The biggest headlines from Trump’s first week in office
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The biggest headlines from Trump’s first week in office
Jan 24, 2025 at 4:31pm
We’re keeping track of Donald Trump’s administration, so you don’t have to.
Donald Trump’s first weeks in office have seen a number of policy rollbacks, both civil and social.
IrfY/Shutterstock/Austen Risolvato/Rewire News Group illustration
It is the first week of Donald Trump’s second term and his administration has already begun implementing Project 2025. Trump’s first day executive orders were a flurry that targeted people who are non-conforming, birthright citizenship and fetal personhood. Let’s get into what went down this week.
Reproductive rights
The White House took down reproductiverights.gov, a government website offering reproductive health and abortion information. The global gag rule, which blocks international funding for NGOs providing abortion care, referrals or advocacy, is expected to be reinstated at any moment. We’ll have more from Garnet Henderson if it is re-implemented.
LGBTQ+ rights
In one of his first executive orders, Trump declared the United States’ policy is to “recognize two sexes, male and female,” effectively halting the federal government’s recognition of transgender and nonbinary people’s gender identities. The Biden administration previously allowed people to mark a gender “X” on their passports if they did not identify as male or female.
- NOTUS reported that nothing will happen to existing passports using the gender marker “X” until the passport holder renews it.
- Trump’s executive order also states that federal funds cannot be used “to promote gender ideology.”
Newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to freeze passport applications with “X” sex designations.
- Immigration
- Health and science
- Trump issued an executive order pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization (WHO)–but as Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo pointed out on this week’s Boom! The executive order Trump signed to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO) is not binding. As Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo pointed out on this week’s Boom!, it does not mean that anything will happen. The administration cancelled all National Institutes of Health conferences, effectively stopping the fellowship and grant processes. The federal government’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs were terminated by Trump, as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity order of 1965. The move put all federal employees with DEI jobs on paid leave.
- The administration also ordered federal employees to report any DEI efforts or else face “adverse consequences.”
A separate order shut down DEI initiatives in the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Justice Department froze all new civil rights cases and investigations.
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