Donald Trump has had a busy week since he took over the White House last week.

President Trump was sworn into office for the second time on Monday (January 20) as the 47th president of the United States and it’s fair to say, he’s had a busy week.

The 78-year-old kicked off his plans for the ‘golden Age of America’ by reversing most of the work of his predecessor Joe Biden.

From 26 executive orders to presidential pardons, here’s everything Trump has done so far.

Trump has had a busy week (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Immigration

At the top of the bill is Trump’s promise to crack down on immigration, having declared a national emergency at the southern border and sent more than a thousand troops to the US-Mexico border.

Trump also ordered the construction of the border wall while suggesting the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed to the Gulf of America, which got some laughs from Hillary Clinton during his inauguration ceremony.

Beyond that, he’s asked Homeland Security to halt all refugee and asylum seekers admissions, as well as remove illegal migrants (with the term ‘illegal alien’ now reinstated).

He also tried to put an end to birthright US citizenship for the children of non-US citizens which was blocked by a federal judge in Seattle, calling it ‘blatantly unconstitutional’, reports the BBC.

Trump further threatened to prosecute officials and strip funding from sanctuary states that refuse to cooperate with deportation orders.

Gender

Trump has wasted no time in clamping down on transgender rights, too.

His order defines sex as either ‘male’ or ‘female’, which he claims are ‘not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality’.

This means transgender people won’t be able to change their legal documents to reflect their gender, for instance on passports.

The State Department has already ordered all applications from people to change their gender on passports, or to replace it with an ‘x’ marker, to be suspended.

TikTok

The President pretty much immediately suspended the proposed TikTok ban with hopes to strike a deal with the company.

The social media giant has been granted a 75-day extension to find an American buyer.

TikTok was restored almost immediately (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Diversity

Another controversial move out of the White House this week has been the scrapping government diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs which were designed to protect workers from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

He revoked the Executive Order 11246, established in 1965, and ordered employees working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the Department of Labor to be put on paid leave while their work was shut down.

Advocates for DEI initiatives have long argued it presents a level playing field for underrepresented minorities such as LGBTQ+ people, but Trump’s order slammed the programs as ‘illegal discrimination and preferences’ and said they would be scrapped to ‘restore merit-based opportunity’.

He’s also slammed the brakes on working from home practices for federal workers and has frozen almost all federal agencies from hiring, apart from military, immigration enforcement, national security and public safety jobs.

Presidential appointees fired – and the WHO

Trump has promised on Truth Social to fire more than 1,000 presidential appointees from the previous administration.

The president said those in the firing line are ‘not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again’, including retired Army general Mark Milley, who was fired from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.

Trump also withdrew the US from the World Health Organization (WHO), claiming it ‘mishandled’ the pandemic.

Presidential pardons

Hundreds of people were pardoned by the president last week, including the almost 1,600 people charged in connection with the January 6 riot at the Capitol, 23 anti-abortion protesters and two Washington DC Police officers, Andrew Zabavsky and Terence Sutton, convicted for the death of a Black man during a police car chase in 2020.

However, the biggest name to receive a pardon is Ross Ulbricht, a 40-year-old tech pro from Texas who created and operated the darkweb market website, Silk Road, from 2011 up until his arrest in 2013 and conviction two years later.

Declassified files

Trump declassified files about the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr Martin Luther King Jr and further files about Robert Kennedy.

Capital punishment

Trump outlined a commitment to seek the death penalty for federal crimes that involve the murder of law enforcement or in cases where an illegal migrant commits a capital crime.

Anti-abortion

Trump has made several anti-abortion moves already, such as restoring the Mexico City Rule, which bans federal funding to any overseas nongovernmental organization that performs abortions.

While he praised the annual ‘March for Life’ rally, he made a statement ‘strongly’ supporting the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act and shut down the Biden administration’s pro-abortion government website.

He also restored the Hyde Amendment, which stops taxpayers from paying for abortions.

He said only American flags will be used in US embassies (DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Flags

Trump is also taking a stand against flags, having issued guidance that US embassies should fly only the American flag.

The notice comes after activist flags like Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ+ Pride flag flew over government buildings during Biden’s term.

Climate change and energy

The President declared a national energy emergency and ordered the US to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, which saw almost 200 countries sign the legally binding treaty on climate change in 2015.

While most countries are trying to move away from oil and gas as sources of energy with climate change in mind, Trump has signed orders aiming to promote the the two things in Alaska.

“We will drill, baby,” Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday.

“We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have – the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it. We’re going to use it.”

If that’s not enough, he also tore up the electric vehicle mandate and announced plans to get rid of regulations on household items like lightbulbs, water heaters and washing machines.

Economy and foreign relationships

One executive order looks to deliver emergency cost relief to Americans in the housing and healthcare sectors with a view to cut back on climate policies and create more jobs.

In line with his ‘America First’ trade policy, which looks at collective revenue related to foreign trade, Trump also ordered to pause assistance to foreign countries for 90 days.

Trump spoke to several foreign leaders, including one such ‘fiery’ call with the Danish prime minister on national security concerns, and others like the El Salvadoran President about illegal immigration.

He also called on Putin to ‘stop this ridiculous war’ in Ukraine – or Russia would face sanctions.

The President has come up with an idea to exile American criminals overseas if they are ‘repeat offenders’.

Donald Trump has been extremely busy since he took over the White House on last week on January 20.

The 78-year-old immediately announced his plan for the ‘golden Age of America’, which started by undoing most of the work of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Within days, Trump signed 26 executive orders, declared a ‘national emergency’ at the border over immigration, wrote that there are ‘only two genders‘ into policy, halted the TikTok ban, scrapped diversity programs, withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the Paris Climate Agreement, and went on to pardon some controversial figures including Ross Ulbricht, who walked free from prison after being convicted in 2015 for his operations in the dark web market site, Silk Road.

The president has been very busy since he returned to the White House last week (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

And that’s just a few of Trump’s policies in the past week.

Clearly showing no signs of slowing down on his dramatic overhaul, the president has now suggested the US could pay foreign countries a ‘small fee’ to host American convicts.

During a House Republicans conference in Miami yesterday (January 27), the POTUS said the country could exile and ship out repeat criminal offenders, pitching it as a cost-saving measure.

Trump explained, as per NBC News: “If they’ve been arrested many, many times, they’re repeat offenders by many numbers, I want them out of our country.

“We’re going to get approval, hopefully, to get them the hell out of our country, along with others – let them be brought to a foreign land and maintained by others for a very small fee.”

Repeat offenders in the US could be sent to prisons overseas (Getty Images)

He claimed doing so would mean the federal government could avoid using US prisons for ‘massive amounts of money’ and private jails which ‘charge us a fortune’.

The president said the idea is separate from a similar scheme to deport illegal immigrants who are said to have criminal records.

But penal transportation isn’t new, with banishment being used as a form of punishment throughout history, from around the 5th century BCE in Ancient Greece before being accelerated by the British Empire in the 18th century.

England transported tens of thousands of convicts and political prisoners to the American colonies up until the 1776 American Revolution – though that didn’t stop Britain from exiling their criminals all the way to Australia until 1868.

France also used the practice in the 19th to early-to-mid 20th centuries, sending their convicts to Guiana and New Caledonia, and the Soviet Union took a far more drastic approach with mass deportations instead, which ramped up during the Second World War.

Human rights protesters called on the Biden administration to release Guantanamo Bay prisoners in December before Trump took office (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Penal colonies still exist in Russia and the Philippines – and the US has the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, established by then president George W Bush to hold suspects of terrorism.

It remains unclear what gave Trump the vision to exile prisoners abroad, but he did state apparent concern that violent offenders are released back onto the streets, despite having ‘been arrested 30 times’ or more.

He also said he believed temporary exile to foreign prisons would make a dent in crime in general in the US, saying: “Let them be brought out of our country and let them live there for a while. Let’s see how they like it.”

Trump’s take on a new type of penal colony comes as his administration attempts to tackle the federal budget – and has already hiked deportation efforts to this end.

Joe Biden has spoken out following the 2024 US presidential election result.

President-Elect Donald Trump has triumphed across the US, after people took to the polls on Tuesday (November 5) and voted overwhelmingly in support of the Republican Party.

Joe Biden has spoken about the election result (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

On Wednesday morning (November 6), it was announced that Trump had won the 2024 US Election, after being projected to win the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“Every single day I will be fighting for you, with every single breath in my body. I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that children deserve,” Trump told supporters at his campaign’s HQ in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Following the devastating blow for the Democratic Party, Biden spoke out about the Republican win.

In a statement released this evening, the president praised Harris and said selecting her as his vice president was ‘the best decision’ he made.

“What America saw today was the Kamala Harris I know and deeply admire,” Biden shared. “She’s been a tremendous partner and public servant full of integrity, courage, and character.”

“Under extraordinary circumstances, she stepped up and led a historic campaign that embodied what’s possible when guided by a strong moral compass and a clear vision for a nation that is more free, more just, and full of more opportunities for all Americans,” he continued. “She will continue the fight with purpose, determination, and joy. She will continue to be a champion for all Americans. Above all, she will continue to be a leader our children will look up to for generations to come as she puts her stamp on America’s future.”

Donald Trump has won the 2024 US election (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

While Biden had been poised to run again as the Democrat’s nominee, he abandoned his presidential candidacy in July.

Addressing his decision to step down, Biden said he thought it was in the ‘best interest’ of the Democratic Party.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” part of his statement read.

“And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Back in August, Biden urged America to elect Kamala Harris as the next president, explaining that choosing her to be his vice-president was the ‘best decision’ he had made.

It was a devastating defeat for the Democratic Party (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Following Biden’s endorsement, Harris addressed the crowd at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago back in August, telling supporters, as per CBS News: “My entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people. And so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.”

President Donald Trump has fired Justice Department lawyers who worked on bringing two criminal cases against him.

It’s been a little more than a week since Trump took his oath of office as the 47th president of the United States on Monday (January 20) and he’s been rather busy, with dozens of executive orders, presidential pardons and policy ideas flying out of the White House.

He sacked more than 1,000 government workers and presidential appointees within hours of his presidency and tore up diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs with it, while staff in the Department of Labor responsible for the initiatives were placed on paid leave.

Announcing his plans to ‘Make America Great Again’ on his Truth Social platform, Trump named some of the employees he was letting go and even drew on his old The Apprentice catchphrase as he did so.

Donald Trump has made several changes since taking back the White House last week (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The post read: “Let this serve as Official Notice of Dismissal for these 4 individuals, with many more, coming soon.

“Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council – YOU’RE FIRED!”

Now, Trump is turning his attention to the justice department team who’d worked on investigating his alleged mishandling of classified documents and of his alleged attempt to overturn his election defeat in 2020.

Jack Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022 to lead his team to investigate the cases which both resulted in criminal charges being brought – to which Trump plead not guilty.

However, the charges were later dropped in November after Trump’s election win, as regulations prohibit the prosecution of a sitting president.

Jack Smith resigned from his role before the president could fire him (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Mr Smith has maintained his professional integrity, writing in the final draft of his report (via the BBC): “The claim from [Trump] that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”

The POTUS pledged to fire Mr Smith ‘within two seconds’ of taking his oath – but he beat him to it and quit before Trump’s inauguration ceremony.

Yesterday (Monday, January 27), Trump fired more than a dozen of attorneys, which a justice department official told CBS News that Acting Attorney General James McHenry concluded they couldn’t ‘be trusted to faithfully implement the president’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the president’.

It remains unclear which members of Mr Smith’s team have been sacked, but many worked in career corruption or as national security prosectors.

Trump’s charges were dropped (MARK PETERSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

BBC News further reports that staff received their notice on Monday, which outlined how their involvement in investigating and prosecuting the president made them unfit to work in the government department.