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1. Appoint judges who would "defend the Second Amendment"
2. Build a wall on the southern U.S. border to limit illegal immigration
3. Re-assess trade agreements with other nations
4. "Crack down" on companies that send jobs overseas
5. Repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known asthe Affordable Care Act or Obamacare)
6. Remove federal restrictions on energy production
7. Push for an amendment to the United States Constitution imposing term limits on Congress
8. Eliminate gun-free zones
9. Create a rule "that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated"
10. Instruct the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to "develop a comprehensive plan to protect America's vital infrastructure from cyberattacks, and all other form of attacks"
11. Label China a "currency manipulator"
12. Enforce rules and regulations for China's unfair subsidy behavior, and instruct the U.S. trade representative to bring trade cases against China, both in U.S. and at the WTO
13. Use every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes, including the application of 45% tariffs to stop China's illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets
President Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, at 12:00 pm. He had reorganized the cabinet, removing the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers position from the cabinet (President Obama had added it in 2009) and by making the Director of National Intelligence and Director of the CIA cabinet-level positions. During the transition period, he had named a full slate of Cabinet and Cabinet-level nominees, all of which require Senate confirmation except for White House Chief of Staff and the vice presidency. By April 29, almost all of his nominated cabinet members had been confirmed. Only two were awaiting confirmation—Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Council of Economic Advisers CEA Kevin Hassett. Some of the votes for confirmation were controversial. Former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson was nominated for the position of Secretary of State. He was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 23, 2017, and by the full Senate in a 56–43 vote.
On January 26, 2017, when Tillerson visited the United States State Department, Undersecretaries Joyce Anne Barr, Patrick F. Kennedy, Michele Bond, and Gentry O. Smith all resigned from the department. Steve Mnuchin was confirmed on February 13, 2017, as Secretary of the Treasury department after lengthy confirmation hearings.
Trump named several important White House advisers to positions that do not require Senate confirmation. These include Stephen K. Bannon as his "senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist" and Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff. Other important advisers outside of the Cabinet included Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and (Press Secretary) Sean Spicer.
Michael T. Flynn served as Trump's National Security Advisor from January 20 until his resignation on February 13, 2017, the shortest tenure as National Security Advisor in American history. The Justice Department advised the Trump administration that Flynn had a "well-established history with Russia", and may have been "vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow." Flynn was alleged to have "mischaracterized his communications" with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence. Sally Yates, who was then acting attorney general, warned the White House that "Flynn was susceptible to blackmail by the Russians because he had misled Mr. Pence and other officials". On February 20, 2017, Trump named Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, to replace Flynn as National Security Advisor.
On January 28, 2017, Trump signed a Memorandum, the Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council which restructured the Principals Committee, the senior policy committee of the National Security Council. Included in this group was Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist. However on April 5, on the recommendation of Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, the National Security Advisor (NSC advisor), Trump removed Bannon from the group.
President Trump named his 36-year-old son-in-law, Jared Kushner as his Senior Advisor. Trump said that Kushner would be in charge of brokering peace in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and is also an adviser on relations with Canada, China and Mexico. On April 3, Kushner accompanied the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford Jr. and Homeland Security Advisor Thomas P. Bossert to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to discuss the fight against the Islamic State. Trump also named Kushner as head of the White House Office of American Innovation (OAI), an agency established on March 29 and mandated to use ideas from the private-sector to overhaul all federal agencies and departments in order to promote job creation.
Within the first hours of Trump's presidency, he signed his first executive order, titled "Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal". EO 13765 called for bringing about the repeal of ACA through the budget reconciliation process. In a Fox News interview with Bill O'Reilly airing before the Super Bowl, President Trump announced that the timeline for replacing Obamacare had to be extended and that a replacement would probably not be ready until 2018. The Republican health-care plan was unveiled on March 6 and faced opposition from both moderate and conservative Republicans, such as the House Freedom Caucus. The American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA), a bill to repeal and replace the ACA, was withdrawn in Congress on March 24, 2017 due to lack of support from within the Republican caucus.
President Trump set the tone for his immigration policies by signing executive orders to create travel bans and restrictions on refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, increased immigration enforcement including deportations, and expanded efforts to prevent illegal entry into the United States. On January 27 Trump signed Executive Order 13769, entitled "Protecting the Nation From Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals". The order temporarily suspends the U. S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. The suspension for Syrian refugees is for an indefinite period of time. On February 4, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Department suspended all actions to implement the order in response to a February 3 ruling by federal Judge James Robart which blocked the EO. The first legal challenge against the EO was filed on January 28, and within two days there were dozens of ongoing lawsuits in the United States federal courts. By February 3, federal judge, James Robart temporarily blocked the week-old EO which opened American airports to visa holders from the seven targeted countries.
On the evening of January 30, Trump replaced acting Attorney General Sally Yates with Dana Boente. Press Secretary Sean Spicer's released a statement which described Yates as an "Obama administration appointee" who had "betrayed the Department of Justice" by "refusing to enforce a legal order."
On March 15, a United States Federal Judge, Derrick Watson of the District Court of Hawaii, issued a 43-page ruling which blocked Trump's revised March 6 executive order 13780 on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by disfavoring a particular religion. The temporary restraining order was converted to a preliminary injunction by Judge Watson on March 29. On an April 18 airing of the Mark Levin Show Jeff Sessions commented, "We are confident that the President will prevail on appeal and particularly in the Supreme Court, if not the Ninth Circuit. So this is a huge matter. I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power."
While visiting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on January 25, President Trump signed his third executive order Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements (EO 13767) calling for the construction of a Mexican border wall to deter illegal migration and smuggling of illegal products. The existing Mexico–United States barrier is not one continuous structure, while the proposed wall which would be a "a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier" along the entire length of the border. In 2016, Trump estimated that it would cost $10 billion to $12 billion to build and by January 27 it was estimated to cost $20 billion. Trump said that he plans on negotiating a reimbursement from the Mexican government. The Executive Order contained no plan for payment, but it requested federal agency reports by late March 2017 which "identify and quantify all sources of direct and indirect Federal aid or assistance to the Government of Mexico on an annual basis over the past five years, including all bilateral and multilateral development aid, economic assistance, humanitarian aid, and military aid." On April 25, the Washington Post reported that Trump had agreed to delaying funding for the construction of the wall until September to avoid a government shutdown.
On January 25, Trump signed an executive order, "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States", to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General and their departments and agencies to increase the enforcement of immigration laws. The order included the hiring of 10,000 "additional immigration officers." His order requires the cooperation of state and local authorities. The order states "sanctuary jurisdictions" including "sanctuary cities" who refuse to comply will not be "eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary". Mayors of New York, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle have expressed their opposition to the Order. On April 25, U.S. District Judge William Orrick III agreed with San Francisco and Santa Clara in their lawsuit against the Trump administration effectively blocking EO targeting so-called sanctuary cities. Justice Orrick said that the president "has no authority to attach new conditions to federal spending".
On April 13, Trump signed H.J. Res. 43—HHS Title X Funding for Planned Parenthood Rule reversing President Obama's December 2016 regulation which had mandated that Title X recipients—like states local and state governments—distribute federal funds for services related to contraception, sexually transmitted infections, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening to qualified health providers, regardless of whether they also perform abortions". The proposed American Health Care Act, announced by Congressional Republicans in March 2017, would have made Planned Parenthood "ineligible for Medicaid reimbursements or federal family planning grants".
Within the first hours of Trump's presidency, he "suspended indefinitely" the reduced "Mortgage Insurance Premiums for loans with Closing/Disbursement date on or after January 27, 2017", known as the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) Annual Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) Rates managed under the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He said that this was "effective immediately".
On the first day of Trump's presidency, the White House website had posted a 220-word description of its foreign policy, which was described as protectionist with a focus on "America First". In his inaugural address, the president said that his three top priorities were to defeat ISIS, to rebuild the military and to embrace diplomacy.
After Trump's April 12 meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, he announced that he had changed views about NATO. Trump had previously complained that NATO was "obsolete" as it did not fight terrorism. On March 18, Trump called on NATO's member nations to contribute more to NATO. After the White House meeting, Trump acknowledged that NATO has been engaged in combating groups like ISIS. He said that he planned to maintain the "US commitment to NATO while reiterating its member nations must step up their military financing".
On January 29, Trump authorized the first military operation of his Presidency—a raid by US commandos on Al-Qaeda in Yakla, Baida in Yemen. At least 14 jihadists were killed in the raid, as well as 10 civilians. The raid also resulted in the death of Chief Petty Officer William Owens a 36-year-old Virginia-based Navy SEAL, the first U.S. combat casualty in Trump's presidency. On April 6, 2017, Trump ordered a missile strike on Shayrat Air Base near Homs, in Syria. 59 Tomahawk missiles were launched from the USS Ross (DDG-71) and USS Porter (DDG-78) from the Mediterranean Sea.
On April 4, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile. In response, it was announced that the United States Pacific Command (PACOM) had ordered the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier to "sail north and report on station in the Western Pacific Ocean". In an interview with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that aired on April 12, President Trump warned, "We are sending an armada. Very powerful. We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That I can tell you." By April 17 North Korea’s deputy United Nations ambassador accused the United States of "turning the Korean peninsula into "the world’s biggest hotspot" and the North Korean government stated "its readiness to declare war on the United States if North Korean forces were to be attacked." On April 17 the Defense News broke the story that the Carl Vinson and its escorts were 3,500 miles from Korea engaged in scheduled joint Royal Australian Navy exercises in the Indian Ocean.
On January 23, Trump fulfilled a campaign pledge by signing an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), was a trade agreement between the United States and eleven Pacific Rim nations—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam that would have created a "free-trade zone for about 40 percent of the world's economy."
On April 18, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that directed federal agencies to implement a "Buy American, Hire American" strategy. The executive order directs federal agencies to implement a new system that favors higher-skilled, higher-paid applicants. The order is the first initiative in response to a key pledge made by Trump during his presidential campaign to promote a 'Buy American, Hire American.'
A February 2 report by The Washington Post claimed that US President Donald Trump berated the Australian, Prime Minister Turnbull during one of Trump's first phone calls made to foreign officials. Trump criticized a 2016 asylum agreement masde between the Obama administration and Australia, which requires the U.S. to resettle 1,250 refugees held in controversial offshore immigration detention facilities. In return, Australia was to 'resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Trump explained that while he respected Australia, he felt that they were taking advantage of the United States. During a joint news conference with Prime Minister Turnbull, Vice-President Pence, who was on a "10-day, four-country trip" in April to the Pacific Rim, announced that the United States would honor the 2016 agreement.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with President Trump in Washington DC in February 2017. Trudeau said that "The last thing Canadians expect is for me to come down and lecture another country on how they choose to govern", referring to Trump's "refugee ban" - Executive Order 13769. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, "It has been a bad week for U.S.-Canada trade relations" as he announced stiff tariffs up stiff tariffs of up to 24% on Canadian lumber on April 24. The Canada–United States softwood lumber dispute has been since ongoing since the 1980s making it one of the longest trade disputes between the two countries, as well as one of the largest.
A summit meeting was held on April 6 and 7 between Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. During the April 7–8 visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said that, in regards to North Korea, he had hoped to negotiate better trade deals with China in exchange for China dealing with the nuclear threat from North Korea. He called North Korea was the United States' "biggest international threat". Trump has called for China to rein in North Korea. In an April 12 interview with Wall Street Journal, Trump said he had changed his mind and he would not label China a currency manipulator, which had been one of his 100-day pledges. He said that he did not want to "jeopardize" talks with the Chinese "on confronting the threat of North Korea."
On April 3 Trump hosted a formal visit with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in an effort to improve relations between the two countries. Ties between the two countries have been strained since Sisi deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi during the July 2013 military coup. During his talks with Sisi in April, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker advocated for the release of six humanitarian workers, including a U.S. citizen—30-year-old Aya Hijazi and her husband, who had been imprisoned in Egypt since May 1, 2014. A court in Egypt dropped all charges against them on April 16.
Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump held their first official visit at the White House on February 15. At the press conference, Trump urged Netanyahu to hold back' on building Jewish settlements on territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Netanyahu denounced both IS and Iran in the same attack on 'militant Islam' and hailing Mr Trump's 'great courage' in tackling 'radical Islamic terror'".
On February 12, North Korea tested a ballistic solid-fuel missile, the Pukguksong-2, part of a series of missile tests. Trump received the news of the launch during the first official visit of Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
According to a Reuters report on February 9, 2017, in his first 60-minute telephone call with Russian Leader Vladimir Putin, Putin inquired about extending New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russia signed in 2010, which was expected to last until 2021. Trump denounced the treaty claiming that it favored Russia and was "one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration". On February 16, 2017, President Trump's Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, declared that the United States was not currently prepared to collaborate with Russia on military matters. On February 24, Trump said that the "treaty limiting Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals was a bad deal for Washington."
On April 5, 2017 Trump responded to the April 4 chemical attack allegedly by Syrian Armed Forces on rebel-held Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province which used sarin gas, leaving more than eighty people dead and over three hundred more injured. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had previously stated that the Trump administration had no intention of interfering in President Bashar Assad's leadership in the Syrian Civil War, as the US focused on eliminating ISIS.
In January 2017, the Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to a state visit to the UK when she met Trump in Washington DC. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, stated on February 6, 2017, that Trump would not be welcome to address parliament during any future state visit. More than 1,860,000 people have signed a petition to prevent Trump from making an official state visit to Britain.
On the evening of January 30, Trump announced his nomination of U.S. Appeals Court judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court fulfilling his campaign pledge that he would choose someone 'in the mold' of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Following the February 3 ruling by federal judge James Robart, that temporarily blocked Trump's travel ban on people from seven Muslim countries, Trump has been openly critical of the judiciary. On February 8, Gorsuch expressed concern that Trump's remarks on the judiciary were 'demoralizing' and 'disheartening' to the independence of the judiciary. Gorsuch was approved by the Senate Judiciary committee on April 3. The Senate confirmed Gorsuch nomination with a 54-45 vote, mainly along party lines. Gorsuch took office in a private ceremony on April 10.
On April 19 in an interview with The Wall Street Journal—in a reversal of previous statements—Trump said he was considering keeping Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve System, which oversees the U.S. monetary policy. He said, "I do like a low-interest rate policy." In the same interview, Trump said he would not label China a currency manipulator. Trump expressed concerns that, "I think our dollar is getting too strong, and partially that's my fault because people have confidence in me. But that's hurting, that will hurt ultimately." He believes a low dollar favors the U.S. in international trade.
On January 23, President Trump signed an executive order that froze all federal hiring except for the military. The order specified that no new positions can be created and no vacant positions may be filled unless an agency head believes that the position is "necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities". The order is due to expire once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, creates a "long-term plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government's workforce through attrition."
According to the April 28, 2017 Commerce Department report, in the first quarter of 2017 there was a "sharp decline from the 2.1% in Q1 2016 to 0.7% in Q1 2017—representing the weakest quarterly economic growth in three years. In spite of the small growth in GDP, by the end of Q1 2017, the S&P 500 was near an all-time high representing a 12% rise from the first quarter of 2016, as investor confidence remained high based on Trump's promise to cut taxes, deregulate and spend heavily on infrastructure such as roads and bridges. In March 2017 the unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent
One of the first acts by the Trump administration was an order signed by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on January 20, under the subject "Regulatory Freeze Pending Review" to all Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies ordering agencies to immediately suspend all pending regulations and to "send no regulation" to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OFR) until the Trump administration can review them except for "emergency situations" or "urgent circumstances". On January 31, Trump met with CEOs of pharmaceutical firms. Trump called for lower prices. In return, he promised to boost the pharmaceutical companies competitiveness by curbing regulations and by lowering pharmaceutical companies' tax rates.
On February 8, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who was nominated by Trump in January, was confirmed as United States Attorney General, the head of the Justice Department. The nomination battle was very contentious. Senator Mitch McConnell invoked Rule XIX to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren for the rest of the hearing. McConnell interrupted Warren as she read several pages by Coretta Scott King and Senator Ted Kennedy regarding Session's alleged racial bias from the 500-plus page transcript submitted in 1986, that contributed to the decision by the then-Republican-led Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination to a federal judgeship. Trump appointed Dana J. Boente to serve as acting Attorney General until Session's Senate Confirmation, after firing Yates. Boente had replaced Acting Attorney General Sally Yates who was fired by Trump for ordering the Justice Department to not defend Trump's Executive Order 13769 which restricted entry to the United States. Yates said, "At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities of the Department of Justice, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful".
Trump submitted his first budget request which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year 2018—covering the period from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018—to Congress. His requests include a $639 billion defense budget and corresponding major cuts to other federal departments. The White House memo entitled "2017 Tax Reform for Economic Growth and American Jobs" was presented on April 26. Individual reform includes "reducing the 7 tax brackets to 3 tax brackets for 10%, 25% and 35%, doubling the standard deduction, providing tax relief for families with child and dependent care expenses." The taxation system will be simplified to "eliminate targeted tax breaks that mainly benefit the wealthiest taxpayers, protect the home ownership and charitable gift tax deductions, repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, repeal the death tax and repeal the 3.8% Obamacare tax that hits small businesses and investment income." Business reform includes "15% business tax rate, territorial tax system to level the playing field for American companies, one-time tax on trillions of dollars held overseas and elimination of tax breaks for special interests."
On February 1, the Trump administration published a Statement of Administration Policy to allow coal companies to dump mining waste in streams by nullifying the Department of the Interior regulation known as the "Stream Protection Rule", established in the Obama Administration. The Repeal of Stream Protection Rule was signed into law by Trump on February 16. President Trump has also rescinded a a number of orders which President Obama made cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. He also lifted a 14-month-old halt on new coal leases on federal lands.
On January 24, Trump signed three Presidential Memoranda regarding construction of pipelines. These are intended to "clear the way to government approval" of the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL pipelines. In a meeting with small business leaders on January 30, Trump said that he will insist that pipeline makers implement a made-in-America approach.
On January 21, there were large demonstrations protesting Trump worldwide in 673 cities. About half a million demonstrated in the Women's March on Washington (in Washington, D.C.). Day Without Immigrants 2017 and Not My Presidents Day were held on February 16 and 20, respectively. Later protests include the Tax Day March (April 15), March for Science (April 22), and People's Climate Mobilization (April 29). March 4 Trump rallies, organized by Trump supporters, were held throughout the United States on March 4.
On February 16, Trump held a press conference which he said was to "update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration." Trump expressed frustration by the way he was being portrayed by the media.
On February 24, journalists from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico, The Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed were barred from Press Secretary Sean Spicer's off-camera press briefing held in his office.Breitbart News, One America News Network, and The Washington Times were invited along with Fox News, Reuters, Bloomberg News, CBS and Hearst Communications. Reporters from the Associated Press and Time walked out of the briefing in protest. Spicer said that the White House is fighting against "unfair coverage."
Three separate investigations on Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections include those undertaken by the FBI, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. On March 20, in a House Intelligence Committee public hearing FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI has been conducting a broad counter-intelligence investigation of Russian interference in the elections starting in July 2016, which includes investigations into possible links between Trump associates and Russia.
Trump filed a form with the FEC declaring his eligibility to run for re-election in 2020 within hours of his taking office. The first rally paid for by the campaign took place at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport near Orlando, Florida, on February 18, 2017. During the event, Trump defended his actions as President and criticized the media. The campaign rally was the earliest such event by any incumbent U.S. President in history.