Just a few hours after being sworn in as the forty-fifth president of the United States, Donald Trump had already announced his first measures. Virtually all of them fall squarely within the promises he made during the election campaign.

Donald Trump's first decree is against Obamacare

The first official decision the new American president chose to take concerns Obamacare — that is, the reform of the health insurance system that the former Democratic president had pushed through in order to address the problem of the millions of citizens who, lacking adequate coverage, forgo medical treatment.
According to Trump's spokesman, Sean Spicer, the decree signed by Trump essentially instructs federal agencies to avoid committing to the implementation of the reform, given that it will shortly be repealed and replaced by a new law. In practice, the strategy is to use every possible margin of manoeuvre to avoid applying the current legislation. The timetable for the congressional debate on the "counter-reform" is expected to be formalised shortly.

LGBT rights and climate disappear from the White House website

The second decision taken by Trump involved no legislative act, yet it is no less significant in symbolic and political terms. During the Obama administration, a web page on the White House website had been dedicated to the issue of LGBT rights (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). Shortly after Trump's inauguration, it vanished. As did any references to the issue of climate change.

Stop to temporary permits to work or study

On the subject of immigration, the president also announced that he would "order the Department of Labor to open investigations" into alleged "abuses" carried out under programmes granting residence permits to non-US citizens. In the crosshairs here is above all a presidential decree signed by Obama in 2012, which allowed more than 700,000 people who have lived in the United States since childhood to obtain a temporary permit to work or attend university.

Former generals Mattis and Kelly confirmed

On Trump's inaugural day, the first two members of the incoming administration also took up their duties. They are former US Army generals James Mattis and John Kelly, nominated as Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security (which includes border control) respectively, whose appointments were confirmed by the Senate.
Following the two votes, Trump called on Congress to speed up its work so as to make the rest of his cabinet team operational as quickly as possible.

Shale gas and shale oil back in favour

Nor were there any shortage of opening salvoes on the subjects of climate and energy. The new president, who has repeatedly reiterated his scepticism about climate change, explained in a text published online that he intends to work to "eliminate harmful or unnecessary policies, such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the US rule".
The latter — known as the "Climate Action Plan" and adopted by Barack Obama during his second term — had made it possible to launch the United States' energy transition process, giving fresh impetus to the development of renewable energy. This was also in compliance with the Paris Agreement, ratified by the US, but which is not even mentioned in the document published by Trump.

The new president also stated his intention to revive prospecting for shale gas and shale oil, activities considered particularly harmful to the environment but which the new administration regards as "a revolution capable of creating jobs and ensuring prosperity for millions of Americans".

Stop to the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico

The review of Donald Trump's first working day ends with the announced intention to "renegotiate NAFTA" — that is, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the treaty in force since January 1994 under which a free trade zone was created between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The same fate awaits the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), signed in 2016 by Washington alongside the governments of eleven nations in Asia and North and South America.