TikTok Ban Halted, WHO Exit, and Two-Gender Policy Among Trump’s First-Day Orders

Donald Trump is back at the White House and has kickstarted his second term in office after a four-year hiatus with a flurry of executive orders.

Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday in an indoor ceremony. Eight hours later, the President had issued about ten executive orders, ranging from an order to stall the ban on TikTok, one withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO), to recognizing male and female as the two legally recognized genders in America.

Executive Orders and Their Implications

Executive Order to Stall TikTok Ban for 75 Days

One of Trump’s first orders was to halt the ban on TikTok in the United States. On Friday, January 17, a federal ban had been issued, compelling the social media giant to discontinue its presence in the country on Saturday.

However, Trump, who had previously voiced concerns about the platform during his first term and initiated efforts for the company, owned by ByteDance—a Chinese firm—to be acquired by a US company, claimed that using TikTok had changed his perspective.

“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” Trump said to reporters as he signed the order.

He also remarked that TikTok could be worth a trillion dollars and that “the US should be entitled to get half of TikTok” if a deal of sale is reached.

After the Friday ban, TikTok became unavailable to most of its 170 million American users as Apple and Google removed it from their app stores. Services were restored on Sunday after Trump promised to revoke the ban.

The order, which now gives TikTok a 75-day window for negotiations to continue, allows the social media platform to be legally operational in the US. TikTok welcomed the order, addressing American users:

“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US,” the company said.

Trump Pulls the US Out of WHO

Just eight hours after taking the oath of office, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The President cited WHO’s “misleading of the COVID-19 pandemic” and its “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms” as reasons for the withdrawal.

Additionally, Trump criticized WHO for demanding “unfairly onerous payments” from the US compared to other nations. According to Statista, the US was WHO’s highest donor in 2022, contributing $109.3 million—almost twice what China paid.

This is not Trump’s first attempt to sever ties with the global health body. In 2020, he initiated steps to withdraw the US from WHO, though these efforts were reversed by Joe Biden on his first day in office. Now, Trump’s return has cemented the withdrawal.

Public health expert Lawrence O. Gostin from Georgetown University said a WHO without the US would be “a grievous wound” to global public health, adding that it would be “an even deeper wound to American national interests and national security.”

Clemency for 1,600 Capitol Rioters

Trump also issued an executive order granting clemency to nearly 1,600 rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The order directs the Justice Department to dismiss “all pending indictments” against those facing charges related to the attack.

“They’ve already been in jail for a long time. These people have been destroyed,” the President stated as he signed the order in the Oval Office.

The attack, condemned by both Democrats and Republicans at the time, was a direct result of Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election. It led to a second impeachment in the House of Representatives, with ten Republican members voting to impeach him.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized the clemency, calling it an “outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress, and the Constitution.”

A Two-Gendered and Race-Blind America

Among Trump’s most controversial orders was the reinstatement of a policy recognizing only two genders—male and female.

During his inaugural address, Trump declared: “As of today, it would henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

The order states that gender identity beyond one’s biological sex “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification.”

Additionally, Trump vowed to blur racial lines in the US, promising to end what he described as efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into aspects of public and private lives.”

“We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based,” he said.

Other Notable Executive Orders

Other executive orders signed by Trump include:

• Allowing the military to prioritize border security as part of efforts to carry out the largest deportation in US history.
• Challenging Biden’s agreement with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), particularly its reforms targeting multinational corporations.
• Ending the “weaponization” of the Justice Department, which Trump claimed allowed politically motivated charges against him during Biden’s term.

What Comes Next?

An executive order is a directive from the President that carries the weight of law, but its implementation depends on federal agencies, Congress, and—at times—the courts. Trump’s sweeping orders set the tone for his second term, but the extent of their impact will depend on how effectively they are enforced and the legal challenges they may face.