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Donald Trump returned to the presidency on Monday with a promise to “immediately restore the integrity, competency and loyalty of America’s government.”
The president is expected to take many executive actions in the coming days. Some that will affect federal employees include freezing government hiring, as he did in his first term, curtailing remote and hybrid work flexibility for government workers and “improved accountability” for the bureaucracy, which is likely a reference to reinstituting Schedule F.
Earlier Monday, officials detailed plans the president will shortly take directing federal personnel to increase the detention and deportation of migrants in and crossing into the U.S., including sending the military to the southern border.
“I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” he said in his inaugural address.
In his speech, Trump also said that he would end the “weaponization of the Justice Department.” On the campaign trail, he regularly complained that former President Joe Biden’s DOJ was prosecuting him, although the cases against Trump were pursued by a special counsel.
Shortly before the end of his administration, Biden pardoned certain members of his family.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
While Trump in his address touted the planned establishment of the advisory Department of Government Efficiency to cut bureaucracy and spending, he also proposed creating a new agency. The External Revenue Service, which he first suggested last week, would be responsible for collecting tariffs and duties.
“It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources,” Trump said.
The president also criticized the response to and recovery from Hurricane Helene in the Southeast and Appalachia as well as the southern California wildfires.
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