Trump says he’ll roll back Biden executive actions, freeze government hiring

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By Kanishka Singh and Raphael Satter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump said on Monday he will revoke nearly 80 executive actions of the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden, with the Republican U.S. president adding he will also implement an immediate freeze on new regulations and hiring.

“I’ll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration,” Trump told a cheering crowd at Washington’s Capital One Arena after his inauguration on Monday.

“I will implement an immediate regulation freeze, which will stop Biden bureaucrats from continuing to regulate,” Trump went on, adding he will also “issue a temporary hiring freeze to ensure that we’re only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public.”

In an executive order issued late on Monday, the White House said that within 120 days of the order, government officials will develop and send to agency heads a federal hiring plan that will “restore merit to government service.”

The announcements – which had been telegraphed for months – are one of many efforts to gut the federal workforce and kneecap the previous administration’s efforts.

Earlier on Monday, Trump officially announced the creation of an advisory group aimed at carrying out sweeping cuts to the U.S. government and wholesale cancellations of government agencies, a move that attracted immediate lawsuits challenging its operations.

The government hiring freeze is being paired with a return-to-office order which would see many government teleworkers forced to commute to work five days a week.

Experts say the new restrictions on hiring, flexible work, and the pressures around cost-cutting will drive exasperated federal workers out of government.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk – who chairs Trump’s advisory body on shrinking government – recently predicted that revoking “the COVID-era privilege” of telework would trigger “a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome.”

Among the Biden-era actions that were being rescinded included Biden’s executive order concerning risks of artificial intelligence technologies. Other actions which the Trump administration said it was rolling back included executive orders to do with climate change, fighting health threats, and lowering prescription drug costs.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Christopher Cushing)