How Donald Trump Shook the World in His First Week as President

Donald Trump is a man of his word, at least when no institution stands in his way. Immediately after his inauguration, he signed nearly thirty executive orders and actions, setting a record that lays the foundation for his policies both domestically and globally. These actions share a common theme, encapsulated in a directive to the Secretary of State, which states that "America's interests and its citizens must always come first."

Within the United States, the majority of this week's decrees have focused on halting the "invasion at the southern border." These are not empty words. In his second term, Trump goes beyond his previous plan to build a wall. The President has declared a national emergency, already sending troops to the border with Mexico, where he plans to deploy up to 10,000 soldiers, and has begun detaining and expelling hundreds of illegal immigrants. Furthermore, he has banned asylum seekers from crossing into the U.S. to start their applications and has legalized what is commonly known as 'hot returns.' These are the first steps in his roadmap to deport around eleven million undocumented immigrants.

However, his immigration strategy has already encountered a setback: a court has deemed his attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, enshrined in the 14th Amendment, unconstitutional. He had announced this plan in 2018 but never carried it out. "I was going to do it through an executive action during my first term, but then COVID hit, and we had to focus on that," he explained this week in an interview with NBC, reiterating his intention to proceed with the plan. "We have to end this; it's ridiculous," he declared.

Trump has not only declared war on illegal immigrants but has also decided to swiftly end gender diversity policies, targeting the LGTBI community. 'Defending Women from Extreme Gender Ideology and Restoring Biological Truth in the Federal Government' is the title of the decree with which the Republican returns the U.S. to a time when "only two sexes exist: male and female."

This vision also includes sending home all officials from the Government's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments, which have ceased their programs that Trump considers "dangerous, degrading, and immoral." Transgender individuals will also find it more challenging to serve in the military, as the magnate has reversed the legal provision with which his predecessor, Joe Biden, authorized their service. Erasing Biden's legacy is undoubtedly one of the Republican's obsessions.

And it is already evident in numerous areas. In healthcare, for example, it will become more difficult for disadvantaged groups to access the Medicaid program, obtain insurance coverage, or have access to lower-priced medications. Trump even discards the decree by which Biden sought to establish limits on the development of Artificial Intelligence. He orders the Attorney General to find a way for 37 federal prisoners, whose death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by his predecessor, to be retried and ultimately receive lethal injections. However, those convicted for the Capitol assault days before Biden's inauguration have been set free. One of them, Pamela Hemphill, has rejected the pardon. "We were wrong. I pleaded guilty, and accepting the pardon would insult the Capitol police, the rule of law, and, of course, our nation," she justified.

The President has not been content with provoking a sociopolitical upheaval in the United States in just one week. He has had ample time to shake the entire world with his business logic. He has withdrawn the world's leading power from the World Health Organization and the Paris environmental agreements—a measure accompanied by the declaration of an energy emergency that will promote the use of fossil fuels—and he subtly threatens to do the same with NATO, significantly raising the bar of his demands on its members: it is no longer enough for them to allocate 2% of their GDP to Defense; now he asserts it must be 5%. "They don't protect us; we protect them," he concluded.

He claims he will amass a fortune with the tariffs he plans to impose on more than half the world. But, for now, he has not signed anything. He has merely threatened China with a 10% levy—far from the 60% promised during the campaign and justified by the role the Asian giant plays in the fentanyl crisis ravaging the United States—and Canada and Mexico with 25%. Moreover, he has expressed his desire to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with these two countries. He has also pointed an accusatory finger at the European Union. "If you come to manufacture in America, you'll have the lowest taxes in the world; if you want to sell products from abroad, you'll have to pay," he declared. It may take him more than a week to design this new phase of his trade war, but no one doubts he will eventually pull the trigger.

To centralize the collection of the spoils, Trump will create the External Revenue Service, a new department that will join the Government Efficiency Department, led by his right-hand man Elon Musk, owner of Tesla or X, with the aim of saving public spending by dismissing public employees and thus fulfilling another promise: lowering taxes.

The first promise Donald Trump has broken relates to a real war: Ukraine. In one of his usual bravado statements, he claimed he would end it in just one day. Now, his advisors consider a hundred days a more realistic timeframe. While most assumed he would pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate the cession of occupied territory, for now, he has demanded that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin end this "ridiculous war." Otherwise, he will face more sanctions.

Those who no longer face sanctions are the extremist settlers in Israel, whose illegal settlements in the West Bank were punished by Joe Biden. Trump has decided to lift these sanctions, and the consequences were immediate: the far-right launched an attack in Jinasfut, leaving 21 Palestinians injured and numerous homes ablaze. Undoubtedly, this is not the best introduction for a president who wants to be remembered as a "peacemaker and unifier."