Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump signed several important executive orders on Tuesday, starting with one related to securing America’s elections, an action that he said was a “great honor” to take.
“We’ve got to straighten out our elections,” he said, speaking to a room full of U.S. Ambassadors during a meeting. “This country is so sick because of the elections – the fake elections.”
The room burst into applause after he held up the signed EO for everyone to see.
According to White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf, the EO addressed the issue of election integrity on a number of fronts, but he especially emphasized that it would be the “farthest reaching executive action” on election security in history.
Scharf said the EO would accomplish the following:
- Cut down on illegal immigrants on voter rolls,
- Ensure the Department of Homeland Security uses their data to ensure non-citizens are not voting in U.S. elections,
- Adding a first-ever citizenship question to federal voting forms,
- Instructing the EAC to withhold federal funding to states who don’t take “reasonable steps” to secure their elections,
- Encouraging the DOJ to prosecute election crimes, particularly in states not in compliance with federal election laws,
- Revoking Joe Biden’s EO 14019, which directed executive departments and federal employees to use federal resources to supposedly encourage voter registration and voting, something Scharf described as a form of weaponization of government.
“This will go a long way in ending [election fraud],” Trump stated.
He also said that in the “coming weeks” his administration would take further steps to secure America’s election processes.
In addition to signing the EO on election integrity, President Trump also signed the following actions on Tuesday:
- A presidential pardon for Devon Archer, a former associate of Hunter Biden, who cooperated with authorities and served as a witness against the Bidens. The president said this pardon was predicated on his belief that Archer “was treated very unfairly…he was a victim of a crime as far as I’m concerned.”
- A memorandum on the immediate declassification of all FBI files related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the counterintelligence investigation that investigated now-debunked accusations of President Trump and Russia. “This was total weaponization, it’s a disgrace,” Trump said.
- An executive order related to the Jenner and Block law firm, which Scharf described as being one of many firms that “participated in the weaponization” of government or legal systems “for political ends.” President Trump particularly slammed attorney Andrew Weissman – a key player in the debunked Mueller investigation against the Trump campaign – when signing this EO, noting, “He’s a bad guy.”
- An EO directing the U.S. Treasury to use electronic payments rather than paper checks in an effort to significantly cut down on opportunities for waste, fraud, and abuse. “Basically, [a] modernization of equipment and methods,” Trump explained. He said this should have been done 25-30 years ago.
- An EO titled “Protecting America’s Bank Account.” This action, according to the secretary, would work toward centralizing many agency and department payments when possible with the U.S. Treasury and “ensuring measures are taken against waste and fraud.”
