US President Donald Trump has moved swiftly to enact his vision for America after returning to power, asking federal workers to inform on each other, slamming Vladimir Putin, and toughening immigration.
He has also given his first televised interview since returning to the White House, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity it was a “lot of work” to win his second, non-consecutive term.
In a clear sign the president is ready to act against those who defy him, he also told Hannity he “might” have to cut off federal funds to states preparing to disrupt his mass deportation plans.
These are the key moments from another dramatic day in the US.
Are you following Donald Trump?
This week, some American social media users woke up to discover that they were following Trump, his wife Melania, or his deputy JD Vance, on Facebook and Instagram.
“How curious!” singer Gracie Abrams wrote on Instagram stories.
“Had to block them in order to make sure I am nowhere near that.”
Singer Gracie Abrams wrote on Instagram that she blocked official government accounts after the changed to the Trump administration. (Instagram: Gracie Abrams)
Others found it took several attempts to unfollow the accounts, sparking a frenzy of speculation that Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta was forcing political accounts on its users.
But Meta insists there is no conspiracy afoot. Instead, they say users who followed the social media accounts for former president Joe Biden, his wife Jill, and his VP Kamala Harris, are just witnessing official government accounts change hands.
“People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady,” wrote Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, on Threads.
“Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those pages changes.
“It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”
Social media users spotted a change to their follower lists after Trump returned to office. (Reuters: Melina Mara)
It comes as Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has given himself and his company a makeover, drawing backlash from some Democrats.
Zuckerberg has ended the company’s partnerships with third-party fact-checkers and has ditched Meta’s diversity employee programs.
“A lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan this month.
“I think having a culture that celebrates aggression a bit more has its own merits that are positive.”
Meta later donated $US1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and Zuckerberg himself attended the inauguration, seated with other tech billionaires in front of the president’s own cabinet nominees.
Trump gives his first interview to Hannity
Trump selected Fox News and the network’s presenter Sean Hannity for his first televised interview as the 47th president.
The pre-recorded discussion between the president and Hannity, who has previously been described as Trump’s “shadow chief of staff” due to their close relationship, took place two days into the new administration.
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During the wide-ranging chat, Trump defended his decision to pardon those who participated in the January 6 insurrection and argued states should “take care of their own” disasters.
He dismissed national security concerns about social media platform, TikTok and spoke about his decision to run for the White House in 2024.
The interview also touched on Trump’s immigration plans, a major feature of the president’s election campaign.
Hours earlier, the House of Representatives passed the Laken Riley Act — which allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to detain undocumented immigrants accused of theft-related crimes.
Trump has also issued executive orders to cut off birthright citizenship — the right of any child born on US soil to call themselves an American citizen — and has pledged to deport millions of people.
Twenty-two states have filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders on birthright citizenship.
In response, Trump’s administration has directed US attorneys to investigate and prosecute state and city law enforcement officials if they refuse to enforce the the new immigration policies.
Hannity asked Trump whether he would stop funding sanctuary states or cities, a term given to areas that shield undocumented migrants from federal detention requests.
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“We’re trying to end them. And a lot of the people in those communities don’t want them,” he said.
When asked whether Trump would cut off sanctuary cities’ money, Trump said, “I might have to do that.”
“Sometimes that’s the only thing you can do,” he added.
‘STOP this ridiculous war!’
In what marked Trump’s most detailed efforts yet to end the war in Ukraine, the commander-in-chief has called on Russia to make a deal to resolve the conflict soon.
Donald Trump has threatend Russia in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine. (Reuters: Marcos Brindicci)
During the election campaign, Trump claimed the war would not have started if he were president and said he would end it “in 24 hours” if elected.
But that timeline shifted last week when Trump’s pick for Ukraine peace envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News the new administration was aiming at a timeline closer to 100 days.
Forty-eight hours into Trump’s second term, the fighting between both sides has not ceased.
Trump has now threatened Russia “and other participating countries” with taxes, tariffs and sanctions if President Vladimir Putin refuses to strike a deal to end the war.
“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
It’s not immediately clear what impact more tariffs would have on Moscow.
Russia is already under heavy sanctions, after the Biden administration slapped tariffs on thousands of entities in Russia’s banking, defence, manufacturing, energy, technology and other sectors in response to the conflict.
There is also uncertainty about what a deal would look like and whether it would involve concessions from Kyiv and Moscow.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said in response that Moscow would have to see what Trump thought a “deal” to end the war meant.
Immigration bill gets real
Trump has introduced a raft of new and old measures to limit migration to America and deport people already living in the US without legal status.
He has been hyper critical of the number of “illegal” immigrants flowing into the US and promised his supporters he would address the crisis on the southern border when in office.
Trump has swiftly moved to shut down the southern border. (Reuters: Jose Luis Gonzalez)
Some of the actions he has taken since entering the White House include the declaration of a national emergency at the southern border as well as the construction of additional physical barriers and designating cartels as foreign terrorist organisations.
Trump also signed an executive order that he says “suspends the physical entry of aliens engaged in an invasion of the United States through the southern border”.
It means that Mexican asylum seekers as well as non-Mexican asylum seekers — many of whom typically flee from central and South American nations — can no longer enter the US.
In response to the move, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called a press conference declaring that her country has not agreed to accept non-Mexican migrants seeking asylum in the US.
“What we are doing, in this case, is that if there is a person who is on the northern border, then they are obviously offered humanitarian attention,” Ms Sheinbaum said.
The actions have already sparked protests at the border but this has not deterred Trump or his administration.
The new White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said a separate executive order has been signed to authorise the deployment of 1,500 extra military personnel to the US-Mexico border.
Threats of ‘adverse consequences’ against federal workers
One of the central claims of Trump’s 2024 election campaign was that federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs are “radical and wasteful”.
DEI programs in corporations, schools and federal bodies date to the Civil Rights Movement, and are designed to ensure marginalised communities have equal opportunities and feel safe in spaces where they have not always been welcomed.
But some conservatives have made the issue a huge racial fault line in American society, by falsely blaming everything from the assassination attempt on Trump to LA’s catastrophic fires on DEI programs.
For example, Trump benefactor and the world’s richest man Elon Musk suggested that the LA fire department failed to stop the huge blazes this month because they’re led by a female fire chief who happens to be gay.
Elon Musk has been critical of DEI programs. (Reuters: Allison Robbert/Pool)
“DEI means people DIE,” he claimed on X.
Within hours of taking office, Trump issued an executive order directing an end to federal government DEI programs.
On Wednesday, local time, the Trump administration went a step further, ordering federal employees who run DEI programs to be placed on paid leave by the end of the day.
They also threatened employees with “adverse consequences” if they noticed any attempts to defy the order, or to disguise DEI programs, and failed to report them to a special email account within the next 10 days.
Private corporations including Walmart, McDonalds, and Meta, have voluntarily rolled back their diversity policies since the 2024 election.
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