US President Donald Trump starts firing opponents after executive order blitz

JD Vance and Donald Trump during the 60th presidential inauguration in Washington. Photo / Getty Images

US President Donald Trump announced plans to weed out some 1000 opponents from the US government on Tuesday on his first full day in power after taking office with a shock-and-awe blitz of executive orders.

Trump was due to meet with leaders of the narrow Republican majority in Congress at the White House as he tries to get his agenda, including tax cuts, approved at rapid pace.

In a post shortly after midnight on his Truth Social app, Trump said four people had already been “FIRED!” from advisory roles and made clear they were the tip of the iceberg as he seeks to quickly tighten his grip on the government bureaucracy.

“My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” he posted.

One of those fired was retired general Mark Milley from an infrastructure advisory body. Milley was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during Trump’s first presidency but became one of the Republican’s most prominent critics after he tried to overturn the 2020 election.

The acting head of the Department of Homeland Security separately announced the firing of Coast Guard chief Linda Fagan, who was appointed under Democrat Joe Biden and was the first woman to head one of the six branches of the US military.

Trump was inaugurated on Monday in the Capitol’s ornate Rotunda, with ceremonies forced indoors due to bad weather for the first time in decades.

Only a select group was able to attend in person, rather than the usual massive crowd on the Mall for inaugurations.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai (C, L) and SpaceX, X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk watch during the inauguration of Donald Trump. Photo / AFP

In an unprecedented display of influence from America’s super-rich, major tycoons including Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos were among those with the best seats.

After taking the oath, 78-year-old Trump – the oldest person ever sworn in as US president – signed a blizzard of executive actions intended to transform the country.

These included pulling the United States from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organisation, while pardoning hundreds of supporters convicted of crimes while attacking the Capitol four years ago in an attempt to overturn the election.

Media relations

Trump attended a prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Tuesday, where just last month he had joined outgoing President Biden and the other living ex-presidents for the funeral of late President Jimmy Carter.

Newly installed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would also make a “big infrastructure announcement” later, although she did not say what this would be.

One thing not happening on Tuesday was a traditional daily White House press briefing by the top spokeswoman, who indicated that – as during his first term – Trump himself would do the messaging.

“I can confirm the American people won’t be hearing from me today, they’ll be hearing from the leader of the free world once again. President Trump will be speaking to the press later at the White House,” she told Trump-friendly Fox News.

Trump likes to berate the “fake news media” and call journalists “the enemy of the people” but also encourages intensive press coverage – in stark contrast to the media-shy Biden.

‘Golden age’

Trump’s inaugural address in the Rotunda mixed dark imagery about a failing America with promises that he would usher in a “golden age”.

After the pomp and ceremony, it was the showman Trump – along with the sometimes strongman-style rhetoric – that quickly took over.

“Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so,” Trump told cheering supporters in a sports arena as he tossed them the pens used to sign a first round of orders.

Once in the Oval Office, Trump held an impromptu 50-minute press conference as he signed multiple more orders, including the one pardoning around 1500 Capitol rioters.

He also declared a national emergency at the Mexican border and said he would deploy US troops to tackle illegal immigration – a key campaign issue in his November election victory over Kamala Harris.

The returning president pledged to impose trade tariffs on Mexico and Canada, rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” and take “back” the Panama Canal, which has been controlled by the Central American country since 1999.

He confirmed he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

- Agence France-Presse