* Cuts US off from WHO
* Leaves Paris climate accord
* Immigration restrictions set
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed a series of orders directing the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization and from the Paris climate accord for a second time, hours after taking office Monday (Tuesday, Manila time).
Trump also announced severe new restrictions on immigration and asylum in the United States, declaring that he will send troops to the US-Mexico border and attempt to end birthright citizenship.
He likewise declared a national emergency at the southern border and used a careening press conference in the Oval Office to announce the controversial order seeking to revoke the right of US nationality to anyone born in America.
As for the WHO, Trump said the United States was paying far more to the UN body compared to China, adding: “World Health ripped us off.”
The United States, the largest donor to the Geneva-based organization, provides substantial financial support that is vital to the WHO’s operations.

Its withdrawal is expected to trigger a significant restructuring of the institution and could further disrupt global health initiatives. This marks the second time Trump has sought to sever ties with the WHO.
During his first term, the United States issued a notice of intent to withdraw, accusing the organization of being overly influenced by China during the pandemic’s early stages.
That move was later reversed under former president Joe Biden’s administration.
Trump’s order to withdraw from the Paris climate accord for a second time was a defiant rejection of global efforts to combat planetary warming as catastrophic weather events intensify worldwide.
The Republican leader also declared a “national energy emergency” to expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer, saying he would scrap vehicle emissions standards that amount to an “electric vehicle mandate,” and vowed to halt offshore wind farms, a frequent target of his scorn.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip-off,” he said to cheering supporters at a Washington sports arena after being sworn in.
“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”
He also signed an order instructing federal agencies to reject international climate finance commitments made under the previous administration, and issued a formal letter to the United Nations notifying it of Washington’s intent to leave the agreement.
Under the accord’s rules, the United States will formally exit in one year.
Critics warn the move undermines global cooperation on reducing fossil fuel use and could embolden major polluters like China and India to weaken their commitments, while Argentina, under libertarian President Javier Milei has also said it is “re-evaluating” its participation.
“Withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement is a travesty,” said Rachel Cleetus, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, adding the move “shows an administration cruelly indifferent to the harsh climate change impacts that people in the United States and around the world are experiencing.”
As for his fresh immigration and asylum policies, which reversed a right enshrined in the US Constitution, the President acknowledged the move will face stiff legal challenges.
“I think we have good grounds, but you could be right,” he said when asked about the pushback.
Another executive order declared a national emergency on the US-Mexico border.
“I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it. We need people, and I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it,” he said. “But we have to have legal immigration.”
Earlier, in his inaugural speech, he announced he would be sending troops to the US-Mexico border “to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” he said.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly announced earlier that the administration would end the practice of granting asylum.
The first effects of Trump’s stance became apparent minutes after his inauguration when an app unveiled under president Joe Biden to help process asylum seekers went offline.
US media reported 30,000 people had appointments scheduled.
On the US-Mexican border, there was despair.
“Since we are here, please let us in,” said Yaime Perez, a 27-year-old Cuban.
“Please, after all the work we have put in to get here, let us enter your country, so that we can better ourselves in life and be somebody,” she said.
Trump likewise signed pardons Monday for some 1,500 participants in the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol by his supporters who attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
“These are the hostages—approximately 1,500 people—for a pardon, full pardon,” Trump said at a signing ceremony shortly after arriving at the White House.
“We hope they come out tonight frankly,” he said. “They’re expecting it.”
More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the assault on Congress by Trump supporters who were seeking to disrupt certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump repeatedly pledged during his election campaign to pardon those who took part in the attack, calling them “hostages,” “patriots” and “political prisoners.”
Trump, whose first term as president ended under the cloud of the Capitol assault, has repeatedly played down the unprecedented violence of January 6, even going so far as to describe it as a “day of love.”
More than 140 police officers were injured in hours of clashes with rioters wielding flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks and other makeshift weapons along with Tasers and canisters of bear spray.
The assault on the Capitol followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race. He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.
Trump was charged by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
But the case never made it to trial, and was dropped under the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
According to the latest figures from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 1,583 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol siege, including 608 accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers.
Biden, before leaving office on Monday, issued preemptive pardons to former COVID pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley and close family members to shield them from “politically motivated prosecutions” by the Trump administration.
Biden gave similar pardons to former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney and other members of the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Just minutes before Trump was sworn in, Biden announced he was issuing pardons to his brother James Biden, James’s wife Sara Jones Biden, his sister Valerie Biden Owens, Valerie’s husband John Owens, and his brother Francis Biden.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden said. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”