President Donald Trump wasted no time in taking a hammer to the permanent Washington bureaucracy, from revoking John Bolton’s security clearance to pardoning pro-life activists targeted by the Biden administration.
Trump used his executive power to remove the security clearances of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the 2020 letter that doubted the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The letter claimed the emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop, provided to the New York Post, have “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” The Daily Caller News Foundation (DNCF) verified the authenticity of the laptop.
The executive order stated the officials “engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign.” It also revoked the security clearances for Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton. (RELATED: Columbia Refuses To Accept Its Own Citizens On US Deportation Flights — Trump Instantly Responds)
TRUMP: John Bolton and Dick Cheney convinced George Bush to blow up the Middle East. We got nothing out of it except a lot of death.
REPORTER: “Why did you remove John Bolton’s security clearance, sir?”
TRUMP: “Because I think that was enough time. You take a job. You want to… pic.twitter.com/PSB32LZE86
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) January 22, 2025
Trump also reportedly stripped Fauci of his taxpayer-funded security detail, a source familiar told CNN. Trump seemed to confirm the report when a reporter asked him a question about it.
The president said Friday that “you can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for the government.”
Fauci has since hired his own personal security, according to the same CNN source.
If Trump wasn’t revoking the security clearances and details of bureaucrats, he was firing them.
His administration took aim Tuesday at DEI. The president signed an executive order banning DEI programs in the federal government. He ordered the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to stop using DEI in hiring and repealed an order implemented by President Lyndon B. Johnson that spawned affirmative action.
He also signed an executive order on day one to prohibit “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.” (RELATED: As Trump Hands Out Pardons, Republicans Begin Planning How To Undo Years Of Government Abuse)
Trump’s Department of Education quickly followed suit and announced it had taken steps to rescind DEI programs, including placing multiple DEI staff on administrative leave.
Trump signed an executive order mandating the declassification of files regarding the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, respectively.
The order directs the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), among other officials and governing bodies, to present Trump with a plan within 15 days for the release of the JFK files and a plan within 45 days for the release of the RFK and MLK files.
The executive order noted that continuing to keep the JFK records secret does not serve the public interest.
“Everything will be revealed,” Trump stated.
🚨BREAKING🚨 Trump has signed an Executive Order to declassify the JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr. files.
“Everything will be revealed.” pic.twitter.com/qkAHya9QNF
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 23, 2025
Trump signed a day one executive order directing the U.S. attorney general and DNI to investigate abuses by the intelligence community (IC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) over the last four years.
The order is called “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.” Many Democrats insisted for months that Trump would weaponize the government against his political opponents. The order said the Biden administration “targeted individuals who voiced opposition” to its policies.
It also highlighted the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants that Biden’s DOJ prosecuted and Trump pardoned.
Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists who were prosecuted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The FACE Act prohibits obstructing access to “reproductive health services” and it also applies to pro-life pregnancy resource centers, according to the DOJ. The Daily Caller originally reported that the law disproportionately targeted pro-life activists.
That order came just before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
“Twenty-three people were prosecuted,” Trump said as he signed the pardon. “They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.” (RELATED: 72 Hours In The Rotunda — How A Group Of Young Trump Staffers Executed His Inaugural Vision)
NEW: Paul Vaughn, one of the pro-lifers pardoned by Trump, tells the @DailyCaller News Foundation he is “overjoyed” during @March_for_Life.
“What I mostly rejoice for is the ones who were in prison that are out today, some of them walking around here at the march with us today.” pic.twitter.com/3QyP42IBB5
— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) January 24, 2025
Among those pardoned include Paul Vaughn, whose home was raided by the FBI in 2022 in front of his wife and children. Lauren Handy, who was sentenced to 57 months in prison for blocking an abortion clinic in DC, also received a pardon.
Trump also pardoned the founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, who was arrested in October 2013 and sentenced to serve two life terms and another 40 years in prison. Silk Road was a highly popular online black market that included illicit substances and services.
The president signed over 200 executive orders during his first 12 hours in office and removed the U.S. from two international organizations: the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump issued an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the climate change-related Paris Agreement. Additionally, he notified the United Nations, the body that manages the agreement, of the U.S’s decision to leave.
He also pulled the U.S. out of the WHO because of “the organization’s mishandling” of COVID-19, along with the disproportionate amount of money the group demanded from the U.S., according to the order.
A senior official at the WHO started fundraising on social media shortly after Trump signed the order.