President Donald Trump signed another batch of executive orders in the Oval Office on Thursday, ranging from federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina to boosting artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency industries in the United States.
Watch Trump’s remarks in the player above.
Once a skeptic, Trump has embraced crypto and even launched his own meme coin just before taking office.
Thursday’s executive order establishes a “Working Group on Digital Asset Markets” made up of senior government leaders who will make recommendations for a new “regulatory framework” governing crypto. The group will also study the potential creation of a strategic reserve of digital assets.
READ MORE: What another Trump administration could mean for crypto
Trump’s executive order also repeals executive orders related to crypto signed during the Biden administration and prohibits the U.S. government from creating its own “Central Bank Digital Currency.”
On the campaign trail, Trump promised his administration would be staffed with crypto supporters who would take a light touch in regulating digital currencies.
“We’re going to make a lot of money for the country,” Trump said, praising his new “crypto czar” David Sacks.
Order aimed at ‘removing barriers’ to U.S. leadership in AI
Trump signed an executive order that will revoke past government policies his order said “act as barriers to American AI innovation.”
To maintain global leadership in AI technology, “we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,” the order said.
WATCH: Leaders in tech, AI and cryptocurrency make big donations to Trump inauguration
The new order doesn’t name which existing policies are hindering AI development but calls for the development of an AI action plan within 180 days. The move comes after Trump repealed the Biden administration’s guardrails for fast-developing AI technology, a sweeping executive order signed in 2023.
Pardons for anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances
Trump also pardoned anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances, calling it “a great honor to sign this.”
“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”
Among the people pardoned were those involved in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of a Washington clinic.
READ MORE: Trump issues sweeping pardon of people charged with crimes in Jan. 6 insurrection
In the first week of Trump’s presidency, anti-abortion advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as well as violence against abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.
Declassification of JFK, RFK and MLK Jr. records
Trump signed an executive order aiming to declassify remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “Everything will be revealed.”
The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually see the light of day.
Trump had ordered the substantial release of the John F. Kennedy assassination records in his first term, but some were redacted or withheld due to concerns raised by the intelligence community.
Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it to be given to RFK’s son Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to be health and human services secretary who has long called for their release.
