On his first full day in office Tuesday President Donald Trump continued sweeping actions, including ordering the shuttering of all executive branch diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and ordered all employees working in such offices to be placed on leave.
In addition, Trump revoked Secret Service protection for 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.
Keep up with the USA TODAY news team for updates.
Trump executive order inverts civil rights hiring protections
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 potential civil rights investigations against private sector entities who embrace diversity hiring.
In his own executive order, Trump attacked such policies as “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’”
Trump’s order flips the script, arguing that affirmative action provisions are illegally discriminatory. Federal agencies instead must now “enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”
Federal contractors have 90 days to end their diversity programs, the order says. New contract or grant recipients must certify that they won’t engage in DEI employment practices.
The order further directs the Attorney General and other agency heads to recommend “specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or principles” in the private sector.
“As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil rights investigations,” of entities including public corporations, large non-profits, professional associations, and institutions of higher learning, Trump ordered.
Pro-veteran hiring initiatives are specifically exempted from the ban.
The revoked order targeted by Trump, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order No. 11246, represented a watershed moment in civil rights enforcement when originally signed. President Barack Obama expanded the order in 2014 to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Labor Department’s own website (as of Wednesday morning) describes the order as a “key landmark” of the civil rights movement that “remains a major safeguard, protecting the rights of workers employed by federal contractors—approximately one-fifth of the entire U.S. labor force—to remain free from discrimination on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”
Davis Winkie
What is on President Trump’s schedule today?
Trump will sit down today for an interview 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 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 in-town press pool (the rotation of the small group of reporters who shadow the president) has been asked to report at 9 a.m.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Justice Department career officials reshuffled to advance Donald Trump’s immigration agenda
Justice Department officials were swiftly reassigned in the wake of President Donald Trump‘s Monday inauguration in order to help align the department with the new administration’s priorities – particularly on immigration, a department official familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
In a speech to supporters Monday, Trump described immigration as his “number one issue.”
The swift moves at the Justice Department, which were in place by Tuesday, show the administration moving to enact his immigration agenda at the department level.
–Aysha Bagchi
Trump pardons founder of Silk Road
President Trump said Tuesday night that he had given a “full and unconditional” pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an online black market which enabled users to buy and sell illegal drugs.
The president announced his decision on Truth Social.
–Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Trump announces private sector investment in AI
President Trump announced on Tuesday a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology.
Trump said the joint venture, called Stargate, will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected over the next four years.
And CEOs Masayoshi Son of SoftBank and Sam Altman of OpenAI CEO along with Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.
–Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
