The New Trump Age

In less than a month, President Donald Trump has made dozens of policy changes, barreling down his path of making America great again and bulldozing anything that gets in his way. Here are some of his biggest moves since taking office:

Rollbacks of Anti-Discrimination Policies

According to an article by The New York Times, President Trump signed two orders on Monday, January 20 that dismantled policies from the Biden administration that prevented discrimination on the basis of sex and protected transgender people in the U.S. This order would halt all federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs. 

The orders include changes to government forms to only include two genders, with one order stating gender identities outside of sex assigned at birth do not "provide a meaningful basis for identification."

The dismantling of DEI programs now requires federal employment offices to upend current hiring practices and would end racial equity-based programs and grants. This shift in the governmental sector also triggered several corporations to do away with their own DEI policies, including Meta, Walmart, Amazon and Target. These rollbacks could bring about drastic changes in employment practices. While federal protections for anti-discrimination hiring practices are still in place, the rollback of DEI programs could lead to corporations deprioritizing diversity efforts, which could lead to less equitable hiring practices in the future. 

Along with these rollbacks, Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, a move he first made during his first term. 

U.S. to Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement (Again)

Another executive order from this administration makes the United States one of four countries not acting in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement, along with Libya, Yemen and Iran.

The president declared a "national energy emergency" in his inaugural address and that the United States would "drill, baby, drill," according to BBC. This shows the Trump administration's intent to double down on fossil fuels and move away from clean energy. This comes after the announcement that 2024 was the Earth's hottest year on record. 

After Trump's first withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, climate diplomacy was disrupted, significant contributions to climate finance were stopped and the United States' credibility was damaged globally. This will continue throughout the new administration, which could leave developing countries without financial resources for their own climate efforts and could trigger other powerful states to withdraw from the Agreement. Pollution will continue, potentially leading to detrimental effects for island nations, global air quality and more extreme weather in all parts of the world, per a 2024 NASA report.

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the globe in the 21st century, and these new energy policies could prove to be catastrophic. 

DOGE's Access to Treasury Department...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) representatives access to federal payment and systems to "monitor and potentially limit government spending" on the evening of January 31, according to the New York Times. This act would give the Trump administration unilateral power to restrict the disbursement of congressionally approved federal funds for specific programs. Musk's representatives were made Treasury employees and were given the security clearance needed to access these systems according to a report from Reuters. 

It is important to note that DOGE is not an official government department, but is a consulting team within the Trump administration, which does not make Elon Musk, the head of the Department, subject to approval by Congress. In the fiscal year 2023, the Treasury Department disbursed more than $5 trillion. 

...And the Following Lawsuit

As reported by the New York Times, on February 7, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer temporarily froze DOGE's access to the Treasury's payment and data systems, citing the "risk of irreparable harm." The Treasury's systems encompass not only about 90% of federal funding, but also includes sensitive data, like personal bank details of American citizens. 

Judge Engelmayer ordered any officials given access to the systems on or after January 20 to "destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department's records and systems" and restricted the government to granting access to any more officials not hired directly to the Treasury. 

This order comes after a lawsuit was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James and 18 other Democratic state attorneys general against President Trump and Treasury Secretary Bessent for breaching Constitutional protections and failing to execute laws enacted by Congress, according to Associated Press. 

Both defendants will have to provide cause on February 14 to Judge Jeannette A. Vargas, who will be permanently handling the case. 

Sanctioning the International Criminal Court

An executive order signed on February 6 by President Trump stated that the United States will now be sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to past investigations against U.S. military personnel and the arrest warrants brought against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in November for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The ICC investigates and tries individuals charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. President Trump stated in the order that the ICC has "abused its power" with the arrest warrants brought against the Israeli government, calling them "baseless." The order also cited the ICC's conduct against Israel as threats to American sovereignty, national security and foreign policy. The most tangible of the sanctions will be the freezing of any American assets or property held by any ICC employees, as well as blocking any ICC "officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members" from entering the United States as their entry would be "detrimental" to national interest. 

This order came on the same day that President Trump, alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu, claimed that the U.S. would "take over" the Gaza Strip and displace the entire Palestinian population to Egypt and Jordan to make it "the Riviera of the Middle East."

The Trump administration's use of shock and awe—launching a barrage upon a populous rendering them catatonic—is calculated. They are trying to scare the American people into being complacent and submissive to their power. Now more than ever it is imperative that people create connections, organize, and demand more of their representatives to tell the executive branch that they are, in fact, subject to the will of the people and are in breach of that social contract.