President Trump declares 'America is back' as he begins blitz of executive orders
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Donald Trump declared “America is back” as he signed a slew of executive orders to kickstart his presidency, including a crackdown on illegal immigration and plans to "drill, baby, drill". The President said that he was “saved by God to make America great again” as he returned to the White House on Monday, capping an astonishing political comeback.
He is the first president in more than a century to win a second term after losing the White House and the first felon to occupy the White House. Mr Trump outlined a series of sweeping executive orders he plans to sign immediately to curb immigration, boost fossil fuel production and roll back environmental regulations.
He said he would declare a national emergency at the southern border with Mexico, dispatch troops there and resume a policy forcing asylum-seeking migrants to wait in Mexico for their US court hearings. The moves are a prelude to what he described as an unprecedented operation to deport millions of immigrants.
“All illegal entry will be immediately halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," he said in an address following his inauguration at the rotunda in the US Capitol.
He also said he would issue orders to scrap federal diversity programs and require the government to recognise only genders assigned at birth. The ceremony was moved indoors due to the extreme cold gripping much of the country. With his predecessor Joe Biden sitting just metres away, Mr Trump delivered a stinging judgment of the Democrat’s policies from immigration to foreign affairs.
