After threatening Russia with sanctions, and undertaking to dismantle federal programs to promote diversity, Donald Trump, who is working to saturate the media, will be on Fox News on Wednesday evening.
The American president will be the guest of one of the star hosts of the favorite channel of American conservatives, Sean Hannity, whose show is to be broadcast at 9 p.m. Washington time (02:00 GMT Thursday).
He did not wait for this first interview since his inauguration to speak extensively.
And in particular on his Truth Social network, on which he asserted on Wednesday that if Moscow did not reach an agreement with Ukraine “now”, it would have “no choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything Russia sells to the United States and other countries.
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While journalists accredited to the White House are still awaiting the first press briefing from the spokesperson for the new administration, Karoline Leavitt, they have already had ample access to the 78-year-old Republican himself.
While his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden avoided improvised exchanges with the press as much as possible, Donald Trump has already conducted two long question-and-answer sessions with a small group of reporters since his inauguration, covering the most diverse subjects.
The former reality TV host, as during his first mandate, obviously decided that he was best placed to promote his first and sensational announcements.
For example, to put on forced leave by Wednesday evening all people employed by the federal administration in DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility) programs.
The term “DEI”, which in human resources vocabulary refers to efforts to recruit people from racial or sexual minorities, has become one of the scarecrows of the American hard right.
During the campaign, Trumpists attacked Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, a black woman of Indian origin, by claiming that the former vice-president was a “DEI recruit”, that is to say, by implying that She had only been chosen for her identity and not for her qualities.
-In a statement Tuesday evening, the White House invoked “the constitutional promise of equality regardless of race” and the promotion of “merit.”
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Barely invested on Monday, the Republican signed a decree limiting the genders recognized by the State to two, “male and female”, thus denying the official existence of transgender people.
The Episcopalian bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, was moved by this ultra-conservative turn towards him on Tuesday. During a church service attended by the new president, she expressed concern about the fear the American president was sowing among immigrants and members of the LGBT+ community.
Donald Trump remained impassive during the sermon, which was later picked up by media around the world. But the billionaire, who has never tolerated being publicly criticized or mocked, finally responded with an aggressive message on his Truth Social platform.
“This pseudo-bishop (…) was a left-wing radical, who fiercely hates Trump,” he was indignant. “She and her church owe the public an apology!”
After the election of Donald Trump, several large American companies ended their diversity and inclusion programs, in particular Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), McDonald's, the manufacturer Ford and Walmart supermarkets.
The Republican president's government, if all his appointments are confirmed in the Senate, should initially have only three ministers from ethnic minorities: two Hispanics (Foreign Affairs and Labor) and one African-American (Housing and Urban Planning). This is much less than the government that Joe Biden formed.
Donald Trump's supporters, however, point out that his designated Finance Minister would become the first declared homosexual in this position, while the very strategic role of chief of staff was for the first time entrusted to a woman.
