Speaker 1: Hi there, I'm Claire Murphy from Mumama's twice daily news podcast,
Speaker 1: The Quickie, Well, Ladies and Gentlemen. He's back. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is now officially back in the White House. The building
Speaker 1: staff the other day having to frantically shift the bidens
Speaker 1: out and the Trump's back in over a very small
Speaker 1: five hour window while the inauguration ceremony was underway, and
Speaker 1: in the meantime, Donald Trump has wasted exactly zero time
Speaker 1: enacting his presidential powers, signing in multiple executive orders in
Speaker 1: front of an adoring crowd at a post inauguration rally.
Speaker 1: Our US correspondent Emilia lest joins us with what to
Speaker 1: expect from the first days of the Trump administration two
Speaker 1: point zero. Donald Trump supporter, financial backer and soon to
Speaker 1: be member of US Cabinet Elon Musk, has caused concern
Speaker 1: after giving what appeared to be a Nazi salute during
Speaker 1: the rally after Trump's inauguration. Musk responded on his social
Speaker 1: media platform x saying frankly, they need better dirty tricks
Speaker 1: and that the everyone is Hitler attack is so tiring.
Speaker 1: Mumma Me is US correspondent and the editor of Foreign
Speaker 1: Policy magazine Emelia Lester says the gesture looked deliberate, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't done just once.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, by the way he gave that salute, whatever
Speaker 2: it was, twice, he gave it once to the front
Speaker 2: of the room and then again turned around to address
Speaker 2: the back with it. It looked pretty much like a
Speaker 2: Nazi salute to me. He may well say that he
Speaker 2: didn't mean it, that he was being ironic. I've seen
Speaker 2: people kind of not wanting to call it what it is,
Speaker 2: but I think we can confidently at least call it
Speaker 2: a reference to a Nazi salute. It was interesting that
Speaker 2: The New York trans reported just around the time of
Speaker 2: the inauguration that originally his office as the head of
Speaker 2: the Department of Government Efficiency was to be in an
Speaker 2: administrative building next to the White House. But now The
Speaker 2: Times has reported that he will actually have an office
Speaker 2: in the White House. And it's worth mentioning the White
Speaker 2: House is tiny, so this is a really big deal
Speaker 2: and it shows where he falls in Trump's hierarchy. It
Speaker 2: was fascinating in general to see the various tech oligarchs
Speaker 2: and how they've been treated and who's up and who's down. So,
Speaker 2: for instance, at the luncheon that took place at the
Speaker 2: Capitol after the swearing in. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon,
Speaker 2: and Elon Musk was seated at the front of the room.
Speaker 2: Poor Mark Zuckerberg and his wife were seated at the
Speaker 2: very back of the room. There were also lots of
Speaker 2: other rich people in attendance, such as inexplicably the richest
Speaker 2: man in France, Bernard Naut, who, by some estimates is
Speaker 2: the richest man in the world, depending on whether Tesla
Speaker 2: stock is up or down. The CEO of TikTok was
Speaker 2: of course present, and in general it was really striking
Speaker 2: to me to see all these rich men sitting in
Speaker 2: front of the elected officials at the actual swearing inn
Speaker 2: That's a site that you're just not used to seeing
Speaker 2: in a democracy.
Speaker 1: We've also since found out that Mask is going to
Speaker 1: be running this Department of Government Efficiency solo now, because
Speaker 1: he was supposed to be kind of co running it
Speaker 1: with Vivak Ramaswami, who is no longer going to do so.
Speaker 2: No, he's announced that he's going to run for governor Ohio,
Speaker 2: so it's unclear whether he's even going to start work
Speaker 2: at that department or not. But either way, Trump has
Speaker 2: already started slashing public services. For instance, one of the
Speaker 2: very first executive actions that he has signed is that
Speaker 2: he has announced a hiring freeze on all federal services positions.
Speaker 2: So he's clearly serious about slashing federal spending, whether or
Speaker 2: not both heads of the Department of Government Efficiency are
Speaker 2: in office.
Speaker 1: In an historic first day back in office, President Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has enacted a sweeping series of executive orders that
Speaker 1: dramatically reshaped federal policy across multiple domains. Trump declared a
Speaker 1: national emergency at the southern border, mobilizing Pentagon resources and
Speaker 1: military personnel for border enforcement. He terminated an app system
Speaker 1: that allows migrants to schedule asylum appointments, and initiated a
Speaker 1: controversial move to redefined birthrights citizenship. The administration also designated
Speaker 1: major drug cartels as terrorist organizations, potentially opening the door
Speaker 1: for military intervention on Mexican soil.
Speaker 2: I think there's going to be a lot of legal challenges. So,
Speaker 2: for instance, one of the executive orders that Trump has
Speaker 2: signed essentially bars people seeking asylum. And by the way,
Speaker 2: when Trump talks about people from mental institutions coming to
Speaker 2: the US, I'm pretty sure it's because he thinks that
Speaker 2: asylum seekers means people coming from mental asylums. But I'm
Speaker 2: setting that observation aside. I think that that's going to
Speaker 2: face a lot of legal challenges. The US has certain
Speaker 2: treaty obligations internationally. The people who are guaranteed to get
Speaker 2: a lot of work out of this a lawyers. It's
Speaker 2: hard to say right now which of these orders are
Speaker 2: going to actually pass muster legally.
Speaker 1: Overnight, Trump granted clemency to approximately fifteen hundred individuals convicted
Speaker 1: in connection with the January sixth Capital riot. The mass
Speaker 1: pardon effectively concludes all pending January six cases and includes
Speaker 1: those convicted of serious crimes, including assaulting police officers and
Speaker 1: seditious conspiracy. Two of those already released are the former
Speaker 1: leader of the Proud Boys, On Regtario and the founder
Speaker 1: of the Oathkeeper, Steuart Rhodes, who were serving twenty two
Speaker 1: and eighteen year sentences. Trump with through the United States
Speaker 1: from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time, describing
Speaker 1: it as one sided. He declared a National Energy Emergency
Speaker 1: aimed at streamlining environmental permitting processes. Despite America's current position
Speaker 1: as the world's leading oil producer.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of very powerful interests who are still
Speaker 2: invested in fossil fuels, and I think that you only
Speaker 2: have to look at his nomination for the Department of Interior,
Speaker 2: Doug Bergham, who is himself a fossil fuel executive, to
Speaker 2: see that Trump is stacking himself and surrounding himself with
Speaker 2: people who do have these vested interests in continuing to
Speaker 2: use and exploit fossil fuels. One somewhat troubling development, as
Speaker 2: far as I can see, is that he's not only
Speaker 2: going to continue and expand on oil and gas drilling,
Speaker 2: including in Alaska, where there's a lot of wilderness that
Speaker 2: has yet been untouched by that, he also wants to
Speaker 2: roll back green energy initiatives. Interestingly, despite his close relationship
Speaker 2: with Musk, one of his first announced or intended actions
Speaker 2: on day one as president is to roll back various
Speaker 2: initiatives that President Biden put in place to encourage the
Speaker 2: purchase of electric vehicles. So I don't know how that's
Speaker 2: going to work with his relationship with Musk, but that's
Speaker 2: just one example of the various ways in which he's
Speaker 2: not only doubling down on and expanding use of fossil fuels.
Speaker 2: He's also trying to make it more difficult to, for instance,
Speaker 2: manufacture energy efficient washing machines or vehicles, or to use
Speaker 2: wind energy or other alternative energy sources in place of
Speaker 2: fossil fuels.
Speaker 1: The new Trump administration also rescinded seventy eight executive actions
Speaker 1: from the Biden presidency. These reversals included the removal of
Speaker 1: protections against sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,
Speaker 1: and the reversal of transgender military service policies. After making
Speaker 1: this comment during his inauguration speech, it will henceforth be
Speaker 1: the official policy of the United States government that there
Speaker 1: are only two genders, male and female.
Speaker 2: He also has announced that he's going to roll back
Speaker 2: an initiative that allowed people to self identify on passport forms,
Speaker 2: for instance. So at the center of what he's doing
Speaker 2: here is he wants to dismantle what he calls the
Speaker 2: DEI complex, which is diversity and equality initiative. And so
Speaker 2: he says basically that you can't prioritize, for instance, racial
Speaker 2: equity or affirmative action in either policy making or in
Speaker 2: private business. And that's really core to the sales pitch
Speaker 2: that he made which is that liberal ideology had gone
Speaker 2: too far in emphasizing race, and that we need to
Speaker 2: roll back those that greater awareness of race in government.
Speaker 1: Trump also extended TikTok's operating deadline, temporarily averting a shutdown
Speaker 1: for its one hundred and seventy million American users. However,
Speaker 1: questions remain about the platform's long term future in the
Speaker 1: United States, particularly regarding potential ownership changes.
Speaker 2: I think that we're in for a very tumultuous four years,
Speaker 2: whatever your politics. The number of rich and powerful people
Speaker 2: who have now coal est in one administration. I don't
Speaker 2: think we've ever seen this kind of concentration of wealth
Speaker 2: and power ever before in American democracy, and i'ne curious
Speaker 2: to see how these various giant egos navigate each other
Speaker 2: and how it all plays out.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode of The Quickie. If
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