Just hours after President Trump’s inauguration, ICE officers were positioned outside of churches and schools all around the country to make arrests. According to CNN, hundreds of immigrants were arrested within the first 12 hours of Trump’s presidency.
In an attempt to make it harder for individuals to enter the US as immigrants, Trump re-established the “Remain in Mexico” policy, making it so that immigrants have to stay in Mexico until their official court date. Trump also attempted to end birthright citizenship, meaning that people born in the US to immigrant parents would no longer be guaranteed citizenship. This action was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; therefore, birthright citizenship will still be in effect.
While Trump’s strict enforcement of immigration policies has had a direct impact on present-day life for many individuals, the effects of some of the other policies he’s put into place, or lack thereof, will begin to take shape years from now. One of these decisions was to pull the United States out of the The Paris Agreement, an international climate treaty.
Former President Barack Obama first signed the treaty in 2015 along with the other 196 parties that decided to join, with the exception of Iran, Libya and Yemen. Just two years later, Trump withdrew the US from the treaty; however, we would later rejoin during Biden’s term.
Now, in his second term in office, Trump has again decided to withdraw the US from the treaty. In his statement on the decision, he expressed fear that the treaty was costing jobs and putting the US economy at a disadvantage. Trump has also stressed very little concern over climate change, as seen in his rally speeches in 2024.
“We don’t have a global warming problem,” Trump said at a rally on Nov. 4, 2024 just months before he was elected.
He has also retracted an executive order signed by former President Biden that pushed for 50 percent of US vehicles being sold to be electric by 2030. Crucial decisions about the climate, such as these ones, heavily impact the future of the planet. While immigration and climate change have been some of the biggest international issues that Trump has weighed in on, the potential TikTok ban has been another important issue to many Americans. The app, which was previously banned during the last few days of the Biden administration, was reinstated less than 24 hours after President Trump took office.
Trump has signed a 75-day extension on the TikTok ban, hoping to find a buyer. In a statement from Apple when the 12 hour ban took place on Jan. 19, 2025, it states that the app won’t be in the app store or be able to get updates.
“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates. Pursuant to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, apps developed by ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries — including TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8, and others — will no longer be available for download or updates on the App Store for users in the United States starting January 19, 2025.”
Less than a month into his second term, President Trump has already made several executive decisions on both national and global issues, which will have both short and long term effects that we will start seeing in the next couple of months but also decades down the road.
