paris climate treaty and World Health Organisation, undoing a host of orders by former US President Joe Biden, ordering emergency price relief, freezing government hirings and pardoning around 1,500 people who had stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, just hours after he took oath as the 47th President of the US.

Trump took oath on Monday as the new US President in a star-studded inauguration event that was attended by foreign dignitaries and tech magnates. After taking oath, Trump said the “golden age of America begins right now”. 

"Our sovereignty will be reclaimed, our safety will be restored, the scales of justice will be rebalanced…Sunlight is pouring over the entire world and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before,” Trump said. 

Here are the executive orders that US President Donald Trump issued: 

• Trump pardoned around 1,500 people who had stormed the US Capitol in 2021 as they tried to prevent lawmakers from certifying his 2020 election defeat to Biden. He also cut short the sentences of 14 members of far-right factions, convicted of seditious conspiracy. 
• He signed orders declaring illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency, and designated criminal cartels as terrorist organisations. 
• The US President revoked 78 executive orders of his predecessor, and said he will sign an order directing every agency to preserve all records pertaining to ‘political persecutions’ under the Biden administration. "I'll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration," Trump said.
• Trump rescinded executive orders promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and promoting rights for LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities. Among the orders repealed, around a dozen measures supported racial equity and combating discrimination against gay and transgender people.
• He signed an order to delay the TikTok ban for 75 days, which was supposed to stop operating in the country on January 19. 
• Trump signed orders freezing government hiring and new federal regulations, including ordering federal workers to immediately return to full-time in-person work. 
• He asked all the executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, including cutting regulations and climate policies that raise costs, and prescribe actions to lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply.
• Trump signed an order to withdraw from the Paris climate treaty. "It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first," the order said. He repealed a 2023 memo from Biden that barred oil drilling in some 16 million acres in the Arctic saying that the government should encourage energy exploration and production. 
• Another order signed by Trump withdrew the US from the World Health Organisation, who, the President said mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. 
• He ordered the formation of an advisory group called the Department of Government Efficiency, dubbed DOGE, to be run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. 
• Trump also signed a document ‘ending weaponisation’ of government against political opponents, directing the attorney general to investigate the activities of the federal government over the last four years. 
• He signed an order aiming at restoring freedom of speech. "Under the guise of combating 'misinformation,' 'disinformation,' and 'malinformation,' the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens," the White House said.
• Trump declared a national energy emergency and promised to fill up strategic oil reserves as well as export US energy all over the world. He laid out a sweeping plan to maximise US oil and gas production.