New Delhi: The series of directives issued by President Donald Trump within hours of his swearing-in was -- as expected -- unambiguous, assertive and geopolitically important. They seemingly confirmed that the new US President was determined to take complete control of the governance, bring the ‘America First’ call into play and give priority to building the economic strength of the US to fulfil that mandate.

The first of the ten executive orders signed by him even before moving to the Oval Office suspended 78 notifications issued by the Biden Presidency. His directives included a freeze on the hiring of Federal employees except for the military, immigration control, national security and public safety, stoppage of issue of any further notifications by Federal officials and restoration of complete freedom of speech, ending the ‘weaponisation’ of the instruments of governance in the previous regime.

There was also the declaration of withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty to save American aid of $3 billion given annually to the climate fund. This and the pull-out from the WHO that would deprive the UN agency of the annual US contribution of $130 million will have international repercussions. Trump’s long-held antipathy towards WHO is rooted in his perception that the UN agency was influenced by China, which was responsible for Covid 19 virus, and that WHO had mishandled the pandemic.

Trump’s announced mission of ‘Making America Great Again’ seems to be the prompt behind many of these early declarations in the spheres of foreign policy, domestic handling of inflation and unemployment, as well as of economy and trade. President Trump, in his second innings, is driven by a desire to transform the US and leave behind a legacy of decision-making that no other President could measure up to.

The first directives signed by Trump covered matters ranging from the security of borders to the thrust on bringing the governance totally under the President’s control. He terminated all arrangements of remote functioning for federal employees and ordered their return to In-Person work. He asked for a plan for downsizing the Federal government’s workforce through improvement of efficiency and attrition.

At the same time, he directed executive departments and agencies to implement ‘emergency price relief measures’ to lower the cost of housing, health care, food and fuel and also create employment opportunities.

In an extraordinary executive order, President Trump renamed the US Digital Service as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and proposed to place it under Elon Musk for maximising the government’s ‘efficiency and productivity’. Trump has directed his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to implement the ‘America First’ foreign policy, in which the US and its citizens will be the sole priority.

He ordered the rechristening of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and the return of the name of Denali, the highest peak in North America, to the former Mount McKinley-named after the 25th President of the US in the 19th century. At home, the new President has called for tightening immigration laws, interestingly, the concerned directive captioned ‘Protecting the American people against Invasion’ introduces a slew of policies aimed at curbing immigration.

Trump, in fact, declared a ‘national emergency’ for checking immigration and directed military personnel to help secure the southern border through the use of additional physical barriers as well as drones. The Homeland Security Secretary has been asked by Trump to establish Homeland Security Task Forces in all states to assist in the faithful execution of immigration laws.

In another directive, Trump has ended birthright citizenship for children born in the US to immigrant parents who were in the country illegally as well as those born to parents who were there on a temporary basis. He has threatened mass deportations of illegal migrants including those whose birthright citizenship was revoked.